The NAMM show is an enormous trade show that many people attend every year. It is a place where companies have booths to show new products to musicians and studios. In addition concerts are held and there are shows for people to promote business and fun things for people to do to be entertained. Jim, Joe and Chase recently went to it! When I talked to Chase, he said NAMM was so much bigger than he expected. They walked around for 3 days and still didn’t see the whole thing. Joe explained that NAMM has roughly the same number of people in attendance each year.
Chase has been working as the engineer on some projects, and he said it’s intense. After focusing for 8-9 hours, your brain is exhausted. I believe that concentrating for that long is something you must get used to. Chase also showed me some new products from the NAMM show that Pure Wave Audio is now selling. The advertisements were mainly for microphones and some were headphones. I was interested in learning how they attempted to sell to potential buyers. What did they say to make people want to buy their product? Obviously, they know that their buyers are educated in this business and know what a good product is and what is not. In the microphone ads, it talked about polar patterns and I wasn’t sure at first what that meant. Chase explained that it shows where the microphone picks up sound at a certain frequency. A bidirectional mic is good because you can have two people singing on two sides of it and it pretty much cancels out all other noise on the sides. I noticed that the ads didn’t have any prices listed. While at NAMM, Jim had meetings with his manufactures. They have a good relationship, which includes them expecting sales and Jim giving them feedback on marketing and quality of their gear. Jim’s plan going into NAMM this year was to seek out an acoustic guitar. The studio recently added instruments for clients to use, and the acoustic guitar was still needed. Since Jim doesn’t play the guitar, it has been a long, difficult process. He simply wanted the greatest guitar for the studio and saw a few that he liked. They are still looking and will hopefully find one soon! It has been a 4 month process.
Later, Jim showed about four people around the studio. I think that he basically has to sell his studio, equipment, and education all at the same time. I figure that the people are eager to see what he knows and what he has to say about recording and producing their unique sound. Jim explained to me that some studios may have equipment and no education and little experience. So a client could work there for 20 hours for maybe half of the price per hour of Allusion. Allusion may have a higher price, but it comes with 25 years of experience, the education, equipment, and instruments. The same job might only take 5 hours to finish in a proper facility like ours. Jim said “We never get in the way of the client achieving their goals like home studio does. Sometimes people are looking at price per hour which has nothing to do with realizing their vision. The home studios will never be able to realize their vision correctly so it is just money thrown away since the audio does not represent the artist.”
When I think about the business aspect of this profession, I conclude that you have to be polite and organized. You may have to make difficult decisions wisely so that they will benefit your company. It is important to know what move to make and how to handle specific clients. At the end of the day, Jim and Joe had a meeting, which I think is important. In order to stay on track with your company, you have to keep up with your competitors. Owning a business is complete dedication and determination. There is so much to think about such as new products, clients for the week, ways to promote the business. At this point, even thinking about that stresses me out. I wonder if when I am older I will be able to handle stress better. At least, I hope that is the case.
