The National Association of Music Merchants publishes the annual NAMM Global Report, a summary of market data from the USA and 28 countries and regions around the world. NAMM makes its best effort to collect market data, but there isn’t a single authoritative reporting mechanism or source.

I’m browsing through the 2020 NAMM Global Report which is a 306 page behemoth. Here are a few random observations. Even though the report says “2020,” the latest market data is from 2019.

The USA music market is estimated at $8 billion (USD) or 45.8% of the total global market. The US is roughly 5% of the world’s population. Yet, it purchases 40% of the world’s instruments and audio gear.

We keyboard players like to think we are a major segment. Wrong. Fretted instruments — AKA “guitars” of all kinds — are king:

    Fretted Products           $1,891M 
    Pro Audio                     853M 
    Wind Instruments              611M 
    Percussion                    374M 
    Acoustic Pianos               307M 
    DJ Gear                       264M 
    Digital Pianos                182M 
    Keyboard Synthesizer          159M 
    Portable Keyboards            127M 
    Stringed Instruments          125M 
    Electronic Player Pianos      100M 

NAMM tracks many other product categories (e.g., accessories, cables, etc.), so I’ve been selective in what I have shown here. It’s enough to see, however, that our beloved synthesizer and arranger keyboards are minor players! No wonder brick and mortar stores have so few keyboards on the floor while the guitar section is stuffed.

Keyboard synthesizers had modest growth, 5.6% versus 9% growth in Fretted Instruments. (The Fretted Instrument category includes amps and effects, too.) Portable keyboards were off 18%. Yikes! Further proof that arranger keyboards in the US don’t get much love.

NAMM classifies Keyboard Synthesizers uder the Electronic Music market segment. This segment breaks down in the following way (by retail value):

    Keyboard Synthesizers        56.3% 
    Electronic Drums             24.3% 
    Controller Keyboards          9.8% 
    Electronic Piano/Organ        5.6% 
    Rhythm Machines/Production    3.7% 

Oddly, NAMM does not include Portable Keyboards under Electronic Music. NAMM divides Portable Keyboards into two subsegments (by retail value):

    Keyboards under $199         41.3% 
    Keyboards over $199          58.7% 

One could argue that portable keyboards under $199 are entry-level, beginner, educational instruments. Some of those portable keyboards over $199 are comparable to synthesizers. Without further data, one cannot make a stronger comparison. However, synths do out-sell mid- to high-end arrangers by retail value in the USA. Unit sales flip relative numbers the other way: 135,000 synthesizers versus 767,000 portable keyboards (total).

Higher tariffs are affecting the price of imported musical instruments, especially imports from China. By import value, 57% of imports are from China. No wonder manufacturers are shifting production to Indonesia, India and Malaysia. So much for using tariffs to move musical instrument manufacturing to the domestic US. Tariffs alone are a blunt instrument and the law of unintended consequences applies.

As mentioned earlier, the US has a 45.8% share of the global market. Here’s a table to fill out the world picture:

    United States      45.8% 
    China              10.8% 
    Germany             5.9% 
    Japan               5.4% 
    Canada              4.5% 
    France              3.5% 
    U.K.                3.3% 
    Australia           3.1% 
    Spain               2.0% 
    Italy               1.9% 
    S. Korea            1.9% 
    Mexico              1.3% 
    India               1.0% 
    Netherlands         1.0% 
    Belgium             0.9% 
    Hong Kong           0.8% 

I’ve read other international music market studies wherein they decry abysmal reporting from certain world regions. Thus, one shouldn’t draw too many conclusions here. Data from South America, Africa and broader Asia are notably lacking. Systematic, consistent and complete? No.

Due to the lack of uniform reporting, it’s impossible to make any detailed comparisons against the US market. For example, I wanted to validate the conjecture that “arranger keyboards are more popular in region XYZ than the USA.” Only a few countries had data by market segment (Germany, the UK). Report subsegments just didn’t match up, preventing comparison.

As to the UK, guitars and effects dominate, but not to the extent as the US:

    Guitar and Effects   150M
    Pro Audio            112M 
    Keyboards             87M 
    Band and Orchestral   50M 
    Recording             50M 
    Accessories           45M 
    Percussion            42M 

Retail value is expressed in British Pounds and is only an estimate (from a bar chart, argh). UK keyboard sales break down in the following way:

    Digital Pianos          31M 
    Grand Piano             14M 
    Keyboard Synthesizers   13M 
    Portable under $199     10M 
    Vertical Pianos          8M 
    Portable over $199       7M 
    Player Pianos            4M 
    Keyboard Controllers     3M 

Again, these retail sales numbers are only approximate (British Pounds).

Well, have at it. If you have any quibbles about product categories, missing data, etc., please write to NAMM, not me. 🙂

Copyright © 2022 Paul J. Drongowski