Music Matters to Morph Into Audio Advice Live in 3-Day Event Aug. 19-21

Specialty CE retailer Audio Advice reimagined its Music Matters consumer event as Audio Advice Live for 2022 to accommodate more attendees and brands, CEO Scott Newnam emailed us Wednesday. Music Matters events over the past decades “have been packed,” Newnam said; the organizer expects over a thousand participants at this year’s Aug. 19-21 event that's geared to audio and home theater enthusiasts.

The three-day Audio Advice Live event, to be held at the Sheraton in downtown Raleigh, will feature 50 experience rooms, panel sessions and an exhibit hall, Newnam said. The website lists major and boutique participating brands including the Sound United portfolio; Voxx’s Integra, Onkyo and Klipsch labels; Harman’s JBL, Lexicon, Mark Levinson, Synthesis and Revel brands; McIntosh; KEF; Paradigm; Rose; Sony; and Soundcast. More are to follow, the website said.

The event is “much bigger than Audio Advice,” Newnam said, saying it will include most of the retailer’s brands but also ones it doesn’t carry. “The goal is to give consumers in the Southeast an event where they can see all things audio and home theater-related” in one weekend, he said. Audio Advice has measured the success of Music Matters based on increased awareness and consumer engagement with audio and home theater brands, Newnam said. The event helps brands expand their customer base and exposes them to new demographics, he said.

Audio Advisor will market the event through its Earsay newsletter subscriber list of over 250,000 worldwide, 130,000 YouTube subscribers and 60,000 Facebook followers, a “natural embedded base of enthusiasts who love audio and home theater,” Newnam said. Panels will be packed with “big names in the industry” who will communicate the event to their followers, he said.

Exhibitor listening rooms are priced at $3,999, a presidential suite at $5,999 and an 8-by-10-foot exhibit booth at $999. Events at Audio Advice Live include an opening day keynote panel discussion on the future of high-performance audio and home theater, led by Newnam. Audio Advice founder Leon Shaw will lead a day-two panel on “The Vinyl Revival,” reviewing how to buy and maintain a turntable, it said. Other Saturday sessions will address room correction and calibration, high-end loudspeakers and what to look for in a projector, it said. The day-three closing keynote will cover the future of music streaming, the website said.

Events will be subject to local regulations that may require masking, social distancing or other limitations due to COVID-19, it said. The show isn't requiring vaccine checks or negative COVID tests, it said. Audio Advice will apply "practical efforts to ensure attendees and staff comply with [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], local health officials, and the event venue recommendations," it said. The website referenced Raleigh as a “diverse modern city with a rich music scene,” noting that musicians Roger Waters and Ziggy Marley and comedian Kevin Hart will be performing in Raleigh that weekend.