jamespember wrote: ↑16 Sep 2021
I think that's ultimately pretty fair feedback - this company has tried its hand at a bunch of different ventures (social, hardware, mobile) over the years, none of which have really stuck. Leaving aside the issue of whether companies should try continue to innovate and invest in burgeoning areas (that's truly another topic for another day), you can call me biased but I have a slightly more optimistic take on where we are at now. Let me explain.
When Niklas took over the CEO role in 2019, the company stopped focusing on anything that is not related to Reason itself. Allihoopa was shut down, development was stopped on the mobile apps, we stopped investing in other potential platforms like the web and all the internal resources and focus shifted back onto Reason and how to setup Reason for the future - and make it the best and most creative music making experience out there.
This wasn't going to happen overnight though, it had to happen in stages to ensure we'd be setup to succeed over time, not just in the short-term.
First, we invested in the Reason Rack Plugin (R11) to ensure Reason can be used by as many music makers as possible regardless of where they make music, we then focused on building out Reason+ to ensure we have a way to keep the Reason content as fresh as possible and that we have a business model and way to get Reason that is equipped for the future (
because subscriptions are only going to become more ubiquitous, but yes, we'll continue to support both models) and then finally, we rebuilt huge parts of Reason under the hood to make sure we have a solid base to move forward from.
Now that this groundwork is in place (RRP, R+, tech overhaul), we now enter the stage where we will really get to work on some of the more core parts of Reason itself, which we've stated in the latest roadmap blog post (vst3, m1, workflow, sequencer etc). We have also stated that we plan to move to a continuous delivery model where we try and update Reason more often and we've already shown that we plan to be more transparent and open with our roadmap and product priorities.
So yes, it's been a few years since Niklas took over in 2019 and I know that has been frustrating for many of you, but the truth is, all these initiatives over the last few years have led to that this company is entirely focused on Reason (
whether that be DAW, RRP, R+ or Perpetual) and making it the most creative and best music making software and experience we can. As many of you have already pointed out, with our historical forays into other ventures, that hasn't always been true, but it is true now, and I think that's really exciting.
Now, everyone is free to disagree of course and we'll definitely make mistakes along the way (we're only human), and we surely won't be able to please everyone with what we choose to build or how we choose to market the products, but we're out here, listening to you all, and trying to do our best.
I have pretty thick skin (
working in startups and software for over a decade will do that to you!), but reading that some of our users
genuinely believe we are driven by money or bankers or selling the company to the highest bidder is the one thing that really can get to me! We are a tight, committed team of 43 creative humans who come to work everyday because we just love music and love trying to make our company a better place to work and a successful company in general. Whilst the commercial realities of running a business exist, and it's of course great to see the business growing and doing well, those sorts of things are a mile away from being what really drive the people at this company to get up every morning.
OK, wow, that turned out longer than I had originally planned and I hope that didn't come off as too defensive, but I just wanted to share these thoughts and reflections with this community.
Have a nice evening everyone and happy music making! <3