Music Production on Windows - Intriguing Developements in Progress

This was posted a day or two ago on the DSP sub-forum on KVR:
 
My team at Microsoft is looking for audio software engineers and program managers with experience building best-in-class products. If you want to be a part of the future of music creation in multiple dimensions check out the following openings and apply!
Senior Program Manager (Digital Audio Software) https://careers.microsoft.com/jobdetails.aspx?ss=&pg=0&so=&rw=1&jid=304496&jlang=EN&pp=SS (https://careers.microsoft...mp;jlang=EN&pp=SS)
Senior Music Software Engineer https://careers.microsoft.com/jobdetails.aspx?ss=&pg=0&so=&rw=1&jid=320824&jlang=en&pp=ss (https://careers.microsoft...mp;jlang=en&pp=ss)
 
No more information than that, but it leads to all kinds of speculation ... not all of it positive.
 
Of course, it being KVR, a number of childish, snarky responses was to be expected, but the clear message from the adults was: not another plug-in API standard!!!
 
 

Who knows what powers a new API might have...hmmmmm ... sounds interesting.

Is good to see recognition for audio finally. The Garage Band concept is intriguing but that begs the question of a follow-on platform. It would make sense to be Windows only (SONAR would be in contention), but they may also pursue market penetration into the Mac arena to upset the audio throne that Apple is sitting on.

BobF
Seems obvious to me.  M$ is planning to acquire Cakewalk.  I mean Cake and M$ are already pretty tight.
 
Isn't the weather in Redmond about the same as Boston?

So M$ is moving to Boston?

TerraSin
The problem I have with Microsoft entering the market is that like with many things they do, they will likely make a Garageband type, minimal program and not do anything else. They need to make Windows more out-of-the-box friendly for audio, they need to work on their audio driver more, they need to focus on Windows itself not being such a mess. Instead, they will likely make an Audacity clone, throw it out the door and never update it because this is how Microsoft operates anymore.

 It would be nice if I didn't have to redo all of the changes after an OS update.
 
 BTW I think Apple doesn't really upgrade Garage Band anymore.  One thing Apple and MS have in common is they copy each others bad ideas.  Everything will be MicroApple on both sides of the fence.

kitekrazy1

IK_Multimedia
Maybe they're making their own GarageBand-style "intro" type of software to include with Windows.  Would be cool if this had something to do with the Surface series, too, in my opinion.
 
I didn't look at the listings yet, nor the KVR thread so I'm totally guessing and selfishly so :)

 Yes some crappy software on expensive hardware.  Garage Band is the most I've paid for a DAW since it came with an iPad.

My Surface Pro 4 wasn't expensive nor do I think GarageBand is truly crappy for an entry-level DAW that's pretty feature-rich.  Not my cup of tea (never was, even on Mac and iOS devices though I'm mostly Windows now anyway except for my iPhone) but I wouldn't go as far as considering it to be crappy, personally.
 
My guess wasn't wishful thinking, anyway, though.  Just what I thought they might do business-wise that would make sense for them.  Because when it comes down to it, this will be a business decision that they expect to net them some income I'm sure.  I'd rather they dig in and get truly serious about audio but judging by their recent moves I'd be more inclined to believe they are trying to go after Mac audio users as they appeared to go after Mac-based artists/designers recently (as in "here's a neat gimmicky thing for people to make music on Windows!!!").

BassDaddy
A certain amount of cynicism towards MS and Apple even. Wouldn't it be great if that wasn't so easy?

Unfortunately it is all too easy, even from "insiders" (though honestly almost anybody can join the developer programs for either at low/no cost from what I recall and get almost all of the same information).  I personally don't mean to sound cynical, I view my DAW choices and the exclusion of GarageBand in the list of favorites there just a personal choice because of what I need and my workflow etc.
 
I can see how some of the actions and such of both of these large companies can frustrate end users, even when I know from my position and industry in which I work that a lot of the business decisions that aren't exactly catering to our type of user base would make sense to those that run both.  From my perspective, I can only imagine how difficult it is to please any niche group based on experience with IK but on a level of MS or Apple I don't know if I can truly imagine.  That's not making excuses for them, since I personally use many audio tools on both MS and Apple products and would like to see a lot of things that cater more to us but have to be a bit skeptical based on the fact that they are huge companies that have a lot of other (larger) user groups to cater to as a priority.
 
All that has some "that sucks!" factor, but I'm hoping to be wrong about some of these things and hope more attention and great value comes to audio users on all platforms and soon.  To digress again, I'm reminded of Android audio where we ended up making the decision to create an entire audio interface capable of running our DSP code (iRig UA + AmpliTube UA) due to problems a huge company was having in their ability to cater more to the audio production audience.
 
Oh and these are of course my own personal opinions, even if some context and perspective come from my affiliation with IK. :)