Market Intelligence

Globalisation has impacted India in radical ways over the past three decades, and shades of its effects are markedly visible in the leaps of progress the retail market has witnessed within this time frame. And with a majority of the population below the age of 34, coupled with increasing acceptance of western culture and greater revenue figures translating into increased disposable income, India’s retail market is touted to rise over USD 833 Billion by 2013. (source: A.T. Kearney).

An integral part of India’s retail space is the Musical Instruments (MI) market, which has also witnessed a tremendous surge in business in the recent past. Increasing adoption of western music, ready availability of the western music instruments, digitalization of most of the instruments and decreasing costs to buyers are some of the key factors that has driven the Indian MI market upwards. And with the increase in demand for western musical instruments, Indian MI merchants are no longer dependent on the sales of Indian musical instruments to sustain their business. All of these factors have culminated to create a huge potential for overall growth in the future.

Records suggest that in 2011, the Indian MI market has achieved the highest contribution in sales from keyboard instruments, while regionally, Northern & Western India have together contributed over 61% of the total volume sales of MI instruments. Though statistics suggest that a major chunk of sales & revenue has been derived major metropolitans, it can’t be denied that sales contributions from tier-2 & tier-3 cities are also growing at a rapid pace. Construing this, strategic increase in imports of MI has been observed in 2011-2012 especially from countries such as France, Germany, Netherland, Vietnam and USA.

Prominently, instruments such as the keyboard and the guitar have always shared favour with Indian music enthusiasts, constituting a great majority of the Indian MI requirement. However, with the ready adoption of varied forms of international/world music, other instruments such as wood & wind, string etc have also gained popularity.