Music products retail sales by product category in the U.S. 2021

Fretted instruments and related products brought in the most retail sales value of music products in the U.S. in 2021, at roughly 2.9 billion U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, the retail sales value of recording products was nearly 890 million U.S. dollars. Institutional organs reported the least retail sales value at around 11.4 million U.S. dollars.

The guitar: one of the most popular fretted instruments

While fretted instruments include violins, cellos, ukuleles, and many others, the guitar is arguably one of the most popular. Though number of guitars sold in the United States fluctuated over the last fifteen years, there were over 3.3 million guitars sold in the U.S. in 2021. Meanwhile, the average price of a guitar in the U.S. has grown steadily in the last decade, although guitars were on average slightly cheaper in 2021 than in 2020.

Musical instrument and supply stores in the U.S.

Musical instruments can be purchased from online retailers and physical shops that do not necessarily specialize in music, but specialized stores are the cornerstone of musical instrument purchases. These businesses often also sell technical equipment and sheet music, and some even offer music lessons. The market size of the U.S. musical instrument and supply store market has declined in recent years, however. Similarly, the number of businesses in the U.S. musical instrument and supply store sector were lower in 2021 than ten years prior.