COVER STORIES
Made In The U.S.A.
This year, we’ve flipped the perspective of our annual October feature. Rather than presenting a collection of comments from manufacturers, we instead reached out to three prominent, successful retailers for their insights into whether a “Made in the U.S.A.” sticker even means anything anymore in the music products industry.
Return Of The Indie Retailers
In the second part of our Independent Retailer Roundtable, our returning panelists discuss dealer/vendor relations, manufacturers pursuing direct sales, indie-unfriendly government policies and difficulties with minimum advertised price (MAP) in the music products industry, among other controversial topics that are currently swirling about.
Guitar Center Goes For The ‘Gold’
In August, Guitar Center hosted The Retailer at its Westlake Village CA headquarters for the 3rd annual Guitar Center Media Day. The daylong program allowed MI journalists to better understand GC’s strategic positioning, retail-store strategy and industry-outreach initiatives, as well as the chain retailer’s relative financial strength.
INTERVIEW
Five Minutes With
Andy Zildjian is President and CEO of Sabian, a company that has had a fantastic last several years. In this extensive interview, Zildjian discusses Sabian’s rich history and recent successes, as well as its internal dynamics and some major changes undertaken in recent months, and exciting initiatives freshly launched.
FEATURE
MI Spy
This month, The Chief dispatches the MI Spy to check out some Phoenix AZ-area music shops. It sounded like a promising mission, what with the area’s really active music scene and musicians in need of gear in all directions. Little did our agent know, however, that the summer sun would take its toll….
COLUMNS
The Music & Sound Independent Retailer
An update on your fellow brick-and-mortar independent retailers.
Shine A Light
Gilmore Music has been serving the Long Beach CA music community from the same location since 1944. Let’s learn the secrets to the business’ success and longevity.
Retailer Rebel
As the world grows more digitally connected, we’ve grown so much to rely on new technology that we almost can’t live without it. Gabriel O’Brien believes this can be problematic.
Veddatorial
Dan Vedda informally responds to last month’s editorial, “Selling Services Might Soon Get Tougher,” as well as general industry speculation about Guitar Center’s burgeoning focus on selling services.
Under The Hood
Zildjian seeks to deliver new products commensurate with the family name’s considerable cachet. And that is where the new L80 Low Volume Cymbal takes center stage.