Percussive Arts Society absorbs Percussion Marketing Council, expanding drum education outreach

The percussion world’s entry-level pipeline just moved under a much larger roof. On April 23, the Percussion Marketing Council voted to dissolve, and the Percussive Arts Society said it will take in the PMC’s assets and carry forward its market-development and percussion advocacy work, a shift that reaches beyond boardrooms and into classrooms, drum shops and first-time players’ hands.

For drummers, teachers and retailers, the change matters because the PMC’s best-known programs are not being retired, they are being folded into PAS. That includes International Drum Month, Drumset in the Classroom and Drum Teacher Finder, all of which have helped make drumming more visible and easier to access for beginners, schools and the broader public. PAS and the PMC said they are working together so the transfer will be seamless for partners and participants, with the handoff expected to be completed by June 30, 2026.

The move also redraws the lines of influence inside the percussion business. The PMC was formed in 1995 as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit trade association built around manufacturers, distributors, publishers and educational alliances. PAS, by contrast, is a long-established education nonprofit founded in 1961. It says it now has nearly 6,000 members, 48 chapters in the United States and 20 chapters around the globe, and it calls itself the world’s largest percussion organization.

That scale gives the PMC’s programs a different kind of home. PAS already runs Percussive Notes six times a year, publishes DRUMSET Magazine quarterly, maintains a percussion collection and archive library, and anchors the calendar with PASIC, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, which PAS says is the largest event of its kind devoted exclusively to drums and percussion. PASIC 2026 is set for November 11-14 in Indianapolis.

The two groups also have a shared history. PAS lists strategic partnerships with the PMC, NAMM, Drum Corps International, Winter Guard International, Music for All and Music Educators National Conference. PAS says International Drum Month began in the late 1980s when Lloyd McCausland and Jerry Hershman organized the observance, which later led to the creation of the PMC in 1995. PlayDrums.com says that outreach now reaches more than 20,000 students every year through drumming events in some form, while Drum Set in the Classroom draws on the decade-long success of Roots of Rhythm and the Bucket Drumming Program is designed for young people ages 8-14.

Joshua Simonds said PAS is honored to be entrusted with the PMC legacy, and David Jewell said PAS is the best place for the programs to live because of its educational infrastructure and worldwide audience. The result is a rare consolidation in percussion: a trade-group legacy being handed to an education-heavy society with enough scale to keep those entry-point programs in circulation, and more visible than ever.