Musical instruments, the business in Italia is growing again

In it are the professionals - some of whom will tread the stage of theSanremo Festival next 24 February - and the schoolchildren, the collectors who are big spenders by definition and the vast audience of enthusiasts, the 'after-workers' of music.

The turnover of musical instruments here in Italia in 2025 will rebound to 350 million in direct revenues. Which, if we also add the online sales made by the large foreign e-commerce platforms (specialised and otherwise), will expand to 420 million. These are the first estimates for the year that has just ended made by Dismamusica, the trade association of distributors and craftsmen in the sector that is a member of Confcommercio.

For official data we will have to wait several more months, as companies are grappling with closing their accounts, but "operators' sentiment points to a 1.5% increase in turnover over 2024 performance," says Raffaele Volpe, president of Dismamusica and managing director of Yamaha Music for Italia. "The moment we are going through is certainly complex, but what is striking is the great dynamism that in recent years, amidst not insignificant adverse events such as the pandemic and the leap in the cost of raw materials, companies have been able to demonstrate."

If we consider the sellout, in fact, in 2024 the sector moved 342.5 million in turnover, a performance declining 2.2% on the previous year, as reported by the study carried out by Format Research for Dismamusica. A decline that came after two consecutive years of growth (+3% between 2021 and 2022 and +8% between 2022 and 2023) post-Covid, driven not so much by an increase in sales, but rather by the rising price dynamic linked to raw materials.

On the other hand, the historical trend on retail shops is relentless: there were 1,059 in 2015 and there are 798 at the end of 2024, for a 24.6 per cent drop. "The impact of e-commerce," Volpe continues, "has been very important: price competition has revolutionised the habits of tool buyers and, consequently, market strategies as well. And, when we talk about e-commerce in the sector, the reference is mainly to Thomann and Amazon, whose vertical sales in Italia are not visible, but it is estimated that together they move something like 70 million here in Italy. Taking into account trade through traditional channels and online sales, the estimated market value coming from the purchase of musical instruments, audio systems and deejay products according to Dismamusica in 2024 comes to 417 million, with an even larger drop on the previous year (-4.7%).