The National Association of Music Merchants, commonly called "NAMM" in reference to the organization's popular NAMM trade shows, is the not-for-profit association that promotes the pleasures and benefits of making music and strengthens the $17 billion global music products industry.

The reconfigured 2021 NAMM Show will go on — make that, go online — this week. It will do so with a temporary new name, Believe in Music, and some of the most dramatic changes in the history of the world’s biggest annual trade show for the music, sound and event technology industries.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, NAMM announced last August it was canceling its 2021 show as an in-person event and would instead pivot online. Believe in Music, which runs Monday through Friday, will serve as an interactive community center and marketplace for musical instrument and technology creators and manufacturers to connect with each other, buyers, sellers, musicians, and fans.

Going online is not the only first this year for the feisty nonprofit. Its previous shows in Anaheim were exclusively for NAMM members and the public could not buy tickets at any price. Believe in Music, conversely, will open its virtual doors to one and all — and admission for all five days will be free.