News Story about Guitar Center

[jthomas]

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/20/10474060 ... might-play

[graceless]

This is probably not a good buy. I just can't see pandemic-level guitar spending continuing indefinitely.

[Embenny]

I mean, it's a great move for them, to capitalize on a brief surge of sales by going public.

It's an absolutely horrible move for anyone else to invest in them, though.

[Larry Mal]

Regardless, I hope they do well. I don't have any grudges against Guitar Center.

[s_mcsleazy]

my understanding from guitar shops during the pandemic is they've been up since so many people who might have given up guitar years ago wanted to take it back up in their free time (no shade, i know a lot of people who did) and while it seems more people are going to stick with it, i think a lot of folk also..... splurged during the pandemic and are shortly going to be thinning the heard. personally, i don't think it's a growth market that's going to be sustainable like they think it's going to be. i think it's likely going to end up back to the way it was.

[Larry Mal]

Well, remember, around 2019 guitar manufacturers discovered that women exist and that they could market their products to those previously undiscovered human beings with money and hands.

No shit, I quoted the former head of Gibson on some thread and he said that when he took over Gibson that men made up 95% of guitar sales and then shortly before he was removed from his position in 2016 or so it had become 85%. That's like thirty years of these people and their contempt and complacence making them ignore a huge swath of the possible customers that they could have had.

So if Guitar Center and the rest of guitar culture can become less toxic and market to women, who have both money and hands as it turns out, then there genuinely is room for lasting and sustained growth.

There's always a limit, of course, and they've probably hit that with the old strategy of persuading the demographic that I am in to buy a dozen or more guitars. But I'm not, as as it turns out, the only marketing demographic that is out there.

I am a little skeptical to think that the guitar market will be contracting, assuming that guitar culture can change a little bit. That remains to be seen- I clicked on a link on Gear Page this weekend and it was about, no shit, who was the better, Ted Nugent or Gary Moore.

If you don't know who those old men are (and sadly out of the two of them the wrong one is dead), good for you, if you do know who they are and don't really like their music then you know why in 1986 women basically wanted nothing to do with the electric guitar.

[Kent]

I always wince at Larry’s attempts to sell himself upon his ideologies.

It’s okay if you need to believe this stuff in order to feel like a good person. Even a touch of proselytizing has room in the world. Just don’t bet the farm on a marketing position that relies upon goals, KPIs, and hard numbers.

[Larry Mal]

I always wonce at Larry’s attempts to sell himself upon his ideologies.

It’s okay if you need to believe this stuff in order to feel like a good person. Even a touch of proselytizing has room in the world. Just don’t bet the farm on a marketing position that relies upon goals, KPIs, and hard numbers.

That's funny, I don't pay attention to you at all.

However, I can absolutely provide information to back up what I am saying if you decide to challenge me further, otherwise you can just say your usual rude and pointless thing and recede back to wherever you go.

[seenoevil II]

IPO, eh? I don't think I like the idea of shareholder profits being the solitary driver of decision making. Although, from how they've been, I knew kinda they were already publicly traded.

I definitely don't think this is a superstonk.

Also, it's not that guitars can't be a growth industry. I kinda feel like they shouldn't be. We're already running out of traditional tone woods. I've seen some goofy looking grain being used in full price guitars.

Aren't the enough GCs? Don't they have enough inventory? IdK

I just hope they offer their long time employees some shares.

[graceless]

I completely agree with everything you said.
I think the 2020-21 boom is totally unsustainable barring a tectonic shift in music tastes in the younger generation(s)