Propellerhead Software Names Niklas Agevik as CEO

[motuscott]

Thanks Ernst for the great work and for your willingness to climb into the trenches with us users.

[two shoes]

...expansion journey where we reach new target groups while cultivating the core business of high‐quality software applications for music creators...

As long as this doesn't equate to "milking current Reason users without changing the app much to fund other ventures" then I'm happy and keeping my fingers crossed

milking current reason users?? you mean like reskinning ancient refill sample libraries as REs and charging a hundred bucks for them over and over? Props would never treat their beloved customers that way - you're way too cynical.

[Enlightenspeed]

I'm now going to sit back and enjoy the speculation.

Thankyou for everything you have done for music makers over the last 25 years (and before that, of course).

I hope semi-retirement is good to you

If you want a bit of speculation, well my hope is to see the Rack Extension platform expand so that it can be done everywhere. We've seen the start of the hardware transition with MIND, but I also wish to see it hosted in other DAW's as soon as possible; particularly as mobile platforms are still emerging at a fairly slow rate.

Anyway, enjoy the golf course/fishing/novel writing/etc., and thanks again for everything

[two shoes]

i should clarify that it's not the updating of refills into REs that I find objectionable - it's the idea that rummaging through your old ip for anything you can slap a gui on is worth $100 a pop. Complex-1 is a product deserving of that kind of price tag, some other recent Props REs not so much...

[two shoes]

I've never really been a big fan of "parachuted in" autocracy and the elitism it promotes.

As soon as I saw the news about Ernst stepping down I really hoped the new CEO would be someone already working at Propellerhead who had risen up through the ranks and proven their worth through their contributions to the value the company already has to its users. Instead it's an outsider with no relationship to those users at all. It's not even a musician as far as I can tell.

agreed, at first blush something doesn't seem right here. 65 million in venture capital only to go belly up - sheesh, let's hope the relevant experience isn't in salvaging as much as possible for investors from an organization that isn't going to make it long term. perhaps someone from Props will fill us in a little more on the thinking here.

[hurricane]

Mattias is CLEARLY talkin' in code :

I'm a huge Blizzard Propellerhead fan, have been since Starcraft Rebirth and Diablo II Recycle. I think they're a company that has consistently improved, reached new target audiences and not alienated their fans. As far as I can tell, Diablo Immortal Reason Compact didn't really affect that. It was more a roar of frustration from people waiting on Diablo IV Reason 10 (with actual improvements) and didn't get it. Blizzard Propellerhead made the mistake of building the announcement up, talking directly to Diablo Reason fans and then showing a game mobile app not made for them on a convention forum where only those fans were. But the product? A Diablo-game crippled Reason-app on smartphones is sweet. It won't be exactly the same, but I'm sure it'll be good fun for loads of people that might then even get into Diablo III Reason 10.5 (or will it be IV 11?).

[Luxuria]

Maybe if PHeads goes belly up they will release the program code open source and the community will mod it to taste.

I was looking in all the Reason program files to see what can be modded, sadly nothing. If they won't release minor updates; of which in my opinion don't require too much effort (ex. dark themed mixer) Come on, it can't be too complicated to add that. Is the legacy code crap, programmers don't know how, or management is withholding updating for some reason? We'll never know.

At least talk to the fans. Were heavily interested in a product, isn't that who'd you want helping drive the program forward and in turn make more money.

Instead you lead with a snarky tone, Ernst. You've never had a strong relationship with the community though.

Hope the new CEO chimes in more often to have discussions with us.

[bxbrkrz]

Are we getting a John Sculley or a James Cameron? The word 'Abyss' is linked to both, but with obvious opposite results.
Only time will tell.

As long as I can open all my *.reason files forever.

Godspeed Niklas. Take my very positive energy.

[dioxide]

Hope the new CEO chimes in more often to have discussions with us.

I'd have thought that is unlikely to be honest. The Product Manager is here regularly engaging with users though.

Your tone's unnecessarily negative I think. We all want Reason as a platform to develop and succeed.

[two shoes]

Trust me. This is the first step in the process of the venture capitalists realising their investment. VCs typically look to cash in their chips within three to five years having "added value" or "grown profits". VCs have no regard for anything other than profit.

So I predict PH will be sold in the next year or so.

anyone have a ballpark sense of how much Propellerhead is worth? in the worst case scenario i propose we start planning now to pool our resources and buy it a few owners from now when its value has plummeted within reach.

no marketing, no mobile bs, no price anchoring - just a skeleton staff of user devs that work on nothing but the core desktop app and develop exactly what we ask them to (feature request voting based on ownership stake). hey if band-in-a-box ended up buying cakewalk anything is possible.

the world's first customer owned daw, corporate governance via direct democracy forum style, what could go wrong? the future is all shiny and bright.

[Loque]

Trust me. This is the first step in the process of the venture capitalists realising their investment. VCs typically look to cash in their chips within three to five years having "added value" or "grown profits". VCs have no regard for anything other than profit.

So I predict PH will be sold in the next year or so.

anyone have a ballpark sense of how much Propellerhead is worth? in the worst case scenario i propose we start planning now to pool our resources and buy it a few owners from now when its value has plummeted within reach.

no marketing, no mobile bs, no price anchoring - just a skeleton staff of user devs that work on nothing but the core desktop app and develop exactly what we ask them to (feature request voting based on ownership stake). hey if band-in-a-box ended up buying cakewalk anything is possible.

the world's first customer owned daw, corporate governance via direct democracy forum style, what could go wrong? the future is all shiny and bright.

How much would you like to spend? We have something around 5000 users on RT. If each spends 10000 bucks maybe we can do it. And for every decision, we need to vote/discuss with other 4999 ppl. Halleluja!

[raymondh]

It's a new chapter for sure. Thanks to Ernst for everything you've done 'til now!

I'm sure we won't get visibility but what I think will be most interesting is what team the new CEO forms around him.
Because he's not the visionary behind the product and probably hardly knows how to use the software (and neither should he, it's not his job as CEO), he's going to need to organise his management team to compensate for his weaknesses and the new strengths he brings to the table. Hopefully he's 'inclusive' and if so, that will create fantastic career growth and new challenges for Props employees.

Frankly the people most wobbly (in the short term) about this will be the employees who have a new leader, so lets all support them and show our appreciation in any interactions.

I'll start: Mattias - you are awesome!

[dioxide]

I can put in €10. Hope that helps.

[dioxide]

I'm a little sad to see the second of the three founders leaving. But at the same time can you imagine working for the same company for 25 years?! So much has changed during that time...

[dioxide]

Hilariously, Propellerhead's first software release ReCycle is 25 years old, and only on version 2.2! If anything says something about the way Propellerhead used to work, then this it it! People used to refer to their pace as glacial. Thankfully things have changed the last few years. Perhaps we'll see ReCycle rolled into RE format one day.

[MrFigg]

Hilariously, Propellerhead's first software release ReCycle is 25 years old, and only on version 2.2! If anything says something about the way Propellerhead used to work, then this it it! People used to refer to their pace as glacial. Thankfully things have changed the last few years. Perhaps we'll see ReCycle rolled into RE format one day.

Yep. And all those who’ve had a license for 25 years will get a free upgrade.

[Sortitoutonsunday]

What if this started with the "What if you woke up as the CEO of Propellerhead" thread? Maybe that thread was a secret search for a new CEO? I smell a conspiracy..

[dioxide]

What if this started with the "What if you woke up as the CEO of Propellerhead" thread? Maybe that thread was a secret search for a new CEO? I smell a conspiracy..

Perhaps it was Niklas's answer to this thread that got him the job?

[WongoTheSane]

Plot twist: Niklas has been with us all this time, it's 0quasec!!

[Undistraction]

What a mess. Failed Alihoopa. Failed mobile Reason. Underwhelming performance improvements. Slow death of Rack Extensions, Founders jumping ship, new CEO fresh from a bankrupted company. Does not look good.

[Luxuria]

What if this started with the "What if you woke up as the CEO of Propellerhead" thread? Maybe that thread was a secret search for a new CEO? I smell a conspiracy..

I started that thread. Let me assure you that I have no involvement with the workings of Propellerheads.

I wanted to see what people would say and see if others related with my opinions. I personally feel the rate of progress is slow and communication is weak.

I've gotten more pessimistic as the VC's took over, features have been half-baked, always playing catch up and now the CEO is replaced to a guy that to my knowledge, doesn't even have a background in music production/audio engineering.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still cranking out music using Reason 8 and enjoying it. I just think as a consumer, their business model won't cut it. Slow and small updates aren't getting me to spend more money. If they want to play the mobile game, don't just release it for iPhones and leave the andriod market out in the cold. Maybe let my phone be a midi controller instead of a scaled down synth? Just poorly resourced performance imo.

Not trying to be negative if I come off it. I do hope these changes are for the better. I'm excited to see what Reason 11 has to offer, be sadly disappointed, come here to discuss stuff like this every now and then , and keep making music.

[Undistraction]

I just don't understand why a music software company would hire a guy with no musical background fresh from pissing 8 million up a wall. Was he the only person to apply for the job?

[JiggeryPokery]

Trust me. This is the first step in the process of the venture capitalists realising their investment. VCs typically look to cash in their chips within three to five years having "added value" or "grown profits". VCs have no regard for anything other than profit.

So I predict PH will be sold in the next year or so.

anyone have a ballpark sense of how much Propellerhead is worth?

We have exact figures - in 2017 Verdane valued PH at USD20m, on a $10m turnover and $2.5m profit. To put that in some context, in relative terms that's about half Steinberg, a third of Ableton, and only about a tenth of Native Instruments. I'd imagine it's a bigger company than at least Studio One or Bitwig, but I've not seen figures for any other DAW-maker.

We'll learn more from the next published results. If there's no growth on the VC's investment, a sale would indeed be inevitable, as clearly there's still a viable business even if it's not necessarily a growing one: the thing about investors is that they also divest and they prefer to do so with an actual RoI. If there's no growth and no realistic prospect for growth they are just sitting on debt. But often businesses find bringing in a successful external CEO with a strong vision and track record to be a positive strategic move, so Verdane's hire here is a courageous way to shake things up.

[Zac]

I've definitely experienced new management and it's varied from rearranging the furniture to changes that lead to progress.

I'm guessing there will be a change of pace at least.

[raymondh]

anyone have a ballpark sense of how much Propellerhead is worth?

We have exact figures - in 2017 Verdane valued PH at USD20m, on a $10m turnover and $2.5m profit. To put that in some context, in relative terms that's about half Steinberg, a third of Ableton, and only about a tenth of Native Instruments. I'd imagine it's a bigger company than at least Studio One or Bitwig, but I've not seen figures for any other DAW-maker.

We'll learn more from the next published results. If there's no growth on the VC's investment, a sale would indeed be inevitable, as clearly there's still a viable business even if it's not necessarily a growing one: the thing about investors is that they also divest and they prefer to do so with an actual RoI. If there's no growth and no realistic prospect for growth they are just sitting on debt. But often businesses find bringing in a successful external CEO with a strong vision and track record to be a positive strategic move, so Verdane's hire here is a courageous way to shake things up.

Yes. Nice one Matt - That sounds like a voice of experience!