To strengthen expansion, Verdane invests in Propellerhead, becoming majority shareholder

[Oquasec]

Stability is in the vstbridge/vst's side not the vst format in general.
[Oquasec's third daw was reason so he's like hmmmm]

[fieldframe]

One thing that I think should be understood is the thrill of first getting a sound out of a computer. I had no musical or Midi background and hearing this amazing sound coming out of a computer in a store was what got me into Reason. I'd have a version of Reason free with a matrix, a redrum, a Thor , NN19, an Echo and maybe a chord player as a free downloadable. Get that on torrents and a few office computers making beats and you drive new users.

Can't emphasize this enough! Yes, a super-limited free version of desktop Reason is such a no-brainer. It would massively drive sales. Come on, Props, you know it's a good idea! And ReWire Master is a no-brainer, as well.

So it turns out Propellerhead is actually doing almost this, quietly. Yesterday I was looking for some equipment on Reverb, and saw a bundle option to add Reason Essentials to my order... for US $10. So you could buy, for example, your first audio interface on Reverb and add Essentials to it for less than some places charge for shipping. Not bad at all.

[stratatonic]

Yesterday I was looking for some equipment on Reverb, and saw a bundle option to add Reason Essentials to my order... for US $10. So you could buy, for example, your first audio interface on Reverb and add Essentials to it for less than some places charge for shipping. Not bad at all.

And so it begins...

I don't think Ryan put this one together...


.

[stratatonic]

I think that Reason is going to the masses with vst/RE and will be on the top 3 Daw

The easiest way to grow desktop Reason would be to allow VST to be used, imo.

I'm a huge Reason advocate. Goes without saying.

You're entirely correct here. Or, at the least, I agree with you.

Just imagine...you could use PodFarm VST and get Line 6 bass and guitar amps and cabs in Reason again...

[bxbrkrz]

My hope for the future.
If Reason can run on the iPad it will run on upcoming ARM cpus. ARM chips are getting more and more powerful. Apple is looking into ARM for their desktop solution. Reason 4 (and5?) used work fine on Linux with WINE. Reason Ultra Lite could be a thing on a Raspberry Pi one day. Instead of buying an audio card, a laptop, etc, you would get an audio card with I/O, HDMI and Reason Inside on a M.2 drive. I may not be the target for this box, but it would be great for people touring, etc. If you add VST to the mix moving to ARM cpus could be impossible.

[househoppin09]

That "Reason Essentials for under $10" thing is great--love to see that! However, it's really nothing like the proposed freebie version of Reason. The whole point would be to have a "Trojan horse" of sorts to get people in the door. The only way to really do that is to have absolutely no barrier to entry. Not only would it kill the whole idea to charge any amount of money, even $0.01--it would kill it even if there was a free version that required creating a Propellerhead account or signing up with an e-mail address or something. The only way to really reap the benefits is to have absolutely no strings attached, and most importantly of all, no licensing to worry about, so that people can go around installing it on every computer they use. Ultra-cheap Reason Essentials offers are a very cool idea, but just not at all the same thing.

[davidicus]

i'd like to know how long Ernst is required to remain with Propellerhead.
if Propellerhead has been profitable, why do they now need (presumably a lot) of capital after twenty-some years? Verdane will want to develop value almost immediately (streamlined number of products? monetized differently?), and if nothing else, in a few short years (three, i'll wager), an acquisition or IPO is likely to dramatically change the product we've come to depend on.

[davidicus]

everyone's thinking too small, and this new phase will be about money more than usership imo. 1) there are an established group of loyal Reason users, and 2) convincing all the other camps to move to Reason would probably be an uphill battle. 3) are there really many new musicians growing the market?

it's doubtful VST support is any kind of gold mine. not saying all you VST lovers won't get it, but it's probably not a priority for Verdane. why put much effort into helping Reason users access outside products you can't charge for?

in a world where people scoff at paying a dollar for anything on a phone or tablet, i also doubt iOS development's value.

if making Rack Extensions was easy money, bigger companies would be lining up to convert their extensive libraries and effects. i've seen some putting a toe in the water then moving on, and i see small developers making a go of it. i also see all the categories filling up. how many more distortions will we all pay for?

i think there's something bigger and more surprising in the works--a major evolutionary leap perhaps. i can't speculate wildly enough. virtual reality? groundbreaking wearable hardware? professional music licensing crossed with cloud services?

[stratatonic]

My hope for the future.
If Reason can run on the iPad it will run on upcoming ARM cpus. ARM chips are getting more and more powerful. Apple is looking into ARM for their desktop solution. Reason 4 (and5?) used work fine on Linux with WINE. Reason Ultra Lite could be a thing on a Raspberry Pi one day. Instead of buying an audio card, a laptop, etc, you would get an audio card with I/O, HDMI and Reason Inside on a M.2 drive.

For Reason mobile, I'd like to see Reason Classic (like version 5 - no audio recording- maybe offer audio recording as an in-app purchase), but have proper midi out and in options, smart keyboards, Link, pared down SSL mixer (replacing the old ReMix - so you could open up a mobile Reason project in desktop fully on each track - rather than the current one track, like when opening an old .rns file). Additional in-app purchases of current and new devices and sound packs for drums/synths/rex keep the money rolling in for Propellerhead…uh…Verdane.

Propellerhead would likely include the Allihoopa drop feature for mobile Reason, but they could also have the option choose to upload simply the Reason midi file. It would save on audio storage space, data bandwidth/transfer, and if you had the mobile or desktop version, you could hear it, as you have the Reason devices. For those that don't, there could be an online Reason decoder that would play the midi ReasonMobile track. This could be like old Reason days and could rebuild the Reason community that seems to have been lost.

[stratatonic]

...it's doubtful VST support is any kind of gold mine. not saying all you VST lovers won't get it, but it's probably not a priority for Verdane.

Who the heck knows?...it's all just speculation here... ...just going off of the press release:
Verdane will support the company's expansion in several areas around the core product Reason, the app store-model Rack Extensions and the mobile music-making platform.

I think there's something bigger and more surprising in the works--a major evolutionary leap perhaps. i can't speculate wildly enough. virtual reality? groundbreaking wearable hardware? professional music licensing crossed with cloud services?

Sure...a few ideas were floated earlier in the thread...Also, from the press release:
"...focusing intensively on increasing the development team and pace, strengthening the company's position in- and outside of the music industry and further developing their mobile music-making platform"

Whatever "outside of the music industry" means.

[Rick75]

However, If they are now on the board and start concentrating on more stupid apps that make you seem like a hip young old indoor hat wearing baffoon who can sing on a bus while playing with his junk... then they are sunk.

mic drop...

[eXode]

i'd like to know how long Ernst is required to remain with Propellerhead.
if Propellerhead has been profitable, why do they now need (presumably a lot) of capital after twenty-some years? Verdane will want to develop value almost immediately (streamlined number of products? monetized differently?), and if nothing else, in a few short years (three, i'll wager), an acquisition or IPO is likely to dramatically change the product we've come to depend on.

I made a speculative post about this. In short: Propellerhead original trio of Ernst, Marcus, and Pelle have been at it for 20+ years. It could be so simple that Marcus and Pelle wanted to pursue other things and Ernst didn't have the means to buy them out himself. If the 60% Verdane acquired were primarily Marcus and Pelles shares it would also explain why Ernst is still the largest minority share owner.

[Oquasec]

Reason 5 should be 20$
Reason 6.5+ should be 400$ and 200$ for upgrades.

[Blast]

Open up Reason to VST and make it as a paid add-on for those who needs, simply put.

[davidicus]

I made a speculative post about this. In short: Propellerhead original trio of Ernst, Marcus, and Pelle have been at it for 20+ years. It could be so simple that Marcus and Pelle wanted to pursue other things and Ernst didn't have the means to buy them out himself. If the 60% Verdane acquired were primarily Marcus and Pelles shares it would also explain why Ernst is still the largest minority share owner.

new theory brewing: Verdane could be one of the rumored bidders for Soundcloud. they have enough money?

[Cyclic79]

It's not new... Propellerhead care more about money making than customers satisfaction ^^ ( i think that i'll make a lot of friends here... but we are not on the Propellerhead forum... oh yes there is no more Props forum... )
Where are the rude "pro-Propellerhead conservative guys" back in the days saying that VST is pure shit, and Mr "big Reason" don't need them at all ?! Have they quit Reason ?! Does they made a depression with 9.5 ? are they feeling betrayed ? or finally does they think it's a nice feature ?
Is there another DAW on this planet with the same devices without any update since 8 versions ?
Oh yes, it's to maintain backward compatibility, but with an updated version for the Chorus samed Chorus V2, you don't have to remove Chorus V1, and eventually assure a backward comp inside the plugin itself. It's like the old devices coders no longer work at Propellerhead... are they ? does mister Maelström realize that this device is a true power beast ?! doesn't he have some ideas to make it even more beasty ?
I'm really wondering if there is people opening Reason 2.5 projects nowadays, maybe sometimes, but i don't think it's the majority of users.

[selig]

It's not new... Propellerhead care more about money making than customers satisfaction ^^ ( i think that i'll make a lot of friends here... but we are not on the Propellerhead forum... oh yes there is no more Props forum... )

That doesn't even make sense to me. IF someone is all about making money, they don't piss off the folks giving it to them, right?

Maybe what you were suggesting is they are more about making a quick buck than customer satisfaction? However, it's difficult to pull that 'con' off over time as folks get dissatisfied and leave (taking their money with them).

I mean, if a company is not caring about satisfying customers, then customers are move on to other companies. If that happens, you don't make as much money.

So logically, a company in business for the long term, such as Propellerheads, or an investor expecting to see any ROI whatsoever over time, by definition MUST care about customer satisfaction IF they are all about making money.

In my view you can't really separate the two. The only way to be "about the money" is to pay very close attention to satisfying customers!

Anyway, just thinking out loud…



Sent from some crappy device using Tapatalk

[Luxuria]

Bump.
Reason 10?
Really Verdane.

[Exowildebeest]

Bump.
Reason 10?
Really Verdane.

I can only see Verdane having a hand in a quicker update cycle. It's common these days for "apps" (as all software seems to be called nowadays) to be updating very regularly. It helps keeping people's attention, I guess. And it might be beneficial from a modern software development perspective.

I doubt Verdane has much to do with the content or the technical side.

[miscend]

How many of the founders are still at the company after the purchase?

[MattiasHG]

How many of the founders are still at the company after the purchase?

The same number as before the purchase. Ernst is still CEO (and also head of product) and Pelle is still writing all DSP code. Marcus left way before the acquisition to pursue his own projects

[Ostermilk]

How many of the founders are still at the company after the purchase?

The same number as before the purchase. Ernst is still CEO (and also head of product) and Pelle is still writing all DSP code. Marcus left way before the acquisition to pursue his own projects

Also the sub-board, that has always known best how to run the company is still the forum...

[miscend]

How many of the founders are still at the company after the purchase?

The same number as before the purchase. Ernst is still CEO (and also head of product) and Pelle is still writing all DSP code. Marcus left way before the acquisition to pursue his own projects

Then the company is still in good hands. We thought they were bailing out.

[per-anders]

What about the development team?