Difficult times for instrument dealers
The German musical instrument and equipment industry suffered a decline in sales in 2013. The SOMM (Society Of Music Merchants e. V.) economic report recorded a slight decline of 1.9% compared to the previous year.
In the annual analysis, the industry statistics fell by 18 million euros compared to the previous year to 897 million euros in sales at retail prices. Gains in areas such as recording hardware, sound reinforcement and computer software were unable to compensate for the decline in turnover.
The drums & percussion, wind instruments, string instruments, keyboard instruments, microphones and headphones as well as DJ equipment have lost a lot of strength.
The weak economic development within the German and pan-European market is presumably responsible for the slump. In addition, more and more non-specialist online retailers are entering the market, selling musical instruments and their
accessories as a profitable market for themselves, writes SOMM.
