The 2027 NAMM Show will run for five days, January 26–30, at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. The exhibition halls open for the last three days, January 28–30. The first two days are for summits, education sessions and networking. NAMM announced the format on August 18 and opened registration on September 9.
Day by day
Tuesday, January 26 is for professional development and networking, including the NAMM Succession Summit, a Financial Summit and the first Music Education Advocacy Summit. Wednesday the 27th is the main summit day. It includes the new NAMM AI Marketing Summit, TEC Tracks’ studio and live-sound summits, the Entertainment Technology Summit and Women of NAMM’s Leadership Amplified.
The floor opens on Thursday the 28th. The halls are open 10am to 6pm on Thursday and Friday and 10am to 5pm on Saturday, with early buyer hours from 8am to 10am on Friday and Saturday for retailers. The awards fall on the floor days: the TEC Awards, Backline Talk Awards and Bass Magazine Awards on Thursday, the Parnelli Awards on Friday, and the Best in Show and She Rocks Awards on Saturday.
What’s new
NAMM has added three things for 2027: the AI Marketing Summit, a NAMM Sync Summit about getting music placed in film, TV, games and ads (sync licensing), and a Percussion Showcase in Hall C with live demos every hour. NAMM says there will be more than 250 education sessions across the five days. The Bass Magazine Awards also move to the ACC Arena as an official on-campus event.
Taken together, the changes push NAMM further from a product fair toward a general music-business conference. That makes sense for an audience in which, by the 2026 figures, artists and performers made up more than a quarter. A sync summit is aimed at people who make music, not people who sell guitars.
The scale
NAMM’s figures for the 2026 show were more than 60,000 attendees from 122 countries, regions and territories, representing an estimated $9.8 billion in buying power. “The NAMM Show has evolved into a global platform that brings together the people, products and ideas shaping the future of music,” said John Mlynczak, NAMM’s president and CEO.
Can you go?
NAMM is not a consumer show. Registration is open to NAMM members, qualified industry professionals, and media and content creators, not the general public. Most people register through a member company they work with, such as a manufacturer, retailer or distributor.
Even if you never set foot in Anaheim, the dates matter. Many instrument and studio-gear makers time their launches to NAMM, so expect a cluster of new-product announcements in the last week of January.