Guitars take music instrument industry by storm

Guitars – used in a wide variety of popular genres such as pop, rock, heavy metal and jazz – are dominating the musical instrument industry with a market share of nearly Tk 50 crore, and an annual demand of at least 40,000 pieces in Bangladesh.

It is the top selling musical instrument in the local market – which is worth around Tk 100 crore annually. The rise of live music performances and concerts has reignited the guitar’s popularity, aided by its wide price range and availability in both physical stores and e-commerce platforms.

Local demand for this musical instrument is growing by around 15 per cent per year, importers and industry insiders told The Business Post, adding that unfortunately, local craftsmen are lagging behind their foreign competitors due to a lack of quality and innovation.

Guitars occupy more than 75 per cent of the total musical instrument sales in Bangladesh, but locally manufactured ones take up only 10-15 percent of this sales volume.

Bangladesh fulfills most of its annual demand for this musical instrument with imports from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Mexico and Italy. Electric and acoustic guitars are very popular with consumers, while the demand for Hawaiian guitars is almost nonexistent.

The most affordable brands are Signature, Gibson, Axe, Sqoe, TGM, and Deviser, while Yamaha, SX, Takamine, Ibanez, Fender, Epiphone, Ibenzer, ESP and Martin feature a higher quality that comes with a hefty price tag, importers have said.

Yamaha Music Bangladesh – a concern of ACI Motors and one of the top three musical instrument importers in the country – said guitars take up around 83 per cent of all of their sales. The company sells more than 3,000 imported guitars worth around Tk 7 crore per year.

“We sell to both wholesalers and retailers across the country,” said Parth Protim, service engineer of the Yamaha Music outlet at Dhaka’s Jamuna Future Park, adding, “Nearly 1,500 students are now enrolled in our online classes, and around 600 of them are learning guitar.”

Providing a few more details, an importer and also the owner of Music Zone – one of the most popular music instrument shops in Dhaka, Ali Rezowan said, “Guitars make up nearly 70 per cent of all musical instruments sold here.

“Locally manufactured guitars occupy 10 per cent of our sales, and the rest are imported. The annual demand for this instrument is at least 40,000 pieces, but only 5,000 of them are locally manufactured.”

He continued, “Most of our customers are young students. Guitars can be carried anywhere and they are quite affordable compared to many other instruments. Such flexibility has contributed to its popularity in Bangladesh.

“Some are playing the guitar as a hobby, for entertainment, or to compensate for the lack of local playgrounds in urban areas.”

According to the Dhaka Musical Instrument Sellers and Owners Association, around 60 manufacturers make guitars in Bangladesh, meeting around 20 per cent of the local demand. The remaining demand is met by some 20 importers.

“The local demand for guitars is rising by 10-15 per cent annually,” the association’s President Sankar Sarkar said.

Importers and industry insiders said though the pandemic had put a dent in the musical instrument industry, guitar sales remained steady even amid the crisis. Bangladesh has also been showing a rising trend of musical instrument imports in the last five years.

According to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), musical instruments worth Tk 7.11 crore were imported in FY2016-17, Tk 6.22 crore in FY2017-18, Tk 7.04 crore in FY2018-19, Tk 6.05 crore 2019-20 FY, and Tk 7.97 in FY2020-21.

A fan favourite in Bangladesh

Discussing the reasons behind guitar being the most popular musical instrument in Bangladesh, vocalist, guitarist and Founder President of the Dhaka University Band Society (DUBS) Lalon Mahmud said, “We became a fan back in the 90’s, when our band music scene was dominated by legends such as Ayub Bachchu and James.

“The guitar is a versatile instrument, and can cover a wide spectrum of genres. We can play pop, folk and even rock music using a guitar. Their rhythm and melody is unmatched.”

Some also play the guitar relieve stress, tackle loneliness and boost mental health. “Playing guitar has turned into a tradition for me,” Sadia Hossain, an official of Facebook HR Office in Ireland, told The Business Post.

What about local manufacturers?

Local guitar manufacturers are struggling to compete with the imports in terms of quality and innovation, and their share in the local market reflects this sad reality.

Commenting on the matter, Sankar Sarkar – owner of one of the top local manufacturers Melody and Co, said, “We had taken initiatives to manufacture quality guitars and export them across the globe.

“International buyers had shown interest in our products too. But the falling prices of guitars made by foreign companies have thrown a wrench in our plans. Amid the pandemic, the price of raw material increased globally, which drove up our prices and made competition with foreign brands very difficult.”

He added that the difficulty in marketing locally manufactured guitar brands to foreign buyers also makes exports challenging.

Sunil Kumar Mondol, proprietor of Jatin & Co, the oldest musical instrument at Shakhari Bazar established on 1910 said, the consumers are now fond of imported guitar from China and India than the local. The consumers are not interested while it is locally made. We can ensure quality but the consumers are not ready to pay more.

E-commerce feeding the growth

The rising popularity of online stores and music classes is one of the major factors driving the guitar market growth. E-commerce and F-commerce platforms have become a necessary requirement for the musical instrument shops amid the pandemic.

Industry insiders said a sizable chunk of customers are buying guitars online because the process offers more options and the facility to pay cash on delivery at home.

Music Zone owner Ali Rezowan said, “Our customers are gradually shifting towards online shopping. We are receiving a large number of calls from our online sales platform and we launched a home delivery system to keep up with the consumer demand.”

There are however allegations that some e-shops are defrauding their customers by overcharging and delivering products of inferior quality.

One of the victims, Dhaka University student Nusrat Jahan had purchased a guitar from an online platform. “After receiving delivery, I found the quality of my instrument unsatisfactory, and learned that the seller has overcharged me by Tk 1,000.”

Ali Rezowan recommended online shoppers to buy guitars only from shops they can trust and verify to avoid getting scammed.