Propellerhead Software Names Niklas Agevik as CEO

[Kenni]

Interesting stuff

https://www.propellerheads.com/press/28 ... vik-as-ceo

[ernstnathorst]

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

[Biolumin3sc3nt]

Interesting indeed

[teddymcw]

Hmmm, I'm not sure how to feel about this, not enough info I suppose from this article alone. I feel like Propellerheads' direction has been fairly strait forward for many years now with their appeal to 'new user groups' rather than just sticking to the core rack desktop applications. The one surprise to me being the manner in which Allihoopa worked with open sharing.

Instabridge seems like a very open, social type of business, along the lines of Ernst's vision for Allihoopa.

Hopefully this just gives Props more popularity and power to grow, and develop the core products.

[Kenni]

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

Hah! I'm going to start the completely unfounded rumor that the reason is that you want more time to kick back and finish a polka-album.

[diminished]

Thanks for everything so far, Ernst.

[dioxide]

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

Well the first thing is for us to say thanks for bringing Propellerhead to where it is now.

Thanks for the past 25 years and here's to the next 25 years!

[Loque]

Surprising news... Since there were several bigger changes in the past, it smells like a bigger strategy/vision. Not sure what it is, because i did not do any further research.

The good thing is, they want to growth desktop and online... I guess this is the right direction. And now Ernst will have more time for tee, music making and Reasontalk

[craven]

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

Congratulations on bringing Propellerhead this far.
What a journey this was, the Reason ship sailed through all kinds of waters. Now on to the expansion journey!
Long life old and new captain

[antic604]

...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

[Undistraction]

Instabridge seems like a very open, social type of business, along the lines of Ernst's vision for Allihoopa.

Yep, and we all know how that panned out.

Seems like a strange choice to me. Does he have even a passing interest in music I wonder? Or is he all about the Benjamins?

[tiker01]

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

Bad Ernst!

Perhaps, you could let him know about this topic/place.

[nooomy]

Here is a interview in swedish:
https://www.breakit.se/artikel/20133/in ... pellerhead

I have google translated the parts i find the most intressting:

"What pros and cons are there to take over after someone who has been sitting as long as the CEO?

“The advantage is that you come in with an outside perspective and with a less emotional luggage if something needs to change. I see it as positive. Then Ernst is a legend in the industry and has lots of contacts that I do not have but since he is still on the board we can benefit from him there. "

He wants to change stuff

"Niklas Agevik started Instabridge together with Erik Tigerholm 2012. The company's service offered the users free surfing on various wifi networks worldwide. But despite heavy backing, the company landed in a bankruptcy.

"It really wasn't like this we thought it would end. But we became dependent to an owner's contribution we didn't succeed in," said Niklas Agevik to Breakit then."

He bankrupted his company in mars 2019 (!!!), lets hope he dosent bankrupt Propellerhead...

Niklas Agevik does not believe that in his new role as CEO, he will lack life as an entrepreneur.

"This is a very entrepreneurial company and there is a desire to get the entrepreneurial mind even more - to get more products and to reach new target groups - so this feels like a fun challenge," he says."

He wants to produce more products and reach new taget groups.... What products and taget groups could it be?

[Kategra]

"Early in his career Agevik spent five years at Ericsson. After that he has been part of several fast paced start‐ups. Most recently, he comes from Instabridge, a company he founded and ran for the past seven years. The Instabridge app has 30M users and 30,000 organic daily new users. "
I don't know what he has in common with the the DAW business.. the telecom world is so different..

[nooomy]

"Early in his career Agevik spent five years at Ericsson. After that he has been part of several fast paced start‐ups. Most recently, he comes from Instabridge, a company he founded and ran for the past seven years. The Instabridge app has 30M users and 30,000 organic daily new users. "
I don't know what he has in common with the the DAW business.. the telecom world is so different..

Yeah but that company has now gone bankrupt. So his company went bankrupt two months ago and now Propellerhead is electing him as its CEO.
Something weird is going on....
Or as we say is sweden: A dog is buried around here

Wifi sharing service Instabridge, founded in 2012, would launch a pay version and start earning its own money. But after spending 65 million in risk capital, the company has now applied for bankruptcy.

https://digital.di.se/artikel/tog-in-65 ... -i-konkurs

[Magnus]

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.

Nonetheless, Instabridge does look like a very good essential smartphone app so hopefully some of that mindset and magic will be brought to the culture at Propellerhead to direct the company into similar style innovations in this world; things where we all go "of course! why hadn't anyone else thought to implement such a life-changing audio feature before?! I can't live without this now"...

Here's hoping Propellerhead's best years are still ahead! Best of luck to all involved!

[Kenni]

Yeah but that company has now gone bankrupt. So his company went bankrupt two months ago and now Propellerhead is electing him as its CEO.
Something weird is going on....
Or as we say is sweden: A dog is buried around here

A startup going bankrupt is hardly a pointer to anything. 8 out of 10 startups which are built on seed investments do, if not 19 out of 20.

[-008']

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

All of this was foretold in the prophecies.

Niklas is a corporate assassin sent by Steinberg. He couldn't get in until there was VST support. (V.ery S.uspicious T.echnology)

The new overlords think they are cunning, BUT the resistance is always one step ahead, and poor Niklas will soon learn that the real Ernst was absorbed into the propellerhead servers back on Reason 7. (like Johnny Depp in that one movie)

The end times are upon us lads! They will move forward with the globalization of all sovereign DAWs. In the end there will be only ONE DAW to rule them all and it shall be named "FL Reasleton".

Stock up on Ammo and non-perishable foodstuffs!!

[diminished]

I just hope they don't pull a Blizzard move and have something like the Diablo Immortal fiasco: alienate their user base, ignore the products that made them big and focus on mobile for that quick cash - development outsourced to a chinese company. The company that innovated and made the games you loved is long gone..

For now I'm curious of what the future holds. I'll also put my Ignition Key in a safe place, lol.

Last thing for Ernst to do: his May Madness parting gift with 90% off of everything First thing for Niklas to do: convert the Reward credits into something useful. For all I care by now, give it to charity. And give Reason Lite some promotion, no one knows about it and you can do outstanding things with it. Broaden the user base of the core product and let mobile be mobile. No one uses his/her phone professionally.

[Jackjackdaw]

alienate their user base, ignore the products that made them big and focus on mobile for that quick cash -

Bet you a tenner thats how it's going to pan out.

[Kategra]

alienate their user base, ignore the products that made them big and focus on mobile for that quick cash -

Bet you a tenner thats how it's going to pan out.

Well, then at least we get to keep R10.3.. I'll probably leave the PC it's installed on as is and never upgrade anything software or hardware to have it working 4Ever ))

[diminished]

I sincerely hope you're wrong.

[antic604]

Assuming MM is still on in May, I'm starting to hesitate about the budget I want to spend there. The fact that they want to...

reach new target groups while cultivating the core business of high‐quality software applications for music creators

...sounds innocent, but then I'd feel more assured if the order was different (Reason 1st, new targets 2nd) and if they used some other word instead of "cultivating", which - to me, at least - suggests maintaining, support, conservation; rather than active expansion, development, innovation. I know it's a small thing, but in corporations every word of such a statement is very carefully chosen and shaped, because it'll be analysed and scrutinised by investors.

Ehhh...

[fieldframe]

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

It may seem sometimes like all we do around here is complain and make feature requests, but let me join the voices saying thanks for leading the team that built what continues to be the most inspiring environment for making music. Cheers!

[esselfortium]

Woah, that's a surprise. Thanks for everything, Ernst.

I hope this doesn't lead to tragedy for my beloved music software.