Car, computer, and video game system manufacturers are just a few businesses impacted by the global chip shortage. The COVID-19 pandemic, the US-China trade conflict, extreme weather conditions, and factory fires are just a few of the causes that have been mentioned.
Although it's too early to tell how badly the music tech sector will be affected this year, the indicators aren't good either.
Musical Instrument Yamaha Has Been Affected by the Semiconductor Shortage
On Thursday, July 21, Takuya Nakata, president of Yamaha, was interviewed on Nikkei CNBC television. He stated that while the instrument industry had been able to substitute silicon in some items, the kit it had obtained resulted in a bad tone in other instruments, as per the report by The Register.
The company's troubles are made worse because a fire at Yamaha chip supplier Asahi Kasei Microdevices in 2020 had badly affected the company's supply chain.
As stated in its annual report for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, it is anticipated that product supply limitations will persist to some extent into the following fiscal year. This is a result of challenges in acquiring semiconductors, such as sound-generating LSIs, and logistics disruptions.
How Does the Chip Shortage Affect the Company
The Register mentioned that opportunity losses in the prior fiscal year totaled roughly 35 billion yen ($253 million). Nakata predicted that the company would likely lose around 30 billion yen this fiscal year as well.
Surprising Increase in Revenue Amid the Pandemic
Rich Chinese consumers, according to Nakata, kept piano sales robust during the pandemic. The company also claimed in its annual report that its revenue increased by 9.5% over the previous year, totaling around $3 billion.
The Chip Shortage Didn't Just Affect Yamaha; Other Musical Instrument Manufacturers Also Suffered
MusicRadar noted that one of the latest companies to highlight how the shortage of semiconductor supply has affected their business is Behringer.
"We're sorry that shipping products is taking much longer than expected," the company said on Facebook. "But the chip shortages are very challenging, and the way it looks, 2022 won't see much improvement."
Although the company claims to have all the chips necessary to manufacture Syncussion, a knockoff of Pearl's 1979 Syncussion SY-1 drum synth, it also claims that shortages are holding up several of its other products.
Separately, MusicRadar additionally reported that the chip shortage problem had impacted another musical company. Erica Synths announced in December that the Perkons HD-01 drum machine, which was initially expected to be available by the end of 2021, will now not be available until late in 2022 due to the lack of microcontrollers.
However, there are positive aspects to this news as well. On the plus side, the company claims that the additional development time allowed it to enhance Perkons' user interface in the hopes of making it an even better product.
