Re: Future Music?????

From mikekent
Sent Fri, May 16th 1997, 21:53

Why do I bother...

>> Many people make and sell their products because they have a love or
>> passion for them and their application. It's not about "corporate earning
>> potential / stock trades /etc." Making money is just a side effect, and one
>> that is most necessary to continue doing what you love.
...

>I understand this completely, no doubt...
...
>And such motherhood sounds great when talking about synthesizers
>and defending the company from which one is employed.. However, it
>seems that for the major synth corporations, now they are established
>and racking in the major bucks from around all areas of the globe, the
>pioneering, innovating spirit, -- having a love / passion for musical forms --
>have taken a back seat in these times, compared to making a profit, yearly
>revenue, sales, & the like..

I'm not just defending Roland here (and this is a personal opinion
response, not corporate). I know this is true of other companies too (some
of them are on AH too). The products are more important than the money.
Many companies make synthesizers because they like synthesizers. Some are
succesful, some aren't. In order to pay the bills and stay in business a
company must also try to make money (and this is often hard to do in this
competitive market). If they aren't successful, they won't be able to make
the next product, which may be next big thing, or the perfect thing for a
small group of customers. I'm happy that Roland had a strong business
structure to proceed from Jupiter-4 to Jupiter-8 and so on. Do you ever
wonder what cool thing Moog might be making today if they had made enough
profit to keep going? What would Arp make today?

>Perhaps back 15-20+ years ago...
...
>But certainly, the love and passion factor from the major
>corporate manufacturers is most sorely lacking now, hence the absence of
>any real (as in truly..) analog synthesizers on the market today, or anything
>else that musicians have been crying out a need for.
...
>with the $millions$ these empires make nowadays, they could at least spin
>off a genuine analog synth or two.  Or at LEAST give us "buyers" what we
>want instead of what they THINK we want.

Roland is very open to hear exactly what customers want... it's great to
KNOW what buyers want...

But true analog synthesizers ARE available. Serge, Doepfer, Studio
Electronics and others service this limited market with nice products. If
the market demands are significantly higher than I think they are, then we
should see these companies rocket to incredible success, they could be the
next major synth corporations. Is the market for analog synths big enough?

>And they'd want to charge "consumers" $4000.00 or so, such as they were in
>the beginning when manufacturing components utilized in building analog
>synthesizers were much more expensive to mass produce..
>
>But do these parts that were once so inflated, in such short limited supply
>and hard to come by cost so much now?  Aren't there more of these resources
>and parts readily available today & at cheaper cost to justify a reasonably-
>priced *true* analog (not software based..) synthesizer that one of the major
>corp.'s can produce en-masse assembly-line style?

Were the parts really "so inflated" or were they sold for a reasonable
value at the time? Also, many analog components really aren't any cheaper
than years ago. Look at the price of a Studio Electronics synth, Waldorf,
etc. The cost to build analog synths hasn't really changed.

So take your pick:
  A. Used Jupiter-8 for $1000
  B. New JP-8000 for $2000
  C. New Jupiter-8 for $5000
Some people will pick A. Others will pick B. VERY few will pick C.

Such deep converation... can't we just be shallow for a while?

>Isn't there a coupon for half-off Little Caesar's pizza in the mailbox?

Or maybe a two for one? AH members welcome to drop in here... I'll even
pick up the pizza tab.... I sure hope there's a coupon. :-)

Regards,
Mike.

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