Reverb.com was #18 on the Inc. 5000 this year, so there is definitely still potential in selling musical instruments. Guitar is more niche than it used to be, though. The rock stars these days are rappers and DJs and they don't play guitar. You have to diversify your offerings (which I think the success of Reverb.com shows)
Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?
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Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?
#12Reverb.com was #18 on the Inc. 5000 this year, so there is definitely still potential in selling musical instruments. Guitar is more niche than it used to be, though. The rock stars these days are rappers and DJs and they don't play guitar. You have to diversify your offerings (which I think the success of Reverb.com shows)
> The rock stars these days are rappers and DJs and they don't play guitar.
And nearly every kid can afford a shitty chinese USB->MIDI controller and a cracked version of Live/Logic/FL Studio. The DAW and a controller is the weapon of choice for today's pop music industry. The fact that guitar is dying as "mainstream" shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?
#13As a life-long guitarist, and skeptic of capitalism, I have an anecdote: I own a few high-quality guitars. They have served me well for many a decade, and they are still in perfect condition. Why buy any more guitars? Perhaps the total number of guitars in circulation is enough? Businesses seem to think that there should be infinite growth forever, but that seems ridiculous to me. I don't think capitalism has a good…
That would be my question, too. People were puzzled when tablet sales came to a crawl, until they started to consider whether people stopped buying them because they were good enough and still worked.
I mean realistically, how many guitars does one need? I'm an amateur bass player. I have a cheap-ass practice bass and, if I get some pocket change, I may buy a $1500 professional bass. I would think that should last me for the next ten years or so. If I become a professional musician, I might buy more, but for your average slob, that's really not tenable.
Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?
#14As a life-long guitarist, and skeptic of capitalism, I have an anecdote: I own a few high-quality guitars. They have served me well for many a decade, and they are still in perfect condition. Why buy any more guitars? Perhaps the total number of guitars in circulation is enough? Businesses seem to think that there should be infinite growth forever, but that seems ridiculous to me. I don't think capitalism has a good…
I've been playing the same bass guitar and mandolin for several years but I could think of multiple reasons to buy a new instrument:
1) Getting interested in a new style of music or a new technique
2) GAS (gear acquisition syndrome, something many musicians suffer from)
3) Wear out/damage
Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?
#15As a life-long guitarist, and skeptic of capitalism, I have an anecdote: I own a few high-quality guitars. They have served me well for many a decade, and they are still in perfect condition. Why buy any more guitars? Perhaps the total number of guitars in circulation is enough? Businesses seem to think that there should be infinite growth forever, but that seems ridiculous to me. I don't think capitalism has a good…
Capitalism and the unrealistic idea of infinite sales growth is what gives rise to "services" and "subscriptions", no?
Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?
#16As a lifetime guitar player and owner of way too many, I think what I've seen (and keep in mind this is only anecdotal) is that boutique guitar makers are making a big comeback while traditional mass producers are seeing less interest. If I'm going to spend $2500-7500 on a top of the line guitar (that is often an art piece as well) I'd rather work with a craft builder and get something unique to my specs versus a mass produced Fender strat or Gibson Les Paul.
Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?
#17As a life-long guitarist, and skeptic of capitalism, I have an anecdote: I own a few high-quality guitars. They have served me well for many a decade, and they are still in perfect condition. Why buy any more guitars? Perhaps the total number of guitars in circulation is enough? Businesses seem to think that there should be infinite growth forever, but that seems ridiculous to me. I don't think capitalism has a good…
That would be my question, too. People were puzzled when tablet sales came to a crawl, until they started to consider whether people stopped buying them because they were good enough and still worked . I mean realistically, how many guitars does one need? I'm an amateur bass player. I have a cheap-ass practice bass and, if I get some pocket change, I may buy a $1500 professional bass. I would think that should last m…
My personal answer to "how many guitars do you need?" is basically one for each tuning that I use regularly. Unless it's simply changing one string from E to D, re-tuning a whole guitar is a pain in the ass and just being able to swap guitars is a lot nicer. I have one for standard tuning, one tuned like a cello, and one in open D-minor.
I do admit if you're playing a bass guitar this rule isn't as applicable.
Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?
#18Are we sure people aren't just shifting to buying more used guitars on Craigslist or something?
On just about every observable measure ... including cruise ships[1], guitar is dying in popularity. You might get a few minor bumps of new interest because of recent artists like Taylor Swift but overall , guitar is way down. I learned guitar and never imagined that the instrument would fade but that's exactly what has happened. Electronic music and laptops are this generation's instrument of choice. [1] https://www…
I think there are 3 reasons why the guitar is "dying" as the instrument of choice:
1. The explosion in popularity of EDM in the mid 00's to early 10's, and the prevalence of EDM elements now dominating pop music rather than the notion of a backing band; most pop bands now feature a guitarist, but the guitar is secondary to synths and samples if it is heard at all.
2. The rise of hip-hop, mixtape culture online, and hip-hop focused rock music in the 90's and early 00's, shifted popular rock music and the cultural zeitgeist away from a focus on guitar-driven rock music. Once again samples and synths became the focus, even in punk music. This lead to a new focus: "indie" rock and the internet could make anyone with a laptop famous.
3. The general decline in rock music quality. I might be alone in this opinion, but popular rock music in the early 00's to today remains bland and the guitar equally so. This era also saw the rebirth of hardcore and more extreme forms of metal where the guitar remains the focus, and creativity abounds, but out of the public eye.
Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?
#19Relevant discussion -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14627673
Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?
#20I suspect that this should really be thought of as, "The biggest buying opportunity, ever!" in the guitar market.
A lot of people are predicting an "ebay guitar apocalypse" as the mass effect of guitar owners start passing away. Because "nobody plays them anymore", the inheritors of dad's property will just put the guitar collection on ebay or donate them. Your dad's fancy Paul Reed Smith guitar that cost $3000 will only be worth a fraction of that when a million other used PRS guitars flood the market. It's an interesting predi…
I think that eBay is already affecting price in a different way: buyers and sellers tend to use eBay price to figure out what a guitar is worth before buying and selling in person. Since used guitars are a risky purchase (there could be a lot of things wrong that don't show up in pictures), the eBay price is artificially depressed. However, since the eBay price is seen as the "fair market price", it deflates the price everywhere.
This could go the other way, as well: if sellers refuse to sell a certain kind of guitar on eBay, the price could become inflated.