Recording studios are going the way of newspapers. Tech change has put many things that were the pervue of professionals into the hands of the masses. We're all affected.
The other thing that hastened the end was Gibson's failure to follow through on many of its plans. If they had moved Sonar to be a Tascam product and re-branded it,
as they said they were going to do, they could have left a lot of baggage behind and become the new super DAW, instead of the old dog. To me that was their best chance and they blew it. I'm convinced that something like this could still happen, unless they also shut down Tascam.
Sonar, Neat Microphones, Tobias bass and others have been bought and killed by Gibson management. They keep buying companies with a strategy of growth through acquisition. Somebody should have told them that you can't do that with borrowed money forever. They spent so much buying companies that they had nothing left to support the companies they bought.
I'm quite sure that sometime down the road Gibson will be restructure, most of their acquisitions will be sold and they will make a grand statement about returning to their roots and focusing on their role as a guitar company. I'm sure many of you have seen similar things in your own businesses, particularly if they were old companies. My last employer was the biggest of its kind in Canada and had been in business for over 100 years. Bad management killed them and as they were going down the tube the senior managers kept getting raises and bonuses while workers were told the cupboard was bare.