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Print industry sheds inferiority complex: with a new recognition of its size and vital importance, the print music industry displays increased confidence at the RPMDA convention in Milwaukee.

Article Excerpt
Measured by dollar volume, print music is the industry's fifth largest product category, well ahead of band and orchestral instruments, synthesizers, and recording equipment. Although precise data is not available, there is no question that on a unit basis, print outsells everything else in the music products portfolio by a wide margin. Despite this considerable economic heft and broad consumer reach, print publishers and retailers have long suffered from an acute inferiority complex, viewing themselves as the poor cousins of those who make and sell instruments. At the 31st annual Retail Print Music Dealers Association convention in Milwaukee, however, the print industry displayed a stronger sense of self-confidence. At formal educational sessions, conversations in the bar, and informal chats, RPMDA members seemed more willing than in the past to forcefully assert the critical importance of print. Summing up the group's new assertiveness, one presenter commented, "Just as you couldn't sell tires without compressed air, you can't sell instruments without print!"

Perhaps the most tangible evidence of the value placed on print was in the number of dealers in attendance. The RPMDA venue shifts from year to year, with some locales drawing more than others; this year's event in Milwaukee pulled 320 retailers, tying it with the 2005 convention in Philadelphia as the best attended show ever. More encouragingly, the show had more than 70 first-time attendees.

The reasons for this new swagger are fairly straightforward. In the face of intensified competition from chain stores and the internet, independent retailers are finding that print music can be a highly...

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