What This Year Took Away (and What It Left Us With)

So here we are, last Fret Not Friday of the year! 🥳

2025 hasn’t been a year of easy wins in MI. For many, it’s been a year of pressure. Margin pressure. Cost pressure. Attention pressure. In some cases, survival pressure.

Some businesses grew. Some stood still. Some sadly didn’t make it to December.

That’s not said for effect. It’s simply the brutal reality of the year we’ve all lived through.

And while it would be easy to wrap things up with a personal highlights reel, this year deserves something more honest and more encompassing of the industry as a whole than that.

The moments that really landed this year 🎸

There were a few moments in 2025 that genuinely stopped me in my tracks. 

On the UK retail side, the closure of GAK (Guitar, Amp & Keyboard) in Brighton was a real shock for the whole UK industry, followed by the collapse of PMT (Professional Music Technology) and, more recently, Kenny’s Music in Scotland.

Most of you reading this will know these weren’t fringe retailers. They were household names. Stores many of us grew up with. Businesses I’ve worked with for the best part of 20 years, and ones that played an important role in shaping the UK MI landscape. I still can’t get my head around that the former GAK store in Brighton is now a sock emporium… 😔 

Their disappearance is sad on a personal level, but it’s also instructive.

If there’s a lesson in those closures, it’s this: legacy alone no longer protects you.

In today’s market, history doesn’t buy you time. Familiarity doesn’t guarantee footfall. And reputation, while still valuable, isn’t enough on its own if the model underneath it hasn’t evolved.

When legacy brands struggle, the message is even louder 🎵

What made this year even more sobering was seeing that the same pressure hasn’t been limited to retail.

We’ve also seen long-established, legacy brands struggle or disappear.

G&L Guitars, founded by Leo Fender himself, quietly closed their doors earlier this year. And in recent days, Höfner, a brand with well over a century of history and forever associated with Paul McCartney’s violin bass, has entered bankruptcy proceedings.

These are names that feel permanent. Brands woven into the fabric of our industry.

The takeaway isn’t that heritage has no value, it clearly does. But heritage on its own is no longer enough. The market has changed. How people buy has changed. What they value has changed.

This year has been a stark reminder of that.

The things 2025 quietly took away 📉

2025 stripped away a number of assumptions that many of us, myself included have carried for a long time. 

·      That more products automatically mean more relevance and sales.

·      That discounting can make up for poor messaging and retail experience.

·      That nostalgia can double as a growth strategy.

·      That doing what’s always worked will keep working just a bit longer.

What held together in easier markets struggled badly in a tougher one, and this year didn’t leave much room for denial. 

What quietly worked, even in a hard year 🎸

Fear not though as this isn’t a complete doom and gloom story!

Despite how tough the market has been, JET Guitars and Flight Ukuleles have both continued to build momentum and grow at a rapid pace both here in the UK and around the globe. In a climate where standing still has felt like a win for many we don’t take this for granted.

reSound Market continues to gain momentum at great pace, with more of the industry getting behind a platform built around trust and transparency. In fact the last week was the biggest week for sales since the platform launched. 🥳 There’s a lot more to come, and I’m looking forward to sharing what’s next in the new year.

And then there’s Spira Guitars….

It’s easy to forget that Spira only launched in September 2024. Just over a year later, it’s already become a mainstay for a many top tier dealers not just in the UK but again in markets all around the world. Retailers have backed it, players have embraced it, and the brand now feels properly established rather than simply “new”.

It certainly wasn’t easy though and that doesn’t happen by accident.

The launch worked because the focus was right from day one: clear positioning, strong product, supportive dealers, effective marketing and a refusal to chase noise for the sake of it. I’m genuinely proud of what’s been achieved in a short space of time, and it’s been one of the real positives of the year for me.

There’s a lot more to come in 2026 for both Spira and JET, with some exciting developments on the horizon, plus maybe another new brand entirely… 😉

I’ve also seen a great deal of independent retailers step up and show what’s still possible when attention is put in the right places.

A special mention must go to Cookes Band Instruments in Norwich. Mark and Matthew have done an inspirational job of reshaping the store into what a modern guitar retailer should be. By focusing on experience, proper curation, and community, they’ve have a business that’s thriving and has done a truly incredible job of selling JET and Spira guitars this year.

Adaptation works. Focus works. Effort still matters.

A year of fewer illusions 🧠

If 2025 has left us with anything, it’s clarity.

·      No platform owes you visibility.

·      No customer owes you loyalty.

·      No market owes you growth.

The retailers and brands that accepted that early adjusted faster. The ones that clung to how things used to work had a much harder time.

Hoping things will return to “normal” is no longer a strategy.

A moment to pause before January 🎄

Before the plans come back out and the calendar fills up again, it’s worth sitting with a few honest questions:

 ·      What genuinely earned its place in your business this year?

·      What survived out of habit rather than performance?

·      What would you stop doing if you were brave enough?

·      What would you start doing if you were brave enough?

·      And if next year looks anything like this one, are you better prepared?

There’s no urgency in answering those today just things to think on with a glass of Port and some Cheese but make sure when January comes you don’t default back to the same old plan just because it’s familiar.

Finally, thank you to everyone who’s read Fret Not Friday this year! To those who’ve commented, messaged, challenged me, came and found me at a show to talk about it or shared your own experiences it’s genuinely appreciated. These conversations are why I keep writing it.

Merry Christmas, have a great one. It’ll soon be time to pull out my pink suitcase for NAMM but as its 9pm on the Friday before Christmas it must be Stollen and wine time!