NAMM is kicking off on January 25 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA and NAMM CEO John T. Mlynczak has a very sunny picture of the future.
In a recent interview with Music Trades, Mlynczak said he feels pretty optimistic about the increasing number of musicians out in the world and the demand for music products. Which is an interesting take given the rise of AI fears and how hard it is to make money as a musician these days, though I think Mlynczak is more focused on the overall passion as opposed to the business side of things. Which is… nice?
“Looking at people who are making music online – Ultimate Guitar and these community sites, people want to make music. We saw that, and I think we continue to see that. So, how do we capitalise on it? That’s our job; to gather the industry and figure [it] out.
“We will [host] a lot of education sessions at the NAMM Show that are focused on that. This generative AI hot topic – how does that help capture and create more music makers, and what innovative products are going to come out to capture music makers in that world?”
He continued: “So I am very optimistic about the demand for music makers in the world. [The question is] how does that turn into demand for our member companies, whether in retail or manufacturing? Historically, we’ve always been reactive, but we’ve [also] always innovated and grown.”
It’s probably worth noting that Mlynczak is also coming at this from the perspective of recruiting consumers, and that the optimism is at least partially rooted in NAMM’s future. Not that that’s a bad thing for NAMM and the future of shows like it, but tackling a conversation on AI from that standpoint might be a little harder considering a lot of artists see it as a very real existential threat.
