<P> According to their website, and as of 2017, Guitar Center will no longer sponsor the annual drumoff . Instead, Guitar Center announced it will create a community outreach program specifically geared toward drummers . </P> <P> The Sunset Boulevard location in Los Angeles hosts Hollywood's RockWalk, a hall of fame honoring musical artists . Artists are invited to place their handprints into cement blocks that are put on display at the Guitar Center . Some past inductees have included B'z, Eric Clapton, AC / DC, Aerosmith, Alanis Morissette, B.B. King, Black Sabbath, Carlos Santana, Cheap Trick, Dick Clark, Ernie Ball, Herbie Hancock, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Joe Satriani, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, KISS, Les Paul, Little Richard, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Melissa Etheridge, Nancy Wilson, Slash, The Doobie Brothers, The Wrecking Crew, Van Halen, Simon Kirke, as well as countless others . </P> <P> In 2000, Guitar Center purchased mail order and Internet retail house Musician's Friend for $50 million, asserting that the merged company was the world's largest seller of musical instruments . Musician's Friend became a wholly owned subsidiary that was headquartered in Medford, Oregon until 2011, when Musician's Friend's headquarters operations were gradually consolidated into Guitar Center's facilities in Westlake Village, California . </P> <P> In 2005, Guitar Center Inc. acquired Music & Arts, the largest school music dealer in the United States, and merged their subsidiary band and orchestral chain American Music Group into Music & Arts (as the company was renamed). Music & Arts was founded in 1952 in Bethesda, Maryland and sells band and orchestra instruments, guitars, keyboards, drum sets, printed sheet music, and related supplies . </P>

Are guitar center and musician's friend the same company