Guitar and audio equipment sales on the rise in the UK during lockdown

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The lockdown has hit music hard, but at least one area of the industry booming right now is beginner guitar, piano and sound equipment sales, according to one of the biggest UK online retailers, Gear4music.

It's attributed to more players picking up instruments, recording and making podcasts too. And the BBC reports that in the April-to-June period, Gear4music saw the value of UK sales rise 80% to $21.2 million compared to the same time last year. 

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Electric guitar and acoustic guitar beginner starter packs are said to be some of the biggest sellers, with digital pianos also picking up sales traction. 

"People are interested in having a really good hobby that they can get into," Gear4music chief executive Andrew Wass told the BBC.

"Maybe they played music at school and have found themselves indoors and decided to come back to it."

Mr Wass also said that home studio equipment, including podcasting microphones and recording software, was proving popular on the site as well.

"It seems everybody wants to be a podcaster and they're buying into really professional set-ups at home," he added.

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.