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Why Reverb’s big data can help tell interesting stories about the guitar market

February 26, 2026

Heather Farr Edwards always knew she wanted to be in the “music-adjacent” industry. Her foot in the door came from pestering the editor of Relix, a live music review magazine that started as a Grateful Dead newsletter. She got an internship reviewing live shows in New York in her early 20s, moved to the world of corporate agency PR for a while, before some LinkedIn serendipity led her to a role as head of PR for the global musical instrument marketplace, Reverb.

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Over her decade at the company, Edwards has seen Reverb grow dramatically to become the world’s premier gear-focused marketplace. Behind the scenes, the company has seen its fair share of changes – most notably being bought by Etsy in 2019, and becoming independent again in April 2025.
It’s more than just press releases
“I always say I’ve had a full career’s worth of experience at Reverb. The company has evolved so much in 10 years, and so has my role. At first my job was getting the word out about Reverb by all means necessary – its story was intertwined with that of our founder David [Kalt], how he was a guitar store owner [Kalt owns Chicago Music Exchange] who was having trouble selling and finding gear online, and launched the solution to his own problem.
“After we were acquired [by Etsy] I really saw my role evolve from telling Reverb’s story to telling the story of our community. That can range from studying up on new tax regulations to help sellers make sense of them, to naming the conference rooms in our offices. Last year I wrote an entire parody of Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty based on what the CEO wanted to say to the team in his end of year message. So it runs the gamut!”
Inspiring confidence is everything
“At the end of the day, we’re an e-commerce platform, but most people aren’t buying a guitar every day. So we get to think about how to inspire people who aren’t in the market at the moment – and we’re lucky, as that’s a really fun thing!
“The goal of our content is helping musicians feel more confident in the purchase that they’re making, whether that’s through a demo video or other content. We take that responsibility really seriously. Reverb didn’t invent buying music gear online, but I think it’s safe to say that people are more comfortable doing so now – and Reverb has likely had a hand in that.”
Heather Farr Edwards. Image: Reverb
Love of gear can bring artists and fans together
“The artist shops on Reverb aren’t money grabs. 99 per cent of the time the artists look in their garage and go, ‘Shit, I’ve got too much stuff,’ or ‘I’ve used this 20 years ago and not touched it since’ – and if you care about gear, all this beautiful stuff with a thick layer of dust over the top of it is really upsetting!
“Artists choose Reverb because, while we can’t guarantee this stuff doesn’t end up in some display case, we offer them the best chance of their gear going to someone who’ll use it on tour or in the studio, or will at least noodle with it on their couch.”
Data can tell some great stories
“As a newly independent company, I do think we’re getting back to our roots – being a music gear company that’s really good at tech, not a tech company that can do music. Sometimes data tells boring stories – but ours doesn’t.
“It goes back to that responsibility with our content – the data is really useful if you’re a buyer or a seller and trying to understand the value of what you have. Early on we made an effort to make sense out of the complex data we had. So now we have these really rich insights, which we don’t want to just sit on and use for our own good.”
When it comes to the big changes, show don’t tell
“The hardest thing about going through a big change like being sold is probably the personal side of it. We’re humans, we’re in the forums, we’re reading things that people think about a change. From our side, it’s still a lot of the same people – not much has changed in terms of what we’re trying to do, which is create the best place online to buy and sell gear. But I’ve learned through this whole process that acquisitions and sales just carry a negative weight to them – even if the reality isn’t like that.
“And so my approach as a communications person is always to be honest – my approach has never been to ‘spin’ things. It can be easy for somebody to say, ‘Oh, this company got purchased by a bigger company, everything is going to go downhill!’ I can’t tell somebody that’s not going to be the case, we just have to show people that!”
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