NAMM Drops a Triple Album – of Data

2026 marks NAMM’s first-ever triple release with three new reports: The Global Report, 20-Year Global Music Products Summary and NAMM NeXT Europe Takeaways    

Every year, we’re excited to share the Global Report with NAMM’s membership — it’s a snapshot of the industry that music retailers and brands can put straight to work.    T

his year, we’re doing something we’ve never done before: dropping not one report, but three. Think about when Beyoncé, Radiohead and Wilco all released surprise albums, except that instead of surprise music, you’re getting surprise data.    

Typically, our Global Report stands alone, arriving in late summer. For 2026, along with the Global Report, we’re releasing two more special entries in our Industry Insights series: a 20-Year Global Music Products Summary and a full rundown of trends and takeaways from 2026 NAMM NeXT Europe. Our goal is to help NAMM members get the fullest picture as we finish 2026 and ramp up for next year.    

In reviewing the three reports, a handful of trends stand out. Here’s what caught our attention, and there’s plenty more where this came from.    

Trade as a defining disruption. Tariffs and trade replaced the pandemic as the industry’s defining disruption. The 2026 Global Report put a hard number on it: a $627-million tariff bill for our industry in 2025, driven by an average effective tariff rate of 14.9% — the highest in a century. At this year’s NAMM NeXT Europe, Dr. Koen Berden even characterized what we’ve been operating in as a “weaponized economy,” with tariffs as a structural feature rather than a temporary tool.    

The state of the industry is a correction. The Global Report and 20-Year Summary report reveal that the industry has been down four years straight from the 2021 global peak, but it still sits above pre-pandemic 2019 levels. This indicates a broad-based correction for most economies in our industry, not a decline. (“Normalization” and “stabilization” are the key themes here.) In fact, the 2022-2024 dip can be attributed to a return to spending on travel, dining and live events, as opposed to less interest in music making.    

AI has gone from talking point to inflection point. Generally speaking, the industry has expressed cautious optimism about AI. As AI-generated music disrupts recorded music, the music products business has remained open to thoughtful use of new tech. NAMM NeXT Europe explored such concepts of AI as an autonomous innovation tool for business and new opportunities for music education.    

Pro audio and DJ gear remain a standout. In the United States, these categories rose 40% and 26%, respectively, from 2021 to 2025, reflecting the growth of touring and software- and controller-based music making. As a side note, DJ gear is one of the only categories with sustained growth in the last 20 years, even during the financial crisis, pandemic and post-2022 correction. The segment rose from $125 million to $359 million in the U.S., nearly tripling.     

These are just a few examples of the data and insights you’ll receive with these new reports. Be sure to download your copies now. And if you want more business insights, take advantage of our Industry Insights series. It features reports on everything from business data to NAMM Show trends. And once again, it’s all part of your NAMM membership.