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Trade show & conference

The NAMM Show

The NAMM Show 2027 runs January 26-30 in Anaheim. Badge cost, who qualifies to attend, and how deep the AI programming goes.

A band performing on a stage in front of a large starfield backdrop reading The NAMM Show, with a Dexibell keyboard in front and a crowd of badged attendees watching.
The NAMM Show logo
Next edition 26–30 January 2027
Badge $75–325
AI programme Dedicated AI track

Getting in Not public. A qualified-attendee badge includes NAMM membership — producers, engineers, educators and media qualify.

What The NAMM Show offers

Checked against the published programme. Struck-through items are confirmed absent, not merely unlisted.

  • Conference sessions
  • No showcases
  • Trade show floor
  • Workshops & masterclasses
  • Under-30 or student rate

What is The NAMM Show?

Where the music products industry shows its new gear — two events wearing one badge.

  • Every January at the Anaheim Convention Center, drawing around 75,000 people from more than 125 countries.
  • A trade show floor with roughly 3,500 brands, where manufacturers launch and retailers buy.
  • A conference programme of 200+ education sessions running alongside the floor.
  • 150 bands playing across the week, booked through brand endorsements rather than an open call.

What will you actually see on the floor?

Products getting announced, and engineers standing next to them.

  • Hardware you can put your hands on months before it reaches shops.
  • Roli’s AI music coach built on hand tracking, playable on the stand at the 2026 edition.
  • JBL’s BandBox, launched with real-time stem separation running on the device itself.
  • The useful conversations happen at stands, not in sessions. Expect long days.
An Akai Professional Advance 49 keyboard controller on a white plinth at the NAMM Show, its screen showing Logic Pro X, Bitwig Studio and Ableton Live in a browser list, with Alto speakers either side.
Akai's Advance 49 on the stand at NAMM 2015. Photo: Pete Brown from Gambrills, MD, USA, CC BY 2.0

That is the pattern worth planning for. NAMM is where AI stops being a web app and becomes hardware. If you want to know what your signal chain looks like in two years, this is the floor to walk.

Is the NAMM Show open to the public?

No — and the qualifying list is much wider than most people assume.

Best valueQualified attendee$150Includes NAMM individual membership for the year
  • Trade show floor
  • 200+ education sessions
  • NAMM U business track
Student$75With valid student ID
  • The same badge access
  • Anyone without a valid student ID
Non-exhibiting commercial$325Commercial members not exhibiting
  • The same badge access
  • You register under a category, you do not buy a public ticket. If you qualify, you are in.
  • Who qualifies: members, educators, students, media, influencers, bloggers, engineers, producers, and house of worship or live-event professionals. If you produce or engineer, you qualify.
  • A qualified-attendee badge is $150 and includes NAMM individual membership for the year. Students pay $75 with valid ID; non-exhibiting commercial members pay $325.
  • Press and content creators go through verification — NAMM checks your credentials as a music-industry outlet first, so start early.
  • Badges are non-refundable and non-transferable.

At $150 including membership, NAMM has one of the cheapest badges of any event its size. A SXSW music badge starts far higher.

Who should actually book this trip?

Book it if you are:

  • A producer or engineer. You can test 40 pieces of hardware in a day and talk to the people who built them. Nobody else on this list offers that.
  • A gear retailer or distributor. NAMM exists for you; everything else is downstream of that.
  • An artist who came for the gear and the sessions. You will hear how tools work from the engineers behind them.

Skip it if you are:

  • Looking for A&R or a deal. There are performances, but they run through brand endorsements — there is no open application for unsigned artists hoping to be discovered.
  • After sync, publishing or catalogue business. Music Biz and MIDEM are those rooms.

How much AI is on the programme?

More than anywhere else in this directory, and organised rather than sprinkled.

  • A named AI For Music series plus an AI For Music Town Hall on the 2026 edition — the only printed AI track in this directory.
  • Sessions included “AI For Music: Principles, Progress and Challenges Ahead” and “The Evolution of Sampling in the Age of AI and Artificial Creativity”.
  • NAMM U’s business track, close to 50 sessions, carried AI as one of its main topics including prompting with ChatGPT and other tools.
  • Speakers included Benn Jordan, producer Peter Malick, and people from Splice, Berklee, Auto-Tune and Voice-Swap.
  • The gear said the same thing — Roli’s hand-tracking AI music coach, JBL’s on-device stem separation.

For tracking how AI reaches instruments and hardware, NAMM is the strongest event on the calendar. The conversation here is about products you can buy, not policy panels — which is exactly the opposite of SXSW, where the same subject is argued at platform and rights level.

What does it actually look like?

A singer at a transparent Kawai grand piano on the Kawai booth at the NAMM Show, with CX Line and CN Series signage behind and badged attendees watching.
2026. The Kawai booth, where a transparent grand doubles as the stand's centrepiece. Photo: Justin Higuchi (jus10h), CC BY 4.0
Three musicians playing electric guitars and bass at full tilt on a guitar booth at the NAMM Show, surrounded by amplifiers and attendees filming on phones.
2026. Booth performances run all day. This is what the guitar halls sound like. Photo: Justin Higuchi (jus10h), CC BY 4.0
A performer standing beside a transparent Kawai crystal grand piano on the show floor, with VPC1 and CN Series product signage and attendees in the background.
2026. Kawai's crystal grand, up close on the floor. Photo: Justin Higuchi (jus10h), CC BY 4.0
An Akai Professional Timbre Wolf analogue polyphonic synthesizer on a white display table at the NAMM Show, with a hand reaching for an Akai Tom Cat drum machine beside it.
2015. Gear on the stands is playable. Akai's Timbre Wolf, hands-on in 2015. Photo: Pete Brown from Gambrills, MD, USA, CC BY 2.0
Co-located programme

A3E (Advanced Audio + Applications Exchange)

AI, artificial creativity and the future of music and entertainment technology

A3E builds its own program every year inside the NAMM Show, with its own speakers, sponsors and call for papers. A3E 2026 Anaheim ran Friday 23 and Saturday 24 January 2026 at the Hilton Anaheim, not the Convention Center, so it sits on the back half of NAMM week. Runs with ARAS analyst briefings. For anyone at NAMM specifically for AI, A3E is the part to plan around.

A3E programme & dates

Where is it, and can you walk between venues?

Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California, USA Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Get directions →
  • Everything is one building. The Anaheim Convention Center holds the floor and the sessions, so there is no cross-city travel — but the halls are large enough that wandering wastes a day.
  • The exhibit floor opens later than the show. In 2027 events run 26-30 January while the floor is open 28-30. Arriving day one and leaving mid-week can mean missing the floor entirely.
  • John Wayne Airport (SNA) is 20 minutes by car; LAX is about an hour without traffic, longer with it.
  • Anaheim hotel rates climb hard during show week. The convention-adjacent hotels sell out first and the walk from cheaper options is longer than the map suggests.

When are the next editions?

2027 Upcoming

26–30 January 2027, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California

Events run January 26-30. The exhibit floor opens later in the week, January 28-30. Confirm against namm.org before booking, since NAMM has shifted floor days between editions.

Common questions

What does NAMM stand for?

National Association of Music Merchants. It's a trade association representing music product retailers and manufacturers, and The NAMM Show is its annual trade event.

Can anyone go to the NAMM Show?

Not by buying a public ticket. You register under a qualifying category, and the list is wide. NAMM invites members, educators, students, media, influencers, bloggers, engineers, producers, and house of worship or live event professionals. A $150 qualified-attendee badge includes individual membership for the year.

How much does it cost to attend the NAMM Show?

A qualified-attendee badge is $150 and includes NAMM individual membership. Students pay $75 with a valid ID, and non-exhibiting commercial members pay $325. Travel and Anaheim hotel rates during show week cost far more than the badge.

When is the next NAMM Show?

The 2027 NAMM Show runs 26 to 30 January 2027, with the exhibit floor open 28 to 30 January. NAMM lands in January every year.

Where is the NAMM Show held?

The Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The co-located A3E programme runs at the Hilton Anaheim next door.

Is the NAMM Show worth it for a producer?

Yes if you want hands-on time with hardware and direct access to the engineers who built it. You can test dozens of pieces of gear in a day. It's the wrong event if you're chasing sync placements, publishing deals or A&R attention.