www.prosoundnewseurope.com
“We can’t afford to go into markets where you’re going to be a me-too. You’ll never get your investment back that way”
and Marcus has a strong influence: he’s grown up in the industry, and is a key piece of Line 6’s innovation, but it extends far more broadly than him. For instance, people like Simon Jones (ex-JBL portable PA products, including the EON range) had a big impact on the sound products – while engineer Mike Paginini’s years of experience in designing speakers was critical to a lot of things that went into the StageSource. There are perhaps 90 people
involved in all the aspects of R&D if you include the actual engineers, the product makers, the guys in product development, those in FX processing and so on.
So when the dust settled after the amazing NAMM reaction, what was the wider opinion of the StageSource and StageScape launches? What we were excited about was that it was clear we hit a nerve with people who empathise with the problem. There’s a lot of musicians who saw this and said ‘Finally! I don’t have to be a sound guy to use the kit!” These things don’t replace an engineer – these are for people who would never have an engineer in the first place.
How are the sales figures of the wireless systems? The place we’ve gained the most market share has been in the guitar wireless space specifically. That makes sense: Line 6 is most known to guitarists. In the wireless space there’s a wide frequency response that the guitarists want, but you lose that with the companding of the signal, and they lose a lot of the tone. So the fact that we can give a much more ‘cable-like’
July 2012 l 43
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compelling technology. X2 IP served as the core for our wireless products, so that was critical. They were in Sacramento – most of our wireless development is in California – so it was a good fit too. There are different ways people
drive growth – consolidation has been a major one in recent times. But you have to ask, these companies may be bigger, but are they more successful? We never thought the way to grow, just to create revenue, was by acquisition. We’re not interested in that.
Mike Muench, Line 6 managing director
experience for guitarists, to date, that has been a much stronger value proposition in the guitar market than has been recognised in the vocal market. But we’re continuing to see our share grow in the wireless vocal mic space.
Marcus said, when we spoke to him two years ago, ‘We don’t have an analogue business that we need to protect.’ Do you think that’s key to Line 6’s success? It’s a lot easier to come in with innovations when you are not cannibalising your own product lines, and when those innovations represent lines of growth for the
company. It’s certainly been the company’s track record to say, in areas where there has been analogue, we can apply our knowledge of digital to those spaces. But customers will decide whether they like it or not. And if we don’t do go there, someone else will…
Traditionally, the way a business grows is by acquisition. Other than buying X2, this has not been Line 6’s chosen path. However, is acquisition in any future plans? X2 Digital Wireless Systems was very small at the time of the acquisition, but it had some
One of the qualities of the StageScape is the ‘One Touch’ approach – is that something you brought from your time at Apple? Yes, I think I share that sensibility, but I’m no Steve Jobs! I wouldn’t even attempt to make any comparisons. Figuring out how to use technology to solve a problem, that’s what I learned at Apple. I brought that thinking with me to the company, and it is a sensibility that we all share. Also, Apple was a company
that wasn’t afraid to take product risks, and I think I brought that characteristic too. It’s now one of the world’s most valuable companies, but no one remembers that Apple took a lot of risks with the [bug-ridden $700 proto-PDA] Newton MessagePad, a product well ahead of its time. Taking risks and thinking differently: that’s what you learn at Apple. The third thing: what’s
happened in the channels, on the MI side of things, are the same things I saw in the computer business: the consolidation from a lot of enthusiasts selling
out of shops to big companies like Best Buy selling laptops and the development of specialty companies such as system integrators and value-added resellers selling on a small scale with high service and expertise levels.... that whole shift has been mirrored in the musician’s world.
Steve Jobs and Marcus Ryle – both created companies, both had great vision, both designed disruptive technologies… what do you think sets them most apart? I mean, I couldn’t have seen myself having a beer with Jobs, but I did that at NAMM with Ryle… On one level there are similarities, and much like people don’t necessarily fully understand what the depth and contribution of talent is within Apple, probably people don’t have that visibility within Line 6 either. iPod designer Jonathan Ive is a great example – he was a key contributor to Apple’s success. Jobs was clearly a visionary and a very methodical product person, but I’m sure if Jonathan was sat here he’d say, ‘Well I had a few things to do with that too!’ Similiarly with Marcus and engineers at Line 6, he tends to be the public face for Line 6’s innovation, but backed by a strong and talented development team. Jobs and Ryle were/are very
different personalities. I didn’t work closely with Jobs but his temperament is well documented. I thoroughly enjoy working with Marcus and he is part of a great management team at Line 6. And he’s a far better musician than Steve Jobs ever was.n
www.line6.com
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