The NAMM Show Survivor’s Guide

For music retailers and gear-savvy musicians, The NAMM Show is without a doubt the biggest event of the year. Taking place in Anaheim, California, thousands of people attend this exclusive trade show to check out the latest innovations from the industry’s biggest brands.

However, with so many new products launched and a seemingly endless amount of confusing coverage, it can feel very difficult to keep up. That’s why we’ve put together this concise survivor's guide, to help you stay informed and calm during the 2020 show!

Elliot Stent

Elliot Stent

At Andertons Music Co. we pride ourselves on delivering the best NAMM Show coverage in the business. Not only is our YouTube channel considered the go-to source for news and demos during the show itself, but through our social media accounts and website too, we make sure that the latest releases and stories are brought to you fast.

While that may sound like a strong enough argument, some of you may be thinking: ‘well, what makes your NAMM Show coverage better than what the dozens of other retailers and YouTube personalities do?’. It’s a good question, and we can answer that.

For the last two consecutive years, Andertons has not only received NAMM’s ‘Best Online Engagement’ award, but in 2018 we also took home the prestigious ‘Dealer of the Year’ trophy. That sort of recognition from NAMM, while humbling, shows that our coverage is highly-regarded by the organisers themselves, and we strive to improve every single year.

NAMM Andertons Dealer of the Year

So, onto the survival tips themselves! We’ve covered every NAMM Show since 2013, and that experience has helped us compile some great pointers for 2020’s event. We elaborate far more on the tips presented below, but if you want a nice and simple checklist, make sure that you stick to this advice!

How to stay up-to-date during The NAMM Show 2020:

Subscribe to our YouTube Channels

Andertons Music Co. has presented YouTube coverage of The NAMM Show for the last five years. At the start, we tried our best to cover as much as we could, but if you watch some of those older videos – you’ll probably notice the poor production quality!

Since then, our video team has ensured that our coverage is informative, hands on and well-shot. All of that without losing any of the charm or light-hearted humour that makes our regular videos so popular. While we spend a lot of time speaking to large, recognised brands, we also like to highlight smaller companies too. Heck, sometimes we even bump into a bunch of famous faces – all at the same time!

The Captain (Lee Anderton) and Danish Pete (Peter Honore) present most of the guitar, amp and pedal-related NAMM videos on the main Andertons TV channel. However, we also have two extra crews that present for our dedicated Keys & Tech and Drum Dept. channels. So, no matter what your discipline is, we’ll have you covered!

Sign up to our Newsletter

While constantly refreshing your YouTube subscription feed may keep you in the thick of the action, it’s definitely not for everybody! Many of us are too busy to keep checking our phones every 5 minutes. So, if you want to learn about the coolest new releases without getting too caught up in the buzz, subscribing to our newsletter is the best option.

Providing a single roundup of the biggest news from each day, our daily emails will summarise the most noteworthy launches. We’ll also be highlighting some cool, niche products that may have caught our attention. If you’d like to sign up to our newsletter, simply scroll to the bottom of our homepage, enter your email address and hit the ‘subscribe’ button. Done!

Bookmark our NAMM 2020 Pages

Like we mentioned in the introduction, our website is also a great place to visit if you’re keen to read about all of the breaking stories from The NAMM Show. And our dedicated NAMM 2020 page is the ultimate hub for all of the news from this year’s show.

Featuring links that lead out to each of our main departments, you can easily find any guitar, drums, tech or keys-related news with just a couple of clicks. Our team of webbies will be on hand throughout the NAMM weekend constantly updating these pages, so make sure that you have them bookmarked for all of the latest announcements!

Set an alarm on January 16th, 2020

NAMM Alarm

If you live in the UK, 6pm (GMT) on Thursday, January 16th marks the start of the 2020 NAMM Show! Beginning at 10am Pacific Standard Time (in Anaheim, California), it is from Friday evening that UK residents will be able to hear the first breaking news from the event.

So, if you’re thinking about grabbing a beer after work or seeing the latest flick at your local cinema on that particular day, you may want to change your plans! Of course, there will be rumours in the days leading up to the event, and some brands have already launched their entire 2020 catalogues – including Ibanez.

Follow us on Social Media

Social media has arguably become one of the best ways to keep updated with news – all over the world. Andertons Music Co. has Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, and we regularly use all three of them to keep you updated with new product launches, epic deals and articles that we’ve written throughout the year.

If you’re a serious gear nut, social media becomes even more essential over The NAMM Show weekend. Luckily for you, we use all three platforms to bring breaking news straight to you!

Check out our NAMM 2020 Rumours Page

NAMM Rumours

While social media is excellent for news, when companies are trying to keep their new releases under wraps – it can be a nightmare for them! With smartphones making it so easy to take a snap of something and upload it straight to any social platform or forum, leaks happen every year. That’s we’ve made a page that highlights some of the key rumours we’ve heard so far.

This list is only going to grow as the date draws nearer, so make sure that you bookmark this page. The week leading up to the event will generate more gossip, especially as companies try to set up their stands. So keep an eye out!

Download the Official 2020 NAMM Show App

If you’re lucky enough to be going to the event in January, downloading the official 2020 NAMM Show App is a must! Helping you navigate around the frantic show floor, this thoughtfully-made app also lets you easily connect with fellow attendees. And if you find yourself in need of assistance, you can reach out for support at any time.

With an essential search function that lets you locate certain booths, you can also use the ‘Find Me’ feature for instant orientation. That’s not all, as there’s also a useful ‘My Show Planner’, which links to your calendar app to display key exhibitor event times.

Check out the 2020 NAMM Show Playlist

This is another one for any of the fortunate folks going to Anaheim in 2020. If you want to really get in The NAMM Show spirit, the official 2020 playlist features music from the multiple artists performing at the event!

Listen To The Original

Want to learn more?

If you’re keen to stay up-to-date with other matters within the musical instrument industry, check out more of our ‘Industry’ articles by clicking here. Find all the NAMM news so far right here.

Elliot Stent
Elliot Stent
Elliot is a Senior Digital Product Marketer at Andertons, and at least the 7th best guitarist in the company's Web Team. He's exactly one day younger than Harry Styles, and believes that this "head start" is the only reason why Harry's more successful than him.

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