The company certainly has financial potential: “If Ableton was to put itself into the market, there would be a feeding frenzy,” says music industry analyst Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Research. Investors see possible synergies, but Ableton’s founders are happy where they are. Behles is an electronic musician — he still uses their company’s marquee product, Ableton Live — and his co-founder Bernd Roggendorf left the executive team years ago to “devote his whole life to altruism,” according to Behles. They want to give away Ableton Live to schools so students can learn to make music.
Let's hope they're strong enough to resist the temptationThe challenge for Ableton will be competing with Logic and Pro Tools while also contending with piracy, according to Matt Pincus, co-founder/CEO of MUSIC, an investment company that has a stake in the sample-pack company Splice. Ableton’s solution has been to release new updates and stay innovative. But it must do so without the financial backing of private equity money or a deep-pocketed parent company like Apple, which owns Logic.
“They’re telling everybody to f–k off — I think it’s great,” says Pincus, who, as a former hardcore rocker, appreciates the founders’ determination to stay independent. “It’s not a sleepy, lazy product — it’s arguably the most dynamic of the three of them.” Still, “it’s certainly not the easiest way to do it.”

https://www-billboard-com.cdn.ampprojec ... 98440/amp/