Major and minor in Corona times

The sellers of instruments and equipment feel that live concerts are hardly possible due to Corona. The increasing number of hobby musicians partly compensates for this. Some instruments are experiencing a boom.

Many people seem to dispel Corona worries with music. Perhaps, however, boredom and the time spent at home explain the numbers that astonish Daniel Knöll. He is the managing director of the industry association Society Of Music Merchants, SOMM for short, which has just checked sales figures. After that, people rediscovered their love for the guitar and the piano. In 2020, eight percent more were sold in each of these instrument groups than in the year before Corona.

Electric guitar boom

The electric guitar in particular is experiencing a boom: Here the numbers even rose by almost 30 percent. It looks just as good with synthesizers and digital pianos. “Guitar and key, these are the big sellers,” says Knöll. The reason: These are instruments that can be learned relatively quickly.

The SOMM association found that consumers were also willing to dig deeper into their pockets for instruments. Many would have ordered expensive instruments such as a grand piano. “There was no vacation. The money could not be spent on travel or consumer goods. So many have invested in an instrument,” says Knöll.

Break in equipment for live performances

The numbers give the association hope, because 2020 was a bad year for the industry overall. In the overall market, sales fell by almost ten percent. There was a real slump in everything that has to do with live performances. This includes equipment such as sound systems, microphones, headphones, amplifiers, boxes. Here there was a loss of sales of up to 30 percent.

Wind instrument sellers also had a hard time last year. “The discussion about aerosols hit us to the core here,” says Knöll. Almost 20 percent fewer instruments were sold here.

In the lockdown, many took online music lessons and also tried to teach themselves instruments with the help of video tutorials. Image: picture alliance / dpa

Hobby musicians help the industry through the crisis

At home, people didn’t just start using instruments. A lot has been and is being produced in-house. Recording hardware, studio monitors: everything you need in a small studio to record something yourself has sold well. This also applies to DJ equipment. When the clubs are closed, they mix at home.

The industry association suspects that many people have looked for a new hobby. An indication of this: The number of hits for video tutorials on the Internet rose sharply. In lockdown, many try to teach themselves how to play the instruments.

The German Music Information Center commissioned a study on this. The result: 14.3 million people in Germany make music in their free time. 19 percent of the population aged six and over then make music as a hobby. A rising trend can be seen here, even if Corona has hit the industry hard. Knöll is somewhat of a relief. “Thanks to the amateur musicians, we got away with a black eye again.”