NAMM 2025: The lead-up to the 2025 Winter NAMM Show - the biggest new guitar, music tech, drum and DJ gear event in the calendar - inevitably feels a little different to previous years, with the industry’s immediate thoughts being with those who’ve been impacted by the wildfires that are currently sweeping across the Los Angeles area. NAMM, of course, takes place in Anaheim, a city outside LA in Orange County.
“We are closely monitoring the wildfires in Los Angeles and their devastating impact on local communities,” said NAMM President and CEO John Mlynczak in a statement. “During the past few days, our efforts have been focused on reaching out to our members and partners located in the metropolitan Los Angeles area to confirm their safety. Our thoughts are with them at this time.”
Despite what he describes as the “unprecedented tragedy,” Mlynczak has confirmed that, as things stand, the show will still be going ahead between 21 and 25 January - the longest event yet. “NAMM will continue to monitor the situation daily as the winds calm down and fires are contained,” says Mlynczak. “We will communicate any further information as it’s available leading up to the 2025 show.”
With both Los Angeles International (LAX) and Orange County (John Wayne) airports remaining open, the hope is that both exhibitors and attendees - the MusicRadar team included - will be able to make it to Anaheim to see what the world’s biggest gear manufacturers have in store for 2025. As always, the pre-show rumour mill has been grinding away, so let’s consider who’s going and what they might have in store.
We’ll keep this page updated in the run-up to the show, so be sure to keep checking back for more news and tidbits.
NAMM 2025: Key exhibitors and rumours
Fender
Having previously suggested that Fender would be unlikely to return to NAMM “in its current format”, CEO Andy Mooney U-turned last summer and confirmed that it’s returning to the show floor for the first time since 2020.
“We sadly missed actually having a physical presence at NAMM; that high-touch in-person long form interaction is vitally important for the industry,” he said. “Going forward, [Fender] will have more and exciting new products to intro at NAMM and then in the fall, we will revert back to our online dealer events… we’re thrilled to be back, we missed being there, and I’m excited to see everyone again back in Anaheim.”
Gibson
Yep, Gibson is back at NAMM, too, albeit in a slightly understated way. The company has hired a big meeting room space for appointment-only visits from dealers and the media - we’ll tell you as much as we’ve paid CEO Cesar Gueikian’s team a visit.
Ibanez never fails to push the boat out for NAMM, so we’re expecting a motherload of new stuff once again.
Another big hitter that’s been away for a while, Roland is coming back to Anaheim, too. This also means that its other brands will be present and correct: Boss, Drum Workshop (DW), PDP and Latin Percussion (LP).
For those not at the show, there’s the ‘All Access from the Roland Studio’, an online service that will keep you up to speed with everything being announced. You can sign up now to stay in the loop.
As music technology brands go, Behringer has long been something of an outsider. For better or worse, the company tends not to follow industry norms, releasing products – often inspired by existing gear – that can be mindblowingly cheap but can also ruffle a few feathers along the way. That outsider approach follows through to the company’s promotional strategy; the company largely refuses to loan gear for reviews, rarely sends out press releases and tends to have little-to-no presence at trade shows, opting instead to communicate via the controlled safety of its own social media channels.
Given this, it’s a potentially exciting surprise to see Behringer booked into a substantially-sized booth at NAMM 2025 – the first time the company has attended the show in 10 years. Alongside gear released under the Behringer name, the booth will also showcase gear from other Music Tribe brands, including Aston Mics, TC Electronic and Midas. What we can expect from the brand’s NAMM showing remains to be seen, but in an announcement post the company promised “the chance to meet Uli and the team, and be among the first to experience our groundbreaking new products”.
Akai Pro
Trawl internet forums and you’ll find no end of NAMM ‘predictions’, although more often than not these tend to be user wishlists as much as real educated guesses. Of those we’ve seen this year, possibly the most plausible are those speculating on whether Akai may be preparing to announce a new MPC.
The fact that the current-gen MPC Live II and MPC One+ are currently out of stock at some retailers may just be coincidence. Given the general lifespan of Akai product generations though, and the fact the MPC software has just received a major update, it certainly seems plausible that 2025 might be the right time for some new hardware. Aside from special edition updates, the top-end MPC X hasn’t had a proper refresh since its launch back in 2017.
Korg
When it comes to synth brands at NAMM, Korg is usually fairly reliable for a few interesting announcements. NAMM 2024, for example, gave us our first glimpse of the microKorg 2 and King Korg Neo, amongst a glut of other announcements.
What’s more, alongside the proper launches, the Japanese brand has a habit of sneaking unannounced Easter eggs onto its booth. Back in 2020, for example, we caught our first glimpse of a prototype Opsix when it appeared unannounced on Korg’s NAMM stand. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for anything unexpected this year.
Studio gear over synths
While, as we’ve already alluded to, we hold out hope for some exciting new music tech instruments at NAMM, in general the show isn’t the synth-afficianado’s paradise it once was. Many synth brands have moved to showcasing new hardware online or shifted emphasis to Europe’s Superbooth trade show.
From a music technology point of view, many of the most interesting new releases at NAMM these days tend to come from studio gear and pro audio brands. We expect to see interesting developments in areas like monitors, mics, headphones and interfaces, and perhaps a few completely unexpected gadgets we didn’t even know we needed.
NAMM 2025: Confirmed product news
