San Francisco — Fender Musical Instruments, whose electric guitars have powered music from Jimi Hendrix to Nirvana, is getting into the software business with an app for guitar lessons. The Scottsdale, Arizona company is launching Fender Play, an online system for learning guitar that CEO Andy Mooney, a veteran of Nike and Disney, hopes will cut down on the number of would-be guitarists who give up. He said 45% of the company’s guitars were sold to first-time players, but 90% abandoned the instrument within a year and never became repeat customers. "The 10% who make it through the first year own an average of seven guitars," Mooney said in an interview. "When we gathered the data and looked at the facts, we said, ‘Oh my God, if we just reduced the abandonment rate by even 10%, we could perhaps double the size of the industry.’" The musical instrument industry grew 9% to $7.1bn in retail sales over the past five years but remains well below its 2005 peak of $7.7bn, according to data ...
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