NAMM in the time of Covid
By Naughty Mickie 

It’s no secret that the pandemic has changed how the world lives. It has hurt many industries, especially entertainment. In the music field, we’ve seen the usual bevy of concerts canceled, talented musicians forced to get creative or seek other sources of income and retail stores shut their doors, some pernamently. This also meant that NAMM, the International Music Merchants trade show, had to reinvent itself for its winter session usually held in Anaheim, California.

NAMM launched Believe in Music Week January 18, 2021 with education, product demos, artist performances, interviews, award presentations and more-- all online. 

“I think by setting modest goals, we built a plan that we thought was achievable,” NAMM president and CEO Joe Lamond said in a December interview. “Those who think that this is all about how is NAMM going to save the show, they’re overthinking it. This is about how can we, as an organization, as an industry, launch in 2021 on a better foot to get out of this pandemic.”

By all accounts, the plan worked. And the DaBelly staff watched, interviewed and toiled to bring you some of the best of what we virtually found (pun intended). 

Whether NAMM will incorporate a virtual component into future shows remains to be seen, but we believe it’s likely as it can only add to the impact of this event world wide.