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Post by bluegrassdan on Jul 28, 2019 11:39:30 GMT -6
My colleague CJ and I had coffee at Nashville NAMM with a leading sales representative from one of the largest pro audio distributors in the world. He has worked there for 17 years and has his finger on the pulse of gear sales trends.
I asked him about how the clone market affects the original companies' sales. Afterall, it seems like everyone makes an 1176, LA2A, (insert glorious piece of gear here), etc., and sells them cheaper than, for example, Universal Audio. His response blew my mind.
Whenever a new clone hits the market, they see an INCREASE in sales of the original brand! His observation is that buyers sometimes try the clones and decide to upgrade, or they figure if something is being copied by so many it must be worth getting the original.
He also explained that his company averages $3 million in sales EVERY DAY! That figure goes up to between $6-$7 million per day around the holidays.
[head explodes]
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Post by the other mark williams on Jul 28, 2019 12:18:42 GMT -6
Wow. On every count.
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Post by indiehouse on Jul 28, 2019 12:39:33 GMT -6
My colleague CJ and I had coffee at Nashville NAMM with a leading sales representative from one of the largest pro audio distributors in the world. He has worked there for 17 years and has his finger on the pulse of gear sales trends. I asked him about how the clone market affects the original companies' sales. Afterall, it seems like everyone makes an 1176, LA2A, (insert glorious piece of gear here), etc., and sells them cheaper than, for example, Universal Audio. His response blew my mind. Whenever a new clone hits the market, they see an INCREASE in sales of the original brand! His observation is that buyers sometimes try the clones and decide to upgrade, or they figure if something is being copied by so many it must be worth getting the original. He also explained that his company averages $3 million in sales EVERY DAY! That figure goes up to between $6-$7 million per day around the holidays. [head explodes] So, if money from music production/sales is continuing on a downward trend, yet sales from pro audio equipment is apparently quite healthy, is it safe to assume then, that most people making music today (artists/engineers) aren’t doing so full-time, and most likely have other full-time money-making gigs? |
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Post by seawell on Jul 28, 2019 12:47:52 GMT -6
Very interesting. I'd add to it that sometimes plug ins do it as well. I bought a RS124 and a Red 3 based off of plug ins I liked. I think the biggest takeaway from those numbers is that even when the industry is down, we keep spending haha. It is a sickness there is no cure for I'm afraid  |
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Post by popmann on Jul 28, 2019 13:01:17 GMT -6
Of course that's true---for a number reasons....but, you know what effects it MORE? Plug ins. Thus why PRS signed on to Waves to make those digital emulations of their amps they can't sell....they're nice amps....too pricey, but....it gets the ability to kind of try them into lots of guitar players computers....and the more they use them, when they need/watn an analog tube amp, what do they buy? The "Real" version of the fake thing stye used. Hell--I was an early modeling amp adopter with a Cybertwin....and I literally spent years playing nothing but a Tweeed tone stack with varying amounts of gain. So, I replaced it with a tweed Bassman and some dirt pedals. As much as I had sold myself on needing this "flexibility" of a modeler, I just didn't. You'll see things like the Suhr PT100 plug in--that's a marketing thing. Pete does a lot of YouTube videos....it's literally not a unique amp at all-they have a Fender and Marshall collection, all that is a channel switching take on those. And for an amp plug in, there's no function in "channel switching"--he had that built for live use....but, they want the word of mouth and to get people using it to record so that when they play out what do they buy?
I've literally never used an analog API 2500. Ask me what I'd buy if you told me to put together an analog summing rig? I'd probably still use the plug in for the sub buses....and then just keep the real one on the output of the summing mixer. I generally prefer to have a compressor on the two....and if it's analog summed, functionally that need to be analog so it can then go into an HD two track (i.e., I'm not going to negate the analog summing by recording it back into a client's 44.1 session....
Then there's ANOTHER aspect of that...I held onto my old La3a after selling a bunch of other kit BECAUSE UA reissued it proving they COULDN'T remake it 100%. If a new version of the 251 just isn't as nice as the vintage units....that put the comparisons out there for a lot of people to HEAR the "value" in the vintage units, which translates to demand, and since supply doesn't go up for vintage kit....they got so high I, I couldn't NOT sell it this past year--but that's in large part because all the clones cam out and just "weren't" 100% there.
So, I can observe that in myself--even as long as I've done this. I don't think it's odd at all--maybe it's because it's always been that.
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Post by chessparov on Jul 28, 2019 15:02:44 GMT -6
Holy Smoke, I better hold on to my Aphex Type C Exciter then!
Chris
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Post by bluegrassdan on Jul 28, 2019 15:06:50 GMT -6
Holy Smoke, I better hold on to my Aphex Type C Exciter then! Chris I accidentally misread this as being your “Typhoid Exciter.” |
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Post by chessparov on Jul 28, 2019 15:10:30 GMT -6
 Chris
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Post by Vincent R. on Jul 28, 2019 18:24:50 GMT -6
Interesting.
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Post by spindrift on Jul 28, 2019 20:54:27 GMT -6
My colleague CJ and I had coffee at Nashville NAMM with a leading sales representative from one of the largest pro audio distributors in the world. He has worked there for 17 years and has his finger on the pulse of gear sales trends. I asked him about how the clone market affects the original companies' sales. Afterall, it seems like everyone makes an 1176, LA2A, (insert glorious piece of gear here), etc., and sells them cheaper than, for example, Universal Audio. His response blew my mind. Whenever a new clone hits the market, they see an INCREASE in sales of the original brand! His observation is that buyers sometimes try the clones and decide to upgrade, or they figure if something is being copied by so many it must be worth getting the original. He also explained that his company averages $3 million in sales EVERY DAY! That figure goes up to between $6-$7 million per day around the holidays. [head explodes] So, if money from music production/sales is continuing on a downward trend, yet sales from pro audio equipment is apparently quite healthy, is it safe to assume then, that most people making music today (artists/engineers) aren’t doing so full-time, and most likely have other full-time money-making gigs? Everyone wants to be a rock star. Me included. |
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Post by swurveman on Jul 30, 2019 6:43:54 GMT -6
I think it's human nature to want to know what the original (or at least the original's lineage) sounds like. I bought the UA LA2A and the 1176 first. Now I want to know what the clones sound like! I bought a Smart C2, but I wish I had bought an SSL due to the same logic why I bought the UA gear. It will be interesting to hear the LA2A/1176 differences now that I've heard the original.
Note: I'm not gonna debate the Urei vs UA thing. So, if you're so inclined I won't go there.
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Post by popmann on Jul 30, 2019 9:14:18 GMT -6
You DO know what the clones sound like. You mean you want to know what the originals sound like?   |
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Chris
