Ahead of the 2025 NAMM Show, being held Jan 21–25 in Anaheim, CA, RAD Distribution has announced a new partnership with Music Tribe – the Philippines-based holding company that owns Behringer, Midas, TC Electronic, TC Helicon, and other brands – to expand distribution in the US.
In recent years, Music Tribe has focused its distribution efforts on online retail ‘super partners’, like Sweetwater & Amazon.
Industry watchers may have anticipated that a change was coming, though, because Behringer had announced plans to return to the NAMM Show this year. The NAMM Show is an industry event that’s designed to help music retailers and manufacturers connect, so Behringer’s return signaled interest in expanding distribution.
“This partnership ensures all retailers – big and small – can access Music Tribe’s innovative products,” said CEO Uli Behringer. With this collaboration, Music Tribe will now be making its products available to every retailer across the country.
In the last few years, Behringer has disrupted the synth market, introducing dozens of inexpensive synths, drum machines and Eurorack modules. Most musicians have not been able to try these instruments at local retailers, though, or to try gear from Music Tribe’s many other brands.
This barrier to purchase may be reduced by the fact that the majority of Behringer’s products are designed and marketed as affordable copies of well-known gear. The company’s plans for expanding distribution, though, should make it easier for musicians to ‘try before you buy’.
Will ‘bricks and mortar’ distribution expand the company’s focus beyond copying established products? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Interested dealers can contact RAD Distribution.
The days of “try before you buy” have long gone from the music industry. High street shops expect customers to flash a piece of plastic, whereupon the staff give them a box and say “bring it back if you don’t like it.” There’s no sharing the joy of discovery or chatting about a new product. I still support bricks-and-morter shops as my first retail choice, however. On-line “stores” expect you to pay shipping charges if you return something. I fail to see how Behringer’s own try-before-you-buy distribution will work for the customer.
Guitar Center has demo units you can play in store.
I’ve got it on good authority B will be showcasing their recent mutable Etsy-quality clones and talking about future opportunities to knockoff open source circuits and disrupt the synth game in the process,
It’s going to be exciting and I for one, used to hate a lot on them but might be turning the corner.
Everyone and their moms have cloned Mutable. Don’t give Behringer grief for making them more affordable and more available for other people. There are countries where Behringer operates that no synth manufacturer ever touches. And if they do, they can’t afford it.
no one griefs Yamaha for the Pacifica guitar being a knockoff of the Fender Stratocaster.
Yup. Many guitar manufacturers produce a “Stratocaster” and/or a “Les Paul.”
This has been going on for decades.
Behringer needs to up their presence in the warranty subject. Yes they offer up to 3 years warranty and Ive seen their Facebook posts about telling the customers to return to store, beign open about the sample and hold issue, the broken knobs on the Proton etc., its fine but go ahead and work for more partners for repairs, offering replacement parts (like some burnt Deep mind screens Ive seen lately) among other would help a lot to dispel the aura of bad quality they have carried over the years. Music instruments are meant to be kept and used for the foreseeable future and while they will eventually break, at least having parts for DIY repairs would be nice. If they truly want to break the mold and be disruptive in the music equipment stage, they should partner with organizations like ifixit and repair retailers like Syntaur and RosenSounds.
i hope there are lots of protesters from all the whiny boards and blogs there. lol.
Stages, Marbles, and Tides are awesome modules. however, i don’t like the front panels on B’s. i wish they kept to the original designs. the ecosystem around her modules has a lot of value. if i built an entire rig with them, it would be ok. i hope they do Elements and Rings then i would get more of those for sure.
“This partnership ensures all retailers – big and small – can access Music Tribe’s innovative products,” Innovative LOL
I consider a $339 analog 8-voice poly synth that can store up to 400 user-programmable patches to be innovative.
Being even a starting synthesist still means you have to make a lot of judgement calls along the way. I’ve made good & bad buys, but no one ever twisted my arm over it.
You have to remember that someone was eventually going to go this route. Walking The Line makes the ultimate point: there’s a huge market of people who hear the music of the world… and can’t afford the tools. That can go triple in repressive countries. Sometimes its ‘cheap’ or nothing. Its easy to judge when you have the privilege of a First World position.