NAMM News (not a hoax)

[Muzik 4 Machines]

edited

[egbert]

Storm. Teacup. No need to apologise to anyone, zircon.

Once published and distributed that new product info was public domain. An attempt to re-embargo it is absurd and about as likely to be effective as if Monica Lewinsky were to decide in 2009 that certain events you may have heard about were really just between her and some chappie she fancied and could all mention of said events please be expunged from history.

[eidenk]

Had I known it wasn't supposed to be out I never would have posted. Please be courteous to NI and if you have a copy of the scan, don't post it.

Why is that ? Did you sign a non-disclosure agreement before you received the mag or something ?

[koolkeys]

Excellent point...the logic of marketing and promotion needs to be seriously re-examined..I'm convinced its the art of bullshit only - the sales results are not actually quantifiable.

I cant see how jumping the NAMM date would make even a microscopic difference to the level of interest around NAMM since thats the first chance people actually get to SEE the products.

I think it's important to realize what NAMM is for. It's not for KVR members to see the latest news. Although the news DOES get posted around the world and people can see it. But NAMM is for product makers to hook up with those who will be selling their product, as well as the media. They have meeting rooms JUST for the purpose of making sales and business deals. It's quite possible that there are portions of these distribution relationships that prevent NI from letting some people know information before others. It can go against fairness if leaked to the right people. And this may ruin a press conference, or whatever, as well.

So assuming that it's no big deal may be easy to do as the consumer. It may NOT affect those sales even a little bit. But it may go against contracts. And it may break other parts of the agreements as well that people aren't aware of. And when you are the size of NI, and RELY on those relationships to keep your business successful, you don't risk it. Not even a little bit.

Brent

[justin3am]

Your right Brent... the Sarbane Oxley act comes to mind (though it doesn't pertain to this specific case).
Many companies have agreements with their distributors and this could definitely be seen as a violation of those agreements.

Is the magazine in question currently available to the public?

[koolkeys]

Yes, he said it was from the magazine he got in the mail. They may not have taken into account that subscribers get their issues early. Or maybe they just got sent a day early this month. It does happen from time to time, and sometimes a product is advertised as "released" and it doesn't come out for three months.

But in this case, who knows. Obviously not intentional, or maybe it was for the magazine. Although advertising pays the bills, so breaking an agreement there could be costly for the magazine.

But all in all, it's perfectly reasonable for them to want it removed.

Wow, speaking of NAMM, I need some sleep. Doors open in 9.5 hours and I don't want to be late! I'm just not tired, darnit!

Justin, you'll probably see me tomorrow if I have the time. I can't wait! Got my badge today and wearing it proudly!

Brent

[justin3am]

It's tough to tell, I may be at the office most of tomorrow but I'm planning on going to the "U-He NAMM coffee break" at 3pm.

Friday I'll be wandering around all day though.

[koolkeys]

PM sent.

[egbert]

I cant see how jumping the NAMM date would make even a microscopic difference to the level of interest around NAMM since thats the first chance people actually get to SEE the products.

I think it's important to realize what NAMM is for. It's not for KVR members to see the latest news. Although the news DOES get posted around the world and people can see it. But NAMM is for product makers to hook up with those who will be selling their product, as well as the media. They have meeting rooms JUST for the purpose of making sales and business deals. It's quite possible that there are portions of these distribution relationships that prevent NI from letting some people know information before others. It can go against fairness if leaked to the right people. And this may ruin a press conference, or whatever, as well.

Brent, I think you are chugging that Kool Aid a bit too enthusiastically even if you are in the game yourself now.

Sure, there are meetings there between manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers at NAMM but if there are no customers who are aware of the products then they are all out of a job.

To point out the blindingly obvious, the whole shebang is a huge marketing exercise. A press release put out into the ether at some random time will quite possibly disappear without trace; release it with a whole swarm of other stuff at a time when your target audience is paying attention and you will almost certainly get your message across to more potential customers.

If you look at the Harmony Central's NAMM coverage - which is really just a compendium of press releases to date and one that runs behind the game a little due to their inability to keep up during the actual show - it starts a week or so in advance and runs for a few days past the finish date of the show.

The desire of some of these companies based in Hamburg to control the flow of information is perhaps understandable but really it is not something anyone else should give a shit about. The music press - in so far as it does anything other than run advertorials - should be getting the scoops and transmitting them. The idea that this could actually damage the companies concerned is completely dubious.

One way to damage a company is to reveal the details it's forthcoming products which will make the current ones obsolete. If this is done with a big lead time sales can dry up for months while everyone with a clue hangs onto their money until the new version comes out. That obviously doesn't apply to pre-announcing by a few days A) software - where there are always upgrades and grace periods or B) new hardware/software lines like Maschine which has no current equivalent for NI.

The other way to damage a company is to preannounce competing products from other companies. This used to be the prevailing way the big music companies operated. They preannounced forthcoming DAW upgrades and hardware interfaces etc often with 6 months lead time and if development hit snags these things could end up coming out a year or more later or actually never surface. This new approach of keeping schtum on the arrival and features of inevitable upgrades is in some ways an improvement but really these companies have played the game in exactly the opposite way and done heaps of business.

The owners and proprietors of KVR and any of the music mags depend on advertising revenue for survival so they don't want to piss off their advertisers. It is understandable therefore that KVR would bow to pressure on this score if a teensy bit disappointing.

Anyone beholding this spectacle should recognise this as yet another demonstration of money talking and bullshit walking and, unless they are getting a cheque out of it (in which case they should disclose their conflict of interest ) none of the punters here should be justifying or applauding this censorship - trivial as it may be.

Edit: removed double negative in last sentence

[hakey]

unless they are getting a cheque out of it (in which case they should disclose their conflict of interest ) none of the punters here should not be justifying or applauding this censorship - trivial as it may be.

Yes, quite.


BTW, anyone noticed that while KVR have, at NI's request, (and for understandable, i.e. commercial reasons) removed the offending EM scans from this forum, they're still on view at Ableton's forum?

So either NI is unaware that they've been posted there (which I doubt), or they didn't bother to ask Ableton to remove them, or they asked but Ableton declined. If it's either of the last two, as seems fairly likely, then should we perhaps infer that there is little love lost between NI and Ableton?

[biomechanoid]

then should we perhaps infer that there is little love lost between NI and Ableton?

no, we probably shouldn't...

altho' having said that, ableton did try to chat up NI's girlfriend at messe 07

[egbert]

then should we perhaps infer that there is little love lost between NI and Ableton?

Actually that text quoted was Hakey's original.

no, we probably shouldn't...

altho' having said that, ableton did try to chat up NI's girlfriend at messe 07

[ckatrun411]

So either NI is unaware that they've been posted there (which I doubt), or they didn't bother to ask Ableton to remove them, or they asked but Ableton declined. If it's either of the last two, as seems fairly likely, then should we perhaps infer that there is little love lost between NI and Ableton?

Ableton will remove only absurd, or extremely hateful posts. Ableton will also remove porn, and spam, and all around smut. The company doesn't edit anything else. Ableton treats its own forums with a bit more freedom, than a lot of other forums on the web.


Dom, Kliene, and Henke, can be seen reading the Ableton forums quite a bit. I've seen them remove extreme posts before. A leaked product announcement, wont do it. Hate speech and smut would.....

[hakey]

Ableton treats its own forums with a bit more freedom, than a lot of other forums on the web.

In my books I'd call that the more enlightened approach.

[whyterabbyt]

Ableton treats its own forums with a bit more freedom, than a lot of other forums on the web.

In my books I'd call that the more enlightened approach.

in my book, i'd call that the '100,000 less forum members' approach.