Let's start with the Holiday party. Usually, we just make it a black-tie optional event, dress up and have a ball. It's always great to meet the "better halves" of our employees. We decided to break from the norm this year since we were sponsoring a Pops concert with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and Neil Sedaka, so we gave it a '60s and '70s theme to sync up with Neil's popularity. We had some folks in amazing costumes, old Batman reruns on the screen and the songs of my youth on the stereo. I was privileged to MC the event and that's really what I wanted to cover here, because one of the topics I talked about was all that happened here at Sweetwater in 1999 and into the new year. So here's the 1999 recap, in no particular order:

• Sweetwater turned 21 years old in January, quite an accomplishment for any business these days and a long way from the little studio that started it all.
• Since we have a programmer in-house, we've upgraded our computer system countless times (and will continue to do so) in order to better serve our customers and run a more efficient business.
• We put a brand new, leading edge phone system and voice mail system into operation over the Labor Day weekend. As we've grown, this is one area that we realized was making it hard for us to serve our customers. Based on the results since we put the new system online, we have dramatically improved the way we respond to your calls. We didn't want to trap you in "voice jail" so we made our system as human friendly as possible (hit "0" at any time to get a real human).
• A new logo! You may have noticed that we've been gradually phasing out the old tape reel that served so well as our logo for the first 20 years of the company's life, but the fact is that times have changed and the logo was hardly appropriate for a technology-focussed company like Sweetwater.
• We were thankful to receive several honors this year, among them were Musical Merchandise Review's cover and feature story in the January 2000 issue and the REX (Retailer Excellence) Award from Music Inc. magazine. We are the only "mail-order" company to have ever received this award.
• Our "Music-Careers.com" Web site was launched and voted by Keyboard as one of the Top 25 music related resources on the Web (no retail sites were considered).
• We also held our first VAST Workshop, which was taught by our resident Kurzweil genius, Daniel Fisher, along with other in-house personnel. Customers from all over the country came to Sweetwater to dig into the wonderful world of VAST programming (and thanks to all for your suggestions for the next session!).
• Craig Anderton presented a seminar on digital mixing which we broadcast via the first live webcast in our industry.
• We opened our Online Store so our customers can order whenever they wish from the convenience of their computer, any time, night or day. This does not diminish in any way the tremendous importance of our world class sales staff (whom I'd always recommend you consult before making any buying decision), but if you need to order something at midnight, well now you can.
• A new issue of Sweet Notes is sent to almost 200,000 subscribers every 8 weeks. One of the most successful magazines in our industry (which shall go unnamed here) has a subscriber list of just 80,000.
• Instead of sending VHS videotapes to our first-time customers, we now send a much more comprehensive (and interactive) CD-ROM.
• Our electronic newsletter, inSync, is about to celebrate its third birthday and is sent to tens of thousands of subscribers every week.
• We've printed over 200,000 issues of our 2000 Equipment Directory.
• We grew as a company from 129 employees in January of 1999 to 172 by the last day of the year (and we're closing in on 190 as I write this in late January). As a fun aside, the extended Sweetwater family grew a bunch this year as many Sweetwater employees had babies, including yours truly (my wife and I were blessed with a son in October).
• We added a brand new management position to the company Client Amazement Specialist in order that we might not only react to customer needs, but anticipate them in the coming months and years.
• Thanks to you, we had a wonderful year, a great fourth quarter and an amazing December. In December, we had the biggest sales day in company history, $499,135. December was the biggest month in company history, finishing with over $5,000,000 in sales. We understand that this is a very competitive world and sincerely appreciate you voting with your dollars for the retailer of your choice. You have our word that we will continue to work harder than ever to earn your business.

THE FUTURE. I'm assuming that most of you found the advent of the New Year as uneventful as I did. The Y2K bug scare certainly appears to have been a dog that was all bark and little bite. It hasn't had much of an effect on life here at Sweetwater (of course, it helps to have a database that is built on the Macintosh platform). What lies ahead? The hard disc recording revolution continues to roll with several new systems hitting in the first part of the year. Digital mixing continues to mature. My two cents worth is that this is going to be an amazing year for musicians and studios in terms of technological innovation. You're going to be able to get your hands on some incredible products that will boost your creativity more than ever. It's going to be a fun year.

Last year Sweetwater made a significant investment in additional personnel and training. We also expanded our infrastructure (Service, Purchasing, Shipping, Warehouse, etc.) to be able to accommodate our growing business. In a recent column, I noted that a "typical" Sweetwater customer expects consistently high quality service. We've worked hard to put the pieces in place that will keep our level of service not only high, but take it beyond anything any musician has ever experienced. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and prosperous year.

Thank you for choosing Sweetwater for your equipment needs. We sincerely appreciate your business!