Yamaha 2008 Annual Report Download - page 15

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 15 of the 2008 Yamaha annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 96

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96

13Annual Report 2008
Creating the Sounds that Musicians Seek
In order to create top-quality musical instruments, Yamaha
considers it important to collect feedback not only from music-
lovers, but also from top musicians around the world. The
Company therefore takes a proactive approach to developing
relationships with top-level musicians and musical specialists,
including members of orchestras and ensembles, professional
musicians, and professors and students at music academies.
The Company has set up “artist relations” sites in various
regions of the globe to establish these ties to musicians. Techni-
cal professionals are assigned to each region to find out from
musical specialists what is required in terms of maintenance,
redesign and customization, in addition to working jointly with
musicians to develop, test and evaluate instruments. Each
regional center also uses its network to try to locate young musi-
cians who show promise of future success, and provide them
with support to develop their talents.
One example of Yamaha’s successful collaboration with
musical artists is the YTR-9445NYS trumpet, which was jointly
developed by Yamaha and a former trumpet player from the
New York Philharmonic. Together, Yamaha and the musician
re-examined the basic design of the trumpet, researched the
detailed design of each component part. Then, with support
from the artist, Yamaha’s technicians developed a trumpet with a
very complex design and consistent quality with which the
musicians were satisfied. In this way, Yamaha is trying to utilize
its “artist relations” network as extensively as possible to enhance
its competitive advantage over other musical instrument manu-
facturers. The accumulated experience gained from these con-
tinuous efforts effectively supports Yamaha in improving product
quality and enhancing the value of its brand name.
Refining the Sound
Yamaha Artist Services (U.S.)
Yamaha Music Communication Centre, Beijing (China)
Yamaha Artist Services Hollywood (U.S.)Yamaha Corporate Artist Affairs (U.S.)
Yamaha Atelier Frankfurt (Germany) Yamaha Atelier Los Angeles (U.S.)
13Annual Report 2008
Artist Relations Sites
Drums
Percussion
instruments
Guitars
Digital
musical
instruments
Wind
instruments
Pianos