Who would you prefer to acquire Reason Studios?

[avasopht]

As I understand it, Verdane purchased Propellerhead with the expectation to grow the brand and then sell them off to a prospective buyer.

Being purchased by the right company could mean closer integration with their products.

You might feel that a pairing with a brand that also sells hardware could open the doors to a Reason-specific controller, or just better integration with existing hardware. It could also open the doors to hardware devices that are powered by rack extensions.

Or maybe you'd prefer Reason to sit alongside a strong sample library, or for its rack to be integrated into another DAW.



Personally, I'd have much preferred Propellerhead to have acquired sample library companies, but it just wasn't to be.

[crimsonwarlock]

I voted other: Bandlab. That would mean Reason would become free for all, and development would speed up significantly. Just see what they've done with Cakewalk

[MrFigg]

Bandlab

[rgdaniel]

Bandlab too. Or anybody but Gibson.

[motuscott]

I'd buy it myself but things are tight here at Motuscott's Overly Ambitious Plans for der Future.

[Bes]

worker owned

[joeyluck]

I vote they start their own supergroup. Keep it Swedish-based...

• Reason Studios
• Kilohearts
• Sonic Charge
• Klevgrand
• Audiorealism
• Robotic Bean
• XLN Audio
• Soundtrap
• Elk Audio
• Clavia
• Elektron
• etc.

[PhillipOrdonez]

I vote they start their own supergroup. Keep it Swedish-based...

• Reason Studios
• Kilohearts
• Sonic Charge
• Klevgrand
• Audiorealism
• Robotic Bean
• XLN Audio
• Soundtrap
• Elk Audio
• Clavia
• Elektron
• etc.

:Clapping:

[Billy+]

make it open source stick it on github.
allow others to submit bug fixes / features and folks.
with a fully free community rack extension build and deployment system.

[jam-s]

make it open source stick it on github.
allow others to submit bug fixes / features and folks.
with a fully free community rack extension build and deployment system.

Sadly I don't see the business case in your proposal for verdane capital.

[Aquila]

I vote they start their own supergroup. Keep it Swedish-based...

That's actually a really good idea. I gues it'd be similar to how Uli Behringer formed Music Tribe and amalgamated several brands into one family.

[Chi-Individual]

I vote they start their own supergroup. Keep it Swedish-based...

• Reason Studios
• Kilohearts
• Sonic Charge
• Klevgrand
• Audiorealism
• Robotic Bean
• XLN Audio
• Soundtrap
• Elk Audio
• Clavia
• Elektron
• etc.

just the earlier today I was thinking how would RS be if the teamed with Synapse Audio, Lectric Panda and Kilohearts. A man can dream can’t he

[Billy+]

make it open source stick it on github.
allow others to submit bug fixes / features and folks.
with a fully free community rack extension build and deployment system.

Sadly I don't see the business case in your proposal for verdane capital.

they could decide on the major release and require a license fee for a prebuilt binary

[avasopht]

Sadly I don't see the business case in your proposal for verdane capital.

they could decide on the major release and require a license fee for a prebuilt binary

Doesn't sound financially viable.

Ardour (the most popular open-source DAW with a fee for a prebuilt binary) brings in $14,781 per month. That's just not enough. Reason Studios has a much larger team.

[dioxide]

May be relevant:
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=593303

I think I prefer the Swedish super band option. Mergers are always awful.

[dioxide]

I would like some decent controllers for Reason so I'm tempted by Akai. Although I hear their software is not good. Which may be a good thing and they are lacking instruments.

Ableton is the sure road to success. Live and Reason was always a classic pairing and Ableton is already well sorted for controllers.

So tempted by Arturia, Presonus and NI based solely on the quality of their controllers.

[iTrensharo]

Practically none of those companies have any real reason to care about acquiring Reason Studios. Almost half of them already develop their own DAWs and the others are either Library and/or Hardware developers (some of them already having dipped their toe in this e.g. Roland) or have been said to be developing their own DAW (Behringer).

Hardware/Software Companies like UAD developed their own DAW in lieu of acquiring an existing one.

Beyond that, the DAW market is reaching a level of saturation that is likely to see a few disappear over the next few (or several) years, unless they get lucky like Cakewalk (which I actually think is the best Windows-only DAW on the market, and one of the best on the platform in terms of supporting what the platform has to offer - Touch, Surface Dial, Windows Audio, etc.).

There are already DAWs on the fringes struggling to survive (e.g. ACID Pro) while others have been heavily niched off to specific market segments (e.g. Pro Tools, Samplitude Pro X, Digital Performer).

Any perspective acquirer will have to weigh the acquisition against these market conditions.

The market for Plug-ins, Virtual Instruments, Sample Libraries and Software Synthesizes is already so oversaturated that many developers are struggling to sell at decent volumes without constant (large) discount promotions. Only a few "industry standards" can afford to sell at high prices and maintain this. The value of Rack Extensions, etc. isn't that high. The only reason to care about Reason Studios' own extensions is basically for workflow reasons, and built-in limitations in the application platform itself (i.e. MIDI Routing, otherwise there is no point in getting Chord Sequencer when you can get Scaler 2 at a lower price and use it anywhere without middleware).

UVI just got acquired by Image-Line, PreSonus by Fender not long ago. We had Cakewalk by BandLab and ACID/SF/VEGAS to MAGIX. The market is a bit packed, so we're starting to see a bit of consolidation.

I think Reason Studios is going to have to figure out how to maintain their own existence, at least for the foreseeable future.

At this point, an acquisition is more likely to scare users (current and prospective) off more than bring them in, anyways. More often than not, it's a net negative signal to the market.

[iTrensharo]

I would like some decent controllers for Reason so I'm tempted by Akai. Although I hear their software is not good. Which may be a good thing and they are lacking instruments.

Ableton is the sure road to success. Live and Reason was always a classic pairing and Ableton is already well sorted for controllers.

So tempted by Arturia, Presonus and NI based solely on the quality of their controllers.

Native Instruments can hardly put developers on products like REAKTOR - around which they have built an entire ecosystem of products - so I am not seeing how they will be able to justify purchasing Reason Studios ... unless they're going to lay off some REAKTOR developers and put that product line on maintenance mode with a skeleton crew (1-2 developers) looking after it.

Even then, with as much technical debt as exists in Reason, it can be years before it is even in a state where it can functionally replace something like Reaktor in products like Maschine+, never mind on the desktop (thought I'd argue Reaktor is more akin to Max 4 Live than it is to Reason, currently).

I think there is a bit of overestimation regarding how thin the resources at some of these companies have been stretched.

[MuttReason]

InMusic would be an appalling outcome. We’re talking ebola level of harm if that happens. What they’ve done with Akai is shocking, it’s a mismanaged mess with atrocious software QC and even worse customer support. The Reason we know would die, that would be that. End of.

The thought of Behringer taking on RS is in the same zone. While I’ve a little more time for Behringer than InMusic, there’s not much to it. Hard to see how RS would thrive there either. Not exactly a great culture fit, for starters…

Ableton would be a great outcome for me personally as I use Live and Reason, but I cannot see how the Reason design approach would fit with the Live design approach and I can’t see what Ableton would gain from such an acquisition. Wouldn’t make sense IMO.

Arturia and UAD would be more logical choices strategically but even there the business case wouldn’t be super strong, Arturia have their own thing going and I’m not sure what Reason would add, and UAD already have a DAW (Luna) and serious plugin coding chops.

Yamaha and Line6 is probably the most obvious contender as there’s a Reason-sized gap in their brands I think, it could fit in with what they do.

That said….

1) Who knows. Hard to call. I’ve worked on multiple acquisitions, mergers and disposals in a previous life, and what seems obvious (or even vaguely possible) from the outside is rarely what the people round the boardroom table end up pursuing (or just as often, not pursuing)…. and….

2) oftentimes the acquirer of a private equity-backed business is…. another private equity firm. Little guys in the PE world flip upwards to bigger guys in the PE world if the former need cash now and the latter has enough going on elsewhere that they’re able to wait a while longer for payback and the numbers involved look like a bargain.

Until fairly recently the other exit route was taking the business public but that’s not so appealing these days (public company universe is shrinking across Europe). Also, RS is nowhere near the scale where that would make a lot of sense (outside of maybe something like UK AIM, but even there RS would be a minnow based on their most recent numbers which, er, really weren’t great).

The other classic route is a management buyout (basically the RS team pay off the private equity investors) but that would be really expensive right now. Debt would be v costly as RS is quite a risky proposition (small company, ultra competitive marketplace) and interest rates are super high now compared with a year ago. It’s not impossible but would be a major stretch.

TL;DR: dunno. But let's hope it’s not flogged off to the monsters at the rancid shitbag end of the music gear industry spectrum.

[Jac459]

Arturia and UAD would be more logical choices strategically but even there the business case wouldn’t be super strong, Arturia have their own thing going and I’m not sure what Reason would add, and UAD already have a DAW (Luna) and serious plugin coding chops.

...

TL;DR: dunno. But let's hope it’s not flogged off to the monsters at the rancid shitbag end of the music gear industry spectrum.

Fully agree with your analysis. For Arturia I don't see much the appeal. They are in a very sweet spot now with a soft synth being a cash cowand a successful hardware division.

[Billy+]

they could decide on the major release and require a license fee for a prebuilt binary

Doesn't sound financially viable.

Ardour (the most popular open-source DAW with a fee for a prebuilt binary) brings in $14,781 per month. That's just not enough. Reason Studios has a much larger team.

lol seriously I couldn't care less about the current owners and would much rather that it hadn't been sold in the first place,
the original goal from the original developers far out way's the current direction that the latest backers money fund has taken especially given that they have chosen a yearly percentage return on their investment rather than the original vision that we initially invested in all those years ago.....

I'm using RRP because it makes sense to move into another space while the current BS is resolved, thankfully it was included free of charge because it wasn't / isn't worth paying for as it still just doesn't work like it should or even did under rewire

oh yes I've actually installed the even older R10 version just to get that functionality back....

[Steedus]

Ultimately I'd love if they can make it work while still remaining independent, but if someone were to take over, I'd want them to at least have some interest in the whole skeuomorphic aspect of Reason - and if I'm being honest, even Reason Studios themselves has been a bit spotty on that front in recent years.

One company that have quite nice looking skeuomorphic rack devices are IK Multimedia with their T-Racks series, but I would hate for them to take over, I personally do not like them as a company.

[crimsonwarlock]

Yamaha and Line6 is probably the most obvious contender as there’s a Reason-sized gap in their brands I think, it could fit in with what they do.

Yamaha owns Steinberg, so I don't see that 'gap' there.

[DaveyG]

I can't imagine anyone buying RS for the DAW.
I can imagine some of the big names buying Reason to get at the instruments and players.
Imagine being able to put a player in the MIDI FX slot on Logic.
And then you have DAWs like Cubase and Studio One where the DAW is excellent but the included instruments are a bit uninspiring.

Behringer were working on a free DAW, although they have gone a bit quiet on it. They could probably use some decent instruments for that.

[Yonatan]

I vote they start their own supergroup. Keep it Swedish-based...

• Reason Studios
• Kilohearts
• Sonic Charge
• Klevgrand
• Audiorealism
• Robotic Bean
• XLN Audio
• Soundtrap
• Elk Audio
• Clavia
• Elektron
• etc.

Softube
Toontrack