Open Labs decided to make their Winter Product Release virtually this year, instead of at the 2008 Winter NAMM Show.

“We have had great success using the world-wide web and wanted to give back to the virtual community by allowing them unprecedented access to our products, staff and artists,” said Victor Wong, Founder and Chairman of Open Labs. “Our goal is to provide a more personal experience for our users.”

They announced a new version of the NeKo with the help of a variety of artists:

Morris Hayes (Keyboardist for Prince and the Power Generation), Polow Da Don (Producer for Ludacris, Fergie, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Alisha Keys, Gwen Stefani and Janet Jackson), Jimmy Nichols (Keyboardist and Music Director for Faith Hill and Reba M), Richard Devine (Composer for companies such as Native Instruments, Nike and Touchstone Pictures), The Heavy Weights (Producers for NeYo, Corbin Bleu, Christina Milian, and Rihanna), Scott Spock (Producer for Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears and Hilary Duff), Dave Schulz (Keyboardist for Goo Goo Dolls, Fuel, and Bo Diddley), George “Fat Man” Sanger (Sound Designer for video games such as The 7th Guest, Star Trek and Wing Commander), Mickaël (Recording Artist with Baby Bash and Lil Jon on the recent hit song “Cyclone”), and possibly even some elusive A-list artists.

Open Labs was one of several companies, including Apple, that blew off the NAMM show this year. It’s too early to tell if this will be the shape of things to come, but NAMM had better take notice of the trend and give companies a reason to come to NAMM vs releasing the products on YouTube.