Dammit!! Beagle beat me! ;)

chilldanny


I announce that my announcement is purely announcing the fact that I'm making an announcement.

U make me excited... What comes after the announcement of the announcements?

Freddie H

chilldanny


I announce that my announcement is purely announcing the fact that I'm making an announcement.

U make me excited... What comes after the announcement of the announcements?

That's what we all want to know. I think its the 4th dimension. Or possibly a parallel universe. 


SP

Seth Perlstein [Cakewalk
]

Freddie H

chilldanny


I announce that my announcement is purely announcing the fact that I'm making an announcement.

U make me excited... What comes after the announcement of the announcements?

That's what we all want to know. I think its the 4th dimension. Or possibly a parallel universe. 


SP

Yeah maybe..

chilldanny


With free lava lamp ;)

 

Beagle

chilldanny


Dammit!! Beagle beat me! ;)

fastest paws in the west! 

well.... you stil have that going for you.


And all the becan a man or dog could want (and then some).

hueseph

I'd like a Studer tape emulator though.....or a Studer ATR. 

UAD has them.

Seth Perlstein [Cakewalk
]

mike_mccue


"I know you like to argue and be contrary, but what is your point?

SP


SP "


My point is that Cakewalk probably doesn't need to waste a penny at Winter NAMM either.

NAMM is an opportunity to educate, excite, and encourage dealers and staff to go off and make profit off by cheerfully representing and selling retail products.

NAMM is not really about how many pacific rim vendors set up big shiny booths in Anaheim and put on a dog and pony show... that's a fun distraction to be sure, but NAMM is really is about how many merchants and distributors you can actually get to place orders for stock... or at least a commitment to a after the show meeting where an order will be placed.

It takes face time to make deals... and Summer NAMM is an ideal place to make those face to face connections.

If Cakewalk wants to expand it's retail sales and compete with merchants then there's little use wasting time trying to build partnerships and win win relations. The merchants are looking for manufacturers that produce and update goods in a timely manner so that they can generate excitement at the retail level.

Cakewalk has evolved to offer merchants very little incentive to promote Cakewalk sales. In fact, Cakewalk repeatedly creates disincentive for a retailer to present a Cakewalk product as a first choice.

Why bother wasting money with a booth at a merchant show until the company learns how to build partnerships and increase the street level brick and mortar face to face retail representation? For example; We have 7 music stores in our town and the local Best Buy music center, (the one with the cracked Gibson SJ-400 on display) is the only place that has an example of a Cakewalk product on display. Why bother going to NAMM just to achieve that sort of market penetration? Buying some sort of mi award will never make up for the inability to earn display space at a music merchants' place of business.




I have another point as well; I think funding a few active road reps who know how to make friends with merchants and staff may generate a lot more revenue than the practice of giving away $90 dsp or version upgrades for $10 every few weeks. I have long thought that Cakewalk is under represented at retail stores simply because it under represents itself. I bought my first copy of PA 7 at an old pro retail store in Tampa Florida and had great assistance. I haven't seen much Cakewalk product on a shelf since. Why is that? Does any body at Cakewalk care about that?



That's my point.


best regards,
mike

Thank you for enlightening me on what NAMM is for and about the current state of MI retail. There are many factors and complexities in both arenas which we won't get into. Of course we care about market penetration on all levels, and we do our best on all fronts. 


I'm not going to get into it any more than that, but I will say that you're not coming from a place with all the facts or a full understanding of the market in general and our situation on various levels.


See you at Winter NAMM!   


SP

I must say I've gotta go with Seth here, I'm not sure you have a grasp of anything to do with Music retail on any level that I recognize at all Mike.

I had a retail outlet in the late eighties and it was a less archaic set-up even then than the one you are describing here.

Reps came from distributors who had big portfolios of brand products and aside from the odd exceptions, say someone like Peavey that operated more like a franchised dealer system very few companies used own brand reps ever.

Software reps were never seen even then it was all done via telephone orders again from suppliers having a portfolio of brands.  With the ever increasing trend to buy boxed software on-line and even more lately downloads it would be economic suicide for any company to employ 'brush salesman' tactics these days.

I see a trend with pretty much all software companies now limiting their presences at EVERY trade show because they are so costly but most pick one where there get the most impact in an annual cycle.  It seems to make good economic sense which is why so many companies are favouring that just now.  It allows each company to maximise the buzz they get for their respective products too rather than them all clamouring for the same thunder.  So you'll see say Propelllerheads at Frankfurt and Cakewalk at Winter Namm, that way everyone can get good trade exposure rather than getting swamped in a mass of 'major' announcements at the same place.

If I still had a rock 'n roll shop rather than a bona fide hi-tech store I wouldn't be touching software at all these days even if it was prestigious enough to have that Gibson you mentioned in the window.  There seem to far more ways for buyers to get hold of the software they want these days and a bricks and mortar high street shop seems to be less apealling to them than ever, the only way I'd entertain it would be on a 'to order' basis as a customer service.

To my mind a singular appearance at a trade expo once a year would seem to me to offer the best bang for buck as far as getting the word out goes for a modern software company.  Cakewalk would certainly know the best way of conducting their particular operation in the current climate of that I have no doubt, and a much better grasp of their own business than you or I for sure.

So I didn't get your point either or indeed whether there was even one there.

I got Sonar LE with an Edirol interface from a bricks&mortar store. A little later I bought Project 5 version 1 (in the cool perspex box) from the same store.

Ever since then, all my music software has bought online (either boxed and shipped, or downloaded).

This operation serves as an example of a brick and mortar retailer which is positioning itself to "help people make music":

http://roundrock.gcstudios.com/index.cfm

It's a great example of modern music retailing in our contemporary modern music world.

They treat the DAW lesson service as an extension of the age old music retail tradition of fostering growth in instrument sales by facilitating access to music education such as guitar and piano lessons.

It's also an example of a well known and effective retailing strategy which is the practice of catering to a customer's desire to have a satisfied end user experience. In other words, you sell more guitars when you help people learn to enjoy playing them.



Here is another example; The future of DAW sales is happening right now... it's happening at the Apple brick and mortar stores, where well trained sales personnel interface with youngsters who don't even know what a DAW is until they and stumble into mastering Guitar Band in afternoon or two. Often times, these kids make such rapid progress because they have already had music lessons on piano. guitar, drums etc.

I am seeing that happen more and more often. These kids don't know anything about brand name DAWs etc. They just know that someone took some time and taught them they could use the family Imac to record music and they are doing it.



Retail = Education = Sales = Profit.



best regards,
mike



edited to elaborate

mike_mccue


This operation serves as an example of a brick and mortar retailer which is positioning itself to "help people make music":

http://roundrock.gcstudios.com/index.cfm

It's a great example of modern music retailing in our contemporary modern music world.

They treat the DAW lesson service as an extension of the age old music retail tradition of fostering growth in instrument sales by facilitating access to music education such as guitar and piano lessons.

It's also an example of a well known and effective retailing strategy which is the practice of catering to a customer's desire to have a satisfied end user experience. In other words, you sell more guitars when you help people learn to enjoy playing them.



Here is another example; The future of DAW sales is happening right now... it's happening at the Apple brick and mortar stores, where well trained sales personnel interface with youngsters who don't even know what a DAW is until they and stumble into mastering Guitar Band in afternoon or two. Often times, these kids make such rapid progress because they have already had music lessons on piano. guitar, drums etc.

I am seeing that happen more and more often. These kids don't know anything about brand name DAWs etc. They just know that someone took some time and taught them they could use the family Imac to record music and they are doing it.



Retail = Education = Sales = Profit.



best regards,
mike



edited to elaborate

Thanks for the Education then Mike.  What do people that are actually succesful in business know anyway?  Good point.

btw I used to run my own lease purchase scheme for students and had learning arrangements with various organisations and individuals also, right up to some of the local state schools and colleges, it's a core part of any retailers business, along with a hire department the provision of studio/reheasal facilities and promotional events/gigs, etc,etc,etc. You tend to see opportunities and take them when your livelyhood depends on it as most people reading your views that are also in business will testify, just there's no money in software for independent retail these days unless you want to setup on online store.  Or if I'm mistaken and there is still, there are plenty of more fruitful avenues you could take as alternatives before picking that as a likely profitable option.

It's very noble of you think to try and educate a whole established industry of Vendors, Distribution Channels and Outlets how to do it properly.

Sounds like you have a business plan there to cover some of the existing shortcomings why not action it and back it with your time and money?  It'll be huge I'm sure.  I'm being sincere too, every business that starts up is an idea before it becomes a plan.   If you had a real burning belief in what you are saying you wouldn't be trying to elevate others to your advanced level of knowledge you'd be putting your passion into making it happen. 

It's likely at that point you'll start to see others adopting your great ideas and often they'll have more resources and backing to be able to outdo you at your own game, don't forget the Apple stores are not likely to ever be the core part of their profitability, although they may contribute to brand awareness and also act as local service points for the convenience of end-users and Apple alike, aside from that unlike any independant retailer they won't be incurring distributors mark-ups.  It can be tougher out there than it seems too.

You can bet your bottom dollar that every independant music retailer out there is fully maxismising his potential business opportunities in his local area, he'd have to shut his doors within the week if he wasn't doing that already.

Help me Obi Wan...you're my only hope....

I was going to mention a certain site that has NAMM announcements but it be regarded as teh evilzzz....

keneds

Beagle

Seth Perlstein [Cakewalk
]

Mooch4056

Seth Perlstein [Cakewalk
]

FWIW we will have more announcements on the way, just not today. Soon, but not today. 


SP


P.S. We also announced Z3TA+ 2 for Mac, something which many people have been screaming about for the better part of a decade. 

I like that you announced that there will be an announcement.  


How cool is that!?


Now they'll stop speculating FOR SURE!! 

Ya, but maybe the next announcement that we'll announce is that we'll have another announcement soon? 


SP

or maybe your announcement will be that you revoke your previous announcement announcing that you will be making an announcement soon...

Did'nt they announce that a few posts back?

There was an announcement about an announcement that was revoked about an announcement that there was to be an announcement soon?


Or was that an announcement.....