In this On Location with Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli episode, NAMM President and CEO John Mlynczak shares how technology and tradition intertwine at NAMM 2025, showcasing innovations that empower musicians while honoring the timeless sounds that connect us all. Discover how NAMM’s mission to inspire new music makers and support education is shaping the future of music creation and community.
The latest On Location with Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli episode takes listeners behind the scenes of the NAMM 2025 show, featuring a vibrant discussion with John Mlynczak, NAMM President and CEO. The conversation is not just a recap of an incredible event but a celebration of music’s enduring power and the evolving role of technology in the music industry.
A Legacy of Music and Community
Founded in 1901, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) has become the world’s largest trade association representing the musical products industry. John Mlynczak shares how NAMM operates year-round to support manufacturers, retailers, and music educators through research, advocacy, and events. The annual NAMM show is the pinnacle of this work, gathering thousands of music makers, industry professionals, and artists to spark creativity and innovation.
Technology Meets Tradition
One of the episode’s key themes is the blend of modern technology with nostalgic sounds. The 2025 NAMM show showcased groundbreaking technologies, from AI-driven music tools to hardware-software collaborations. Mlynczak discusses how companies are innovating to create real-time processing tools, allowing musicians to produce music faster and more intuitively than ever before. He emphasizes that the goal is not to replace traditional methods but to enhance creativity and make music more accessible to all.
The Power of Inspiration
NAMM’s mission to create more music makers worldwide is a central focus. Mlynczak explains how the NAMM Foundation supports educational programs across all ages, from K-12 schools to community groups and adult learners. The foundation’s work aims to ensure everyone has the opportunity to explore music, whether through formal education or new digital tools that lower the barrier to entry.
A Moment to Remember: Jon Batiste at NAMM
A standout moment from the show was Mlynczak’s interview with Grammy-winning artist Jon Batiste [https://youtu.be/Lfq35enGq58]. Initially uncertain, the conversation transformed into a genuine exchange about music’s influence and the industry’s impact on artists. This interaction highlighted NAMM’s broader vision of not just serving as a trade show but as a cultural hub that fosters creativity and community.
Looking Ahead to NAMM 2026
The episode concludes with anticipation for NAMM 2026, scheduled for January 20-24 in Anaheim, California. As Sean, Marco, and John reflect on this year’s successes, they invite listeners to join them next year to explore the intersection of music, technology, and inspiration.
Tune in to The Music Evolves Podcast to dive deeper into these insights and discover how NAMM continues to shape the future of music. Be sure to stay tuned for more On Location with Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli as they cover more technology and society events around the world.
Guest: John Mlynczak, President and CEO of NAMM | View Website | Visit NAMM
Host: Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine Podcasts and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | On ITSPmagazine: https://www.itspmagazine.com/sean-martin
Host: Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine Podcasts and Host of Redefining Society and Technology Podcast | On ITSPmagazine: https://www.itspmagazine.com/marco-ciappelli
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Resources
Catch more stories from NAMM Show 2025 coverage: https://itspmagazine.com/the-2025-namm-show-namm-music-conference-music-technology-event-coverage-anaheim-california
NAMM Organization: https://www.namm.org/
The NAMM Show 2025: https://www.namm.org/thenammshow/attend
Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | The 2025 NAMM Show: Honoring Tradition, Pioneering the Future: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2025-namm-show-honoring-tradition-pioneering-future-sean-martin-6jcge/
Music Evolves Episode | The debut episode of Music Evolves explores how technology is transforming music creation, performance, and production, with insights from the NAMM Show 2025
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Sean Martin: [00:00:00] Marco.
Marco Ciappelli: Sean. Tell me where you went.
Sean Martin: I missed you in Anaheim, California, my friend. You, you didn't get to enjoy, probably my favorite. I'll say it. My favorite conference of the first time there and it struck me.
Marco Ciappelli: I thought it was cyber security. Your favorite thing to figure out is music.
Sean Martin: It is music. Yeah,
Marco Ciappelli: there you go.
Sean Martin: It's been certainly music's been part of my life way, way longer than cyber security has, uh, which we've talked about a few times on my show. But, uh, no, I was fortunate enough to attend Um, the NAMM show 2025 and got to see presentations and be part of conversations, a few performances. Uh, I got to see John talk about all the, all the cool stuff that the event brings together.
And his team was very supportive. And I said, John, I'd love to have you on the show, kind of give us an update of what happened. Maybe some of the highlights from. From, uh, 2025, maybe what we can expect [00:01:00] from, uh, next year as well. So thrilled to have John Linczak on. John, how are you?
John Mlynczak: I'm good. It's great to be here for those that attended NAMM and those that skipped NAMM.
Lovely to be here with all of you. That's not wrong. I'm talking to your audience. I wasn't talking to you two. I was just greeting the audience. We love everyone whether you attend or not. Of course.
Sean Martin: I like to point fingers at Marco anyway.
Marco Ciappelli: It's fun. I do that on the mirror myself sometimes.
Sean Martin: Yes. So, um, So we'll get into the show in a moment, but, uh, John, if you could maybe a few moments, uh, a little bit about your background and your role, uh, with NAMM as you, as you entered that role.
John Mlynczak: Yeah, I happy to. Um, I am coming up on 23 months of being. In this role of being at NAMM. It's very exciting. I think after two years, you get to like start calling your age in years, but up to the [00:02:00] first two years, it's like toddler. You measured in months. Is that so I'm already I'm almost close to be able to say, speak in years and not months.
Um, but before that, I've been to the NAMM show many years before it in previous. And it's, it's always been, you know, my favorite week of the year and always a time for the industry to, to gather and have amazing experiences. So I, um, you know, going way back, I started as a, you know, that music kid, like literally that music kid, like I was, you know, breaking my mom's Tupperware.
trying to be a drummer in elementary school. You know, I was, you know, couldn't wait to join school band and, you know, wanted to do guitar lessons and piano lessons and everything I get my hands on. So I was just always a music kid and then school music and then got a degree as a music educator and taught music and played music, uh, gigged a lot.
And, and, and I, um, you know, got into the industry later just by [00:03:00] being really actually. Invested in technology. I love music technology. You know, Marco, you mentioned technology and, uh, uh, CS and all that. I was very fascinated with like every gizmo and gadget that like could help record music. Like even when I grew up at a certain time where like, remember mini disc recorders, like that was like, and you had, and you had that, that, that a hundred dollar mic that like.
Yeah, double a battery lasted about 27 minutes in it and you'd have to replace it. But like, and you'd have this old mini disc, you had to write them out. But like, then you have them within digital recorders and then like. Aid in interfaces. Remember FireWire, that was a thing for like a minute. Like we all thought it was 400.
Wait, I need a four to 800 adapter. I need a 400 to 800 to thunderbolt adapter. Wait, we're not using any of that anymore. Why did I buy all this stuff? You know, my dongles had dongles for a while and it was like that world of like, but I love that. And I was like part of me as playing a musician and recording people.
And then that just turned into like something I started teaching students. [00:04:00] Which I've always kind of had this like, what's next? Like, what else could we be doing that we're not doing type mentality. And then from there, I, uh, my first job in the industry was PreSonus audio, where we were, I was in Baton Rouge.
I was playing and gigging in new Orleans and Louisiana and living in Baton Rouge. And, uh, you know, PreSonus is based there and we just got to know each other. And then it turned out that it was the right time for PreSonus to want to, you know, expand into the education market. And, you know, we both are trying to figure out what that meant, but I was teaching music technology and knew how to use other products and had.
Degrees in educational leadership and curriculum experience and all this other stuff that happened. So it just worked out and I went to my first NAMM show and Life was changed and I got really involved with NAMM as an organization and the foundation side I was involved on NAMM's advocacy efforts throughout my tenure So I've always been really close to NAMM and NAMM has been I mean a very important part of my career journey because obviously everything I've learned and the connections and the Relationships and everything had been part [00:05:00] of just attending NAMM shows and I got my dream job 23 months ago and I Couldn't be happier.
Sean Martin: I can, I can relate. Every, my parents said everything was a drum for me. If I could tap it or hit it, it was getting tapped and hit. Uh, so definitely deeply ingrained for me too. Uh, and. Yeah, I love you had so many experiences and including the, the education. I, I wish there was more, more of that. And perhaps we can touch on that a little bit as well.
So you're, you're coming up on, on your two years with NAMM itself. Maybe, maybe a word about NAMM. the event, but because it's a member membership group. Um, what does it do? Who's it for? What, what, what's, what's NAMM? It's as a, as an organization all about.
John Mlynczak: Yeah, I'm glad, I'm glad you asked that question because NAMM is the National Association of Music Merchants.
NAMM was founded in 1901. [00:06:00] Uh, we're coming up on 125 year. birthday next year. So we're getting ready to do that party. But you know, so NAMM is found is is an association where 501 C six trade association. We are the largest, uh, in the U. S. But the largest global trade association and we represent the trade of musical products.
That means any company who makes manufacturers sells distributes musical products. We represent them. As an industry. And so we do like, I say like typical industry stuff. We provide research and data and analytics to our members. We, um, we advocate on policy. We lobby on policy on behalf of our members on trade issues that affect our industry.
We're heavily involved in tariffs right now, educating our members, things like that. Um, we advocate for music education, the right for every student to have access to music. That's sort of a big piece of our history. We put on, like, we have lots of, um, education, NAMMU, online, pieces [00:07:00] that we do. We do the oral history program, tell the story of our industry.
So a lot of our year, like, we are a trade association. We have a very big team that's working every day on All of these fun things that we do for NAMM members, the NAMM show is the most important, largest event that we put on for our members that gathers the industry annually. And of course, is the largest show in the world for the music products industry.
And then we also operate the NAMM foundations, the 501c3 charitable foundation, and really everything we do funnels to the NAMM foundation with additional donations from our members. And we reinvest in growing our industry. So it's sort of a cycle of, if you started the foundation creates more music makers worldwide.
NAMM provides member services year round to strengthen the, our industry and we gather the industry globally once a year at the NAMM show to kick off the year with strong relationships and product launches and networking, which then helps strengthen our year, which then helps us reinvest through the foundation [00:08:00] and so on the cycle goes.
Marco Ciappelli: Well, very cool. You, you touched on the technology and I, I love to always look back, right? And, and there is a lot to look back. You're not going to ask you to tell me how it was the first. Now, I mean, 1901, uh, probably you don't remember that you were there, but you don't remember. But uh, what, what I am always fascinated is, you know, even if you look back at when you first went there and you were just a participant to the show, how things have been changing in the past few years, we, this technology that let's face it, it's.
It's getting faster and faster. It's rolling out faster and faster.
John Mlynczak: This is my favorite thing to talk about.
Marco Ciappelli: I knew it. That's why I asked you that.
John Mlynczak: We're coming up on 125 years and right now we're looking at, you know, next year of like, you know, when you have these historical milestones, you really start tracing your history.
It's sort [00:09:00] of an opportunity to celebrate. Like you have a big birthday and you start thinking about all the years in the past. So we're in that world right now. You could tell the story of the history of NAMM by marking The technological innovations and every dot on that timeline, every dot before the dot.
Comes this thing's going to kill us at the dot comes sheer panic and a, a cognitive dis the angel devil of like embrace and move forward. No, we got to protect the way things were. And then five years after the dot comes. New opportunities, innovations, more successful industry that we never knew existed at the point the dot was there.
And you could paint all those dots and you can NAMMe them in products. In fact, in 1902, NAMM was a piano show. And then they had these pieces of paper with holes in it that, that turned gears that played the piano for you. And then, well, we're never going to sell sheet music. We're never going to have musicians the world's [00:10:00] over.
1917, I have one right here in my office because my grandmother actually had it and I didn't realize it and I found it. I have a Victrola talking machine from actually 1923, this model, but it was the, that all of a sudden you could crank and play records that no one's ever going to sell instruments anymore ever.
And you go on and on and on and you get all the television, all the radio, all the television. Even to the, you mean the internet. In fact, there's a funny one. The first board meetings, I went back and read all this history of NAMM. I actually read the board meeting minutes and the documentation. It's fascinating.
When the internet came out, the concern at the time at the board meeting, the argument, and it's so funny back in the time, you have someone on a typewriter. It's like the gentleman from so and so music declared like exclamatorily that he blah, blah, blah. The gentleman from over here, like he's very formal minutes at the time.
Marco Ciappelli: Yeah.
John Mlynczak: The, the conversation was. Oh no, this [00:11:00] internet, if everyone has a web page that has your 800 number, then customers are going to be able to find the 800 number of the store in another state. And you're going to be able to start selling there because you go back before that it was while the phone book was only a state phone book, we'd have a national and it was like you go.
It was the threat of the internet was someone was going to be more easily be able to find your 800 number. And create more competition. That's what the concern was.
Marco Ciappelli: Incredible.
John Mlynczak: What is our 800 number of AI today? Cause that's what we, that's what I look for. Like what the big thing AI, cause right now we're talking about the 800 number five years from now, we're going to be having a different conversation.
So I love the innovation and I think our job as an industry is to help our members embrace
and
help our members, you know, move forward and ensure that we as an industry grow with. The times and the technology. I think that's a core thing that we do as NAMM. Yeah. [00:12:00]
Sean Martin: And it's, it's interesting that we're talking a bit about this because one of the key takeaways for me, yes, there was a lot of innovation and a lot of new product announcements, a lot of technology, it seemed a lot of.
Technologies embedded in other technologies. A lot of collaboration technologies coming from man 2025, but a big takeaway for me was there, there was a lot of that driving nostalgic things. What I'm trying to say is I saw amps being remanufactured to replicate sounds from the sixties and seventies. Um, And it just seemed to be a general theme that we were leveraging the technology, but also in trying to hold on to things that are nostalgic to us in terms of sounds and feelings that we've had over the years.
So I don't know any thoughts on
John Mlynczak: what you're, you're hitting on something really, really valuable is that we, we are the music products industry, but [00:13:00] as you, as you see, there's a lot of music at the NAMMe show, and there's a lot of artists at the NAMMe show. Um, maybe like 11, 000 or so to be exact, but there's a lot of like it's part and.
The history of musical products is driven right along with the history of musical genres and musical styles and musical sounds. And as we get new innovation in product, well that, that either drives or is driven by, or some combination of new musical styles. I mean, you look at listening, if I said 80s music, what would you think of what you hear?
I said 90s music, what would you think of what you hear? You can NAMMe products, but you could hear sounds. And so we're always on that. Cusp. And that's why I think it's so important that we have the artists there in the booth, demoing the product. We have the artists at the NAMM show connecting to it because the innovation of products will inspire an artist to do something cool with it or do something it wasn't supposed to do like auto tune or the drum machine.
I [00:14:00] mean, you know, auto tune wasn't cool until. Cher cranked it up and said, do you believe? And then all of a sudden autotune became cool. Uh, and then, then T Pain we came out and the story's there. So I think there's a really cool connection there. And I'm not surprised that we have a mix of new technologies that are waiting to inspire musical genres, but also using technology to recreate the iconic sounds that of music that is driven.
I'm not surprised at all that we have that mix right now.
Marco Ciappelli: That's really cool. I love how you, you do the, you talked about the, the milestone that are What connect the history of, of the event and, and, and as you're saying that, and as you're asking like, what's the sound of the eighties, what's the sound of the nineties?
You know, you, you go with grunge, you go with, I don't know, Duran Duran and, and all of that. And, and, and then you look back and it, it comes, it comes back and it's cool again. Right. So that, that's the thing that I love. And even in the look [00:15:00] of the instrument, I mean, you look at guitars now, they. You know, they don't go to modern.
They actually go to the vintage look again, even if they do have the new technology. And actually something that the son was telling me from the show that he was talking about the collaboration and mixing the technology and having a guitar. That maybe doesn't need the amp and on the pedals anymore, but it has already all the sounds in in the hard drive and you just maybe plug it in the Internet where you can get the 1 800 number and and upload a new 100 pedals in there.
So is that going to kill the pedal industry or is just going to be doing things different? I mean, how do you balance? That kind of innovation
John Mlynczak: you are. This is so much fun. We need 30 days, not 30 minutes. I love
Marco Ciappelli: once a week. If you want, I don't mind.
John Mlynczak: I have no problem talking about this. So this is the funnest part.
This is the [00:16:00] funnest part of like this role, but like, and you've actually, what does NAMM do? The trade shows there, but we think carefully about what did we see at the trade show? We have all these analytics right now about this. I think to your, your question, is it going to kill certain things?
Historically, evolution happens. I mean, look, horse trainers were not happy when the model T came out, like things changed. And I think there's this always, you know, that, that evolution. So yes, there was a time in our industries that you could walk into a shopping mall. If, if any one of the listeners knows what that is, you'd walk into a shopping mall and there'd be an Oregon, you'd buy a home Oregon at a store at a shopping mall.
And that was a large percentage of our industry. That's gone.
All of that's
gone. So evolution happens. And of course, we never want to see people go out of business and change, but we see the, we see stories of companies that have innovated and innovated and innovated the companies that have been here 50, 60, 100, 200 years in our industry [00:17:00] have continued to innovate.
And I think a lot of what we focus on at the NAMMe show and why you see these collaborations is really good, smart companies realize that this piece of technology. Has a new purpose in the world today, but I need this other piece of technology or this, what we saw a lot of the NAMM shows, hardware, software collaborations, where that was like, okay, you have something I need, but I, I'm not in the hardware business.
You're in the software business, but together our powers combined. I think evolution and innovation is, is the history of our industry. And as you haven't, if you haven't figured out yet, I'm very much a lean forward person. Like I think NAMM's job is to help our industry and our musicians. Push into evolution is faster, and it's easy to get caught up into protecting the way things were.
And according to the dots on the timeline, according to every dot, the evolution happens. The longer you fight it, the more it hurts.
Marco Ciappelli: You know what? [00:18:00] Then I'm going to leave the word at Sean because I know it has a lot of questions, but one of the, of the song that I quote the most is, you know, the radio kill.
I mean, the TV killed the radio star, which it didn't, right? I mean, and then in the internet, you have everything, you have podcasting that is nothing more than radio, but just on demand, but it's still the same concept. And, and I think that The lesson here is you innovate, you adopt, but I don't think you erase the past.
There's still going to be people that want to play the instrument raw. And there's still going to be people that want to read the books. I mean, the past two years, books, bookstores and book sales, they came back up. The vinyl came back up. So, I mean, there is a shift, but there is not like the disintegration of.
Of the past. I mean, at least I like to think of them.
John Mlynczak: We're we're create musicians are inherently [00:19:00] creative people and we're an industry full of musicians. So we're passionate, very passionate. And I think inherently creative people like there's a there's a rush of I want to try something new and exciting because that's just how we're wired as an industry because of who we are and what we do.
But there's also a piece of that rush is exciting. But then there's also a realization of There's a reason we've always done it this way. And, you know, you sort of like come out and come back and that's fine. I think that's what we hear. Like, Oh, I want to try that. I know why those six streams have always been tuned that way, because this makes sense.
Okay. Got it. Et cetera, et cetera. So I think that's the fun part, you know, and I think that's what we really want to inspire. And that's what makes, I think, NAMM in our industry so different than other industries. Yeah,
Sean Martin: that inspire word I'm going to latch on to because I definitely felt that there and it was either me Walking away with this thought or you stating it [00:20:00] When you were having your discussion with John Batiste where the NAMM show and NAMM in general is It's really about giving, bringing more people in to the world of music, making it possible for them to perform, make it easier for them to create music and perform music, make it easier to consume music.
I think that to me, that was kind of the bit I'm not smart enough to have that. Perhaps you said it, but I think that the whole point is to inspire through music, inspire to create music. And the cycle of creation and consumption, making it easier, bringing more people in, educate to, to make it possible.
And so that's what I walked away with. And some of the technology that I saw there really does that. I saw an harmonica player that used. pedals for looping and sound, uh, manipulation and integrating beat boxing into this and [00:21:00] creating a sound that I had not heard before and an experience that I had not felt before sitting there in front of him.
And that was because of the technology he was inspired. He was able to create something unique and I was able to feel something unique. To me, that's what it's all about. That inspiration and that that's old technology, new technology, new ways of thinking, um, all coming together.
John Mlynczak: We have to. I'm glad you got that from the show.
And I think that's absolutely your great interpretation because I don't think I said it that eloquently. So I give you credit there. I, um, I see, you know, that it's core a trade show. In fact, I'll talk about NAMMes evolution to because I mean, we have to evolve as a trade show. We don't look like we did. 20 years ago, or quite frankly, even six years ago.
Um, but you see that kind of inspiration. I mean, at its core, you have competitive manufacturers trying to one up each other, launching competitive products. And, and, and if you look at our industry, very sort of niche, [00:22:00] small categories. So like, and we're quite crowded. And that's fine. I mean, pedals, you mentioned it's a little bit of a crowded category, but that's okay.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. Make more pedals, make more pedals. You have this, like, it's inherently competitive. And then you have all these retailers and buyers trying to figure out who's going to buy what, and then manufacturers meet with buyers trying to figure out how they're going to, you know, why it's so inherently competitive at its core.
Uh, and music can be inherently competitive, but then these, Uniting factors of the show and we do think about this. I think it happens organically, but we definitely pour gas on that fire We love the fact that yes, we're here to do these sort of competitive trade things But then of the day there's things we're at the music industry not the insurance industry We, we actually have a common goal of creating more music makers worldwide.
We have a common goal of inspiring more children and adults to keep playing. We have some common goals, so we need to unite around the common goals while we [00:23:00] also work out how we're going to, you know, so it's the idea of the pie. We can all help make the pie better while we actually fight for who slices bigger.
Marco Ciappelli: Let's stay there with the with the foundation and the role of education. You mentioned that at the beginning you would like to talk about it. I'd love to hear what you guys are doing nowadays. And maybe if there are difficulties in doing that. I mean, I, in my opinion, there is never enough music. I grew up in Italy.
Um, Music wasn't really a big thing and you don't do that in elementary school, which is kind of crazy because it's Italy. I mean, we have a lot of music history there. Uh, but yeah, you just blowing a flute for, uh, you know, once one hour a week and And that's, that's about it. Um, but I know like in the U. S.,
for example, it's always been more important in, in, in school, high school education and, and all of that. Where are we with that now and what you guys do about it?
John Mlynczak: Yeah, I'm glad [00:24:00] you, I'm glad you know, I grew up as a classical trained trumpet player. I've played a lot of Tartini. I mean, you know all the all the Italian.
I um, we, we as a foundation, it is interesting, a daunting task. Like we want to reinvest and the idea is that we have, you know, all the profits from the NAMMe show. We have members that want to donate to give back. To their industry. So we consider we are our industry's nonprofit. So then how do we reinvest?
And we actually just hired amazing new executive director of our foundation. And we've in this moment of like what is next for the NAMMe foundation where we think is that the best role for us because there's a lot of people doing nonprofit work and music. And so what we want to be careful of is we don't all go to the same place.
So as we think about what the NAMM Foundation's purpose is, is we look at reinvesting in our industry, uh, based on a few factors. It's sort of a matrix. One is industry segments. Are we, are we investing in [00:25:00] programs that allow more students to play a band or string, wind or string or percussion instrument?
But are we investing in areas that allow our, our more people to play string instruments, fretted, unfretted, bowed strings? Are we investing enough in recording, learning to like this bedroom producer and podcasters. And so we look at all the industry segments of our trades and we look at how we invest and what nonprofits we invest in and what programs we work to help create or fund to make sure that one, we are giving back to our industry in a holistic way so that we every it's important that every NAMM member sees themselves in the way we give back to the industry.
And so we do a lot of K 12 music education. Don't get me wrong, but we also, you know, aren't, aren't sleeping on the community group or the afterschool audio program or everything else that's happening as well. So we look at industry segments and we look at the lifespan of learning that that we're, we're a high first touch industry, just like [00:26:00] a lot.
You do sports, you do music, you do something early on in life. The chances of continuing are much higher. So we know first touch early childhood, middle school, secondary in school is key, but at the same time, adults get a little more discretionary income and start longing for a hobby. So also looking at college adults, seniors.
So there's a silver population. There's a lot of opportunity there. So we look at the lifespan of learning to make sure that our giving is appropriate. So it's kind of like creating this portfolio of we give to our whole industry across the lifespan of. learning. And the number one thing that we always think of is our giving has to create a music maker or retain a music maker.
So we're careful as much as I'd love to buy beautiful new uniforms for every school marching band. I'd love to send kids on more festival trips. I'd love to bring in more guest artists. That's all great work, but we feel that that works not our lane. So we really want to say to our industry because everything we [00:27:00] do has to support all the companies that support us.
We're thinking carefully about the funds you give us. We're giving back to your industry. You can see yourself in the work. You can see every age of your customer in the work and we're creating and retaining our customers.
Sean Martin: Yeah, well, I'm, I'm, uh, super grateful to, I, I'm a fellow trumpeter. Actually, I'm a little shorter than you.
So I actually played it a shorter instrument, the cornet.
John Mlynczak: Oh, of course. Yeah. Yes.
Sean Martin: Yeah. There you go. But no, I'm super grateful that I had that opportunity to have that training and. And to understand what music means, not just, not just play, but understand what it means and how I can use it to help me feel better and to, to connect with other people and have conversations.
And by going to the NAMM show, it connected the world of technology for me as well, which was the reason I launched my new new podcast, Music Evolves, to talk about technology and music and some [00:28:00] of the things that we can look at to help connect more people through music and create more music. Creators, as you put it.
Um, I want to, we have a few minutes here. I want to maybe ask you to pick your favorite child from a show. There was so much going on. I mean, uh, lots of performances, uh, the whole launch day, uh, with new products and, and a lot of some celebrities part of their, uh, a lot of, yeah, a lot of technology coming out on it.
Is there anything that stands out to you? Um, it's a highlight from the show, uh, something you saw, heard, did.
John Mlynczak: I like that question. And I, and I, I'm going to answer it very personally, because, you know, as, as NAMM CEO, I have all my stats and I can give you the big highlights, but you've seen that, the press release saw that, we've seen that.
For me personally, and of course my schedule is running thing to thing to thing, you [00:29:00] actually mentioned it already, it was the John Batiste interview, and I'll, you know, give you some like behind the scenes view of like. A list artists. You know, we, it did start 15 minutes late as you saw. Um, I wasn't sure it was going to happen until about 10 minutes before it started.
I'd never had, I met John for, for about 10 seconds backstage. We were getting miked up. He didn't know me. I had done my homework on him. As you saw, I could walk through the stages of his life and I've had, I had prep, but I didn't, you know, he didn't know me from anyone and, you know, he'd flown in super late from a gig and it was a whole, you know, I mean, he's, his schedule is incredible, by the way, and that guy's getting on a jet and flying overnight and getting up the next day.
He's unstoppable. He's a force of nature, but sitting there on stage. And you probably saw it if you were there. I think you were there, Sean. We walked out like he was. He wasn't sure the first five minutes was I'm going as a as an interviewer expert like you are. You probably saw what I was [00:30:00] doing. Give softballs.
Talk about your childhood. Talk about your past. Talk about your music. Let's just get you comfortable. And I couldn't break it. Like I was, it was like, but there was a moment when he asked, well, what is NAMM? And we, and like this part of like one of the biggest artists and the biggest careers from TV to film production, performer, everything starts to embrace the concept of us as an industry.
That was a really special moment. And then he starts smiling and we're laughing and we're telling jokes. And it really was special to me because one of the things that. I've always loved about NAMM, but I've really, you know, especially in the role now, like, you know, you come in and you want to like get your hands on something even before you get in the office.
I've always felt that our industry sort of thinks that we're. Our own like we get a little like comfortable like we're in. We think we're we are special But like we're not the only industry that that struggles when [00:31:00] inflation happens We're not the only industry that's affected when people are trying to figure out how to put gas in their car They don't buy the 12th guitar.
They also don't buy the extra watch. They don't also take the vacation They don't buy the extra sporting equipment. They don't do a lot of things We have to stop thinking that like we're too, you know Inside ourselves. And I've been really focused on how do I like lead our industry into something bigger.
And that conversation with John Batiste was recognizing like. That we as an industry have such impact on what he does every day. The fact that he didn't know it already, we'll, we'll get there because every artist in the world is going to know NAMM and the value, but just how quickly it unlocked and watching it happen in real time with someone whose smile is infectious.
That was a very special moment for me, that interview for that reason. Yeah.
Sean Martin: And I remember that extremely well. That was a moment and I could definitely see the shift, definitely see the shift. And yeah, the whole thing is incredible. Even, even the early softball parts were, were great. So yeah, that was, that was a fantastic [00:32:00] part of the, part of the event for sure.
Marco Ciappelli: Well, you know, usually there is a joke between me and Sean, where he has one more question. I always have one. And I, and I, and I stop. They're all here. I have a gazillion. And I stop him. But this time I'm going to get the one more question, which is again, I want to go to the technology. So what was something that you felt could be?
I'm not going to say game changer, but I get technology that you is not going to be the one that disappear on your opinion, but one day it's going to stick in the in the industry.
John Mlynczak: You've been you've been covering technology for a long time. I can tell because that's the right question to ask chasing fads.
We love to chase fads. And by the time
Marco Ciappelli: I call it blinking lights and funny noises, you know,
John Mlynczak: yeah, dog chasing cars. You never catch it. Um I can tell you, I know exactly what it is for me and I had the opportunity. We've been, you know, working, just [00:33:00] getting to know our, our Southern California partners down here at Qualcomm a little bit.
And we have a friend over there that comes from a music backgrounds, one of high ups in their product team. And we've been, you know, meeting a little bit, talking about what Qualcomm's doing with processing and AI and what. You know, partnerships they're having with other companies in the future and Qualcomm is at the NAMM show and and and where we started looking at all these AI products and the AI technology, what the future I see was a real unlocking moment is the one piece that we're about to unlock processing power, the ability to do things in real time.
That we've become used to working within the constraints of, let me let that render and go make a cup of coffee. I want to drag this plugin and hear that up. Let me get, that's going to take three seconds. Let me stop the track, drag in a new plugin. Wait for it to render, start the track again. We've this, that has, that has [00:34:00] affected our entire practice as creators and musicians, what Qualcomm's leading and Mac and NVIDIA, NVIDIA is, is following up the three big chip makers and what they're doing with AI and pro AI is forcing us to process faster.
We will very soon be able to do in real time what we've always conceived we have to wait for. So now you're, you're splitting tracks, you're, you're pulling out, so you're dropping out vocals in real time on a track. You're not trying to find the mix and tweak. You're throwing plugs in and in real time doing this on the fly.
That I think is what's going to be the future and that's going to change the way we create and change the way we process and change the way we approach music making holistically.
Sean Martin: I love it. I was just, uh. I was just visiting a friend of mine who, uh, is in a band, plays keyboard, and we were going through some of the, some of his music, and we were talking about, I was telling him about my NAMM experience, [00:35:00] and just that, making it easier to create, and that the whole, the whole process, like you just described, of sitting in a, in a, in a DAW, and trying to, and you have the artist ready to sing, and, and, oh, it, it crashed out, or the, the tuning or the plug in wasn't in there, or whatever it is, right?
Some interruption or some delay, some disruption can destroy everything and then even just the experience on the devices that we're performing on connected to those things, but it also empower people kind
Marco Ciappelli: of like democratize the music experience, right? So I got a question from my dad 'cause I, I was in Italy at the time when, when NAMM was happening and Sean was telling me about the example I brought about the effects on the guitar.
And I told it to my dad. My grandfather was a maestro piano and singing maestro. And I, so I, I was telling that to my dad and my dad is very, you know, kind of conservative for the, the good old stuff and is like, say, well, is that a good or a bad [00:36:00] thing for music? And I said, well, it's probably both. Right. It depends on how you use it.
If you're going to tell AI make me a song or write me a book for what it can be, it's going to probably be, you know, pretty bad. It's going to be mediocre, but if you're going to use it to, to make it easier for somebody to get access to all the tools that you could have and make better music, well, then, then you're welcome because you're, you're lowering the entry level to creativity.
So it depends what you do with it.
Sean Martin: Always depends.
John Mlynczak: I agree. I agree. It's going to speed up creativity. I mean, we're, you know, they still say how much percentage of our brains are we able to use? And like the creativity of humans is, is, is unsurpassed. I think we worry about robots and AI taking our job, but you know what?
Like, I'll tell you one thing I'd much rather. Throw a bunch of meeting notes in chat GPT and get a summary in 10 seconds [00:37:00] Then read them and manually write them over over like four hours. It would take me so you can have my job take it Please or I'd love to hear with this track sound gosh. I really wish I would have mixed this I didn't like the way I'm after that.
I'd like to I wish I could just try it again But it's gonna take me two days to remaster it Oh, I like that sound. Okay. You know what? I will go back and actually do it that way, but I can quickly, I think it democratizes creativity. Yeah, that was a great way to put it, Marcos.
Marco Ciappelli: Well, Sean, let's finish with that so I actually look good.
Sean Martin: I know.
Marco Ciappelli: Or sound good for people listening.
Sean Martin: Well, I'm, I'm already excited. January 20th through the 24th of 2026 can't come soon enough for me. That's the next NAMM show. 2026 version. And, uh, John, hope to see you there and Megan and the rest of your team that, uh. Supporting me last time. And I hope to get even deeper into all that it has to offer.
And, uh, [00:38:00] hopefully it's not the, not until then that you and I have another chat. Perhaps you'll join me on my show. We can talk about more technology stuff and the connection to music. And, and, uh, but in the meantime, hope everybody, this one, uh, gets everybody thinking, how can, how can we, uh, create more music?
John Mlynczak: Thank you so much for the opportunity. I love this conversation. Yeah, let's, let's have it every day. I'm great. This is, this is the funnest part of my day. Let's, let's talk music and technology and creativity and
Sean Martin: yeah, be careful what you, uh, what you sign up for. Cause I'll, I'll be on you for that. Uh, you're very welcome.
We will have you on again and, uh, we will see everybody in January for NAMM 2026.
Marco Ciappelli: Yeah.
Sean Martin: Uh,
Marco Ciappelli: for more on location. Sure. Just subscribe to this channel and, uh, stay tuned for more on location.
Sean Martin: I'm going to go ahead and plug my show. If you like technology and music and that intersection and all that it, that it brings, uh, stay tuned to music evolves, uh, [00:39:00] new show for me.
So thrilled to thrilled to have it, John. Thanks a million. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll catch you on the next one.