Helpful ReplyWhy did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts!

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Audioicon
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2017/10/24 18:52:11 (permalink)

Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts!


I don't understand why a Company like Gibson would buy Cakewalk. There are simply no compatibility in terms of persona or gravitas. Okay it's about music, really?
But most importantly, why did Roland sell Cakewalk?

I need some facts about this.
 
#1
craigb
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 18:58:30 (permalink)
Fact:  The square root of four is sometimes two.

 
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#2
Audioicon
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 19:00:27 (permalink)
craigb
Fact:  The square root of four is sometimes two.


I want to drink what ever you are having. 


#3
craigb
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 19:01:39 (permalink)
Ooo...  my hook has caught one!
 
Um, so, do you disagree? 

 
Time for all of you to head over to Beyond My DAW!
#4
Linear Phase
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 19:14:23 (permalink)
This is a huge, huge question.  You have to start with:  Companies grow in several ways.  Companies that are not growing are either stagnant or shrinking.  One of the ways companies grow is through M&A, or mergers and acquisitions.  Companies also divest assets for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes the assets divested are recently acquired assets, sometimes they have been long term investments.
 
It is my understanding that Roland was an investor in Cakewalk from very early days and the final purchase was made when the Founder of Cakewalk made his exit.  Highly likely that arrangement was made well in advance.
 
Now, music companies in general, record labels, instrument builders, software, publishers et al, have been struggling with a landscape that has changed rapidly and dramatically in particularly over the last 15 years since the dawn of Napster.   We have seen record labels reorganize, music software boom and bust, and traditional instrument makers having to deal with a whole host of issues.

So, why did Roland sell Cakewalk?  Because Roland thought it would be better for their bottom line.  Perhaps they wanted to streamline there business and focus less on the market for DAWs.   Why did Gibson purchase Cakewalk?  Gibson brands has been acquiring various companies over the last 30 or so years, perhaps Gibson thought a DAW and music software company that they no doubt got for a bargain basement price would be to their advantage.
 
The problem with music software, or the problem with the music industry in general nowadays is that you only have superstars.   If you are not a superstar you have no career.  It is a huge problem for fans, record labels, music software, and instrument makers.
 
 

too many lasers...






Sonar = audio editing ninja of a music software!

#5
Beepster
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 19:37:08 (permalink)
Fact: The pair of underwear I'm currently swaddled in is so old and worn out that I have to use a safety pin through the waistband to keep them from dropping to the floor when I stand up.
 
 
#6
craigb
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 19:43:56 (permalink)
Sounds potentially damaging!

 
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S.L.I.P.
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 19:46:40 (permalink)

#8
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 19:48:02 (permalink)
craigb
Sounds potentially damaging!




I trademarked the term "Unsafety Pin" years ago.
#9
craigb
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 19:51:04 (permalink)

 
Old school.

 
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#10
Linear Phase
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 20:03:15 (permalink)


too many lasers...






Sonar = audio editing ninja of a music software!

#11
bapu
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 20:05:06 (permalink)
Beepster
when I stand up.
 
 


Some call that exercise.
 
I call it answering the door when the pizza man arrives.
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bapu
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 20:06:48 (permalink)
Linear Phase



I was sure all pics of me from last Halloweenus were destroyed.
 
 
 
 
 
 
If destroyed means to obliterate why is stroyed not meant to create?
#13
craigb
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 20:08:55 (permalink)
Disobliterated?

 
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#14
Beepster
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 20:14:01 (permalink)
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 20:16:50 (permalink)
Beepster


Beebzo gets a sneak peak at this year's Halloweenus costume.
#16
craigb
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 20:17:51 (permalink)
Audioicon
craigb
Fact:  The square root of four is sometimes two.


I want to drink what ever you are having. 






Ok, ok...  Got tired of waiting.  The part that gets missed here is that -2 is also the square root of 4 (i.e., -2 * -2 = 4).
 
Oh well, nerd facts aren't much fun I guess... 

 
Time for all of you to head over to Beyond My DAW!
#17
Beepster
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 20:21:07 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby bapu 2017/10/24 20:24:28
bapu
Beepster


Beebzo gets a sneak peak at this year's Halloweenus costume.




Yanno, Ed... you could have just bought that costume in a smaller size instead of eating nothing but dumplings and gravy all year to fill that one out.
 
I mean... I know it was $5 off but dood. I worry about your health.
#18
bapu
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 20:21:31 (permalink)
I like round pi's.
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bapu
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 20:25:40 (permalink)
Beepster
 I worry about your health.


Awwwwww
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 21:02:31 (permalink)

#21
craigb
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 21:05:13 (permalink)

 
Eww!  Try again Beep!!!

 
Time for all of you to head over to Beyond My DAW!
#22
bapu
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 21:06:12 (permalink)
Beepster


With great weight comes great heart attacks?
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craigb
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 21:33:32 (permalink)
I look at that and think "If that was swinging into a building, I bet the building would take the damage!"

 
Time for all of you to head over to Beyond My DAW!
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 21:40:31 (permalink)
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 21:47:43 (permalink)

#26
bapu
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 21:52:06 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby Beepster 2017/10/24 21:55:03
Beepster


Bapu & Beepster gettin' jiggy.
 
(I'll not say which is which. Juan must leave sum ting to the imaginarium blob on yer shoulders).
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57Gregy
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/24 23:00:08 (permalink)
So they would own the software they include with their TASCAM audio interfaces.

Greg 
I am selling my MIM Fender Stratocaster HSS, red and black. PM for more details.

Music Creator 2003, MC Pro 24, SONAR Home Studio 6 XL, SONAR  X3e, CbB, Focusrite Saffire, not enough space.
Everything is better with pie. 

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#28
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/26 14:23:15 (permalink)
Roland bought Cakewalk because they thought it would help them sell hardware. They sold Cakewalk because it didn't. Why Gibson bought them remains a mystery.
 
Roland had had a long history with Cakewalk, especially in Japan, e.g. translating CW documentation into Japanese for them. Roland had also provided CW with V-Vocal, but it was purely an as-is sale and Roland never followed up to keep it competitive with similar products that kept getting better.
 
Roland's history with acquisitions shows a pattern of buying companies but doing little to help them. Ikutaro Kakehashi's autobiography offers insight in that regard, and is a recommended read. He's an inspirational figure, a real self-starter who expected every company he bought to fly on its own. 


All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. 

My Stuff
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slartabartfast
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Re: Why did Roland Sell Cakewalk? I need facts! 2017/10/26 17:55:27 (permalink)
Arguably the Gibson philosophy has been to pessimistically/realistically recognize that guitar sales were going to be on a downward trend as new music styles and production techniques made the guitar hero an endangered species no longer to be emulated by every fourteen year old with a rich grandmother, then to optimistically believe that they could predict or shape the future by buying up technology that they believed would catch the next updraft.
 
Attempts to computerize the electric guitar and automate tuning were somewhat less than wildly successful. Investment in high end audio listening seem to have missed the point that most people are happy with the quality of their cell phone music, to the point that consumer audio without a way to connect an iPhone today look quaint if not a bit daffy to the masses. A foray into music production equipment probably made them realize that they did not have a foot in the already fraying and rapidly overdeveloping market in DAW software, which they correctly assumed would be the new instrument to replace the guitar (sequencer hero?), but without the realization that the mass market demand was closer to GarageBand than to ProTools.
 
Baldwin Pianos and Organs must have looked like a bargain when it went bankrupt in 2001, but pianos like guitars have been taking a hit as MIDI enabled electric keyboards have advanced to the good enough level at a price well below that of a sculpture of wood and wire, even one made in China. 
 
So overall, a justified fear of becoming irrelevant as a guitar maker, and a series of acquisitions that look like too short leaps after the departure of the music business into a future they foresaw a decade too late, into water that may well be too deep. The CEO apparently sees himself as an empire builder capable of magical manipulation of synergy to bring forth a massive new music themed conglomerate. Let us all hope he can convince more investors to trust his judgement before the bill for the buying spree comes due.
#30
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