Resurrection of the Electric Guitar

[EveryAxeAGem]

http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/b6mhhs/global_guitar

This is interesting on so many levels.
- Never knew my leisure interest would be someone else' Work Work Work!
- Oh the number of pages!
- The number of independent musicians globally increased to six times during the period of 2005-2016.
- Big time demand expected from China and India. I would include South America and Africa myself!
- Environmental protection is a necessary evil.
- Wish I had access to the full report.
- Are you taking note, PRS? You should be, you're a 'key vendor'!

 

[coyote]

Market saturation, with durable items, can be a very real problem for companies marketing those items.

A guitar is not like TV. TVs wear out. Meanwhile, all those $99 Squier Strats out there that aren't getting played? They are good as new. PRS had to start getting cheaper guitars made because the market for high-end instruments has only so much room in it. Heck, I make decent money and still won't allow myself to splurge on such instruments because, nice as they are, my $220 Squier Standard Stratocaster with its $200 replacement electronics is every bit the functional equivalent of a $1750 American Deluxe Stratocaster.

China and India? Those are developing markets, far short of saturation. But they are also served by Chinese factories....

 

[AP515]

Market saturation, with durable items, can be a very real problem for companies marketing those items.

A guitar is not like TV. TVs wear out...

I just replaced a TV I bought in 1997. Still works great, just wanted the wireless connection.

 

[Guitarsan]

Perhaps both are correct. Guitar sales in the US may be declining but in the World it's growing. 30% decline of 300 million versus 2.11% growth of 7,000 million. Well ok that's oversimplified but you get the idea.

Bingo! Ironically I just read a note from Kurt Listug, CEO of Taylor Guitars. They are the world's largest producer of acoustic guitars, by far.

In part it read:

"During the past seven years, most of my business travels have taken me to Europe to help strengthen our sales infrastructure there. We’ve been building our team at our Amsterdam facility, conducting monthly meetings with our sales staff, and visiting customers throughout Europe. Over the past two years I’ve also traveled to many countries in Asia to visit Taylor dealers with our distributors. I plan to continue that, as our biggest growth opportunities currently are outside the U.S., where many markets are underdeveloped for us. This is a big change from our early years, which I spent driving around the U.S. with guitars in the back of my Volvo, showing them to shops and opening them as Taylor dealers....."

 

[Elliot]

Dude electric guitar is dead, give it up!

Pack in the PRSi, dump them on reverb for next to nothing. Someone may buy them, who knows? Just give me a shout before you post them

 

[andy474x]

Now this is a title I'm happy to get behind.

 

[Lee B.]

As for environmental impact, Paul can always go buy up and tear down some more 100-year old barns in South America, too. I don't think anyone would mind except the guy trying to sell a reclaimed Vela for $10 grand on eBay.

 

[Elliot]

...the guy trying to sell a reclaimed Vela for $10 grand on eBay.

68% off now haha