Apple terminates world-wide Emagic distributors

seraph

Opting to sell its music production software exclusively through its own channels, Apple recently issued walking papers to several international distributors.

Apple Computer this month began sending letters to its world-wide Emagic software distributors, informing them that their services would no longer be required.

Emagic--creator of the Logic music production software suite--was purchased by Apple for a rumored $30 million in 2001, and has since operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the computer company.

Frustrated by the most recent move, some former international Emagic distributors are crying foul play. They claim that the Xskey--once used to protect Logic applications from piracy--is now being abused by Apple to solicit customer information to the exclusion of the ex-distributors and dealers; the same people who previously made their living selling and supporting the software.

"If this were to reach customers ears that their information can now be used [by Apple] to dominate and control the music industry, I say there should be a Law protecting [this] flow of information," one former distributor said.

Dealers also fear that Apple may exploit some of the customer information once provided innocently to Emagic through it's Germany-based website. Armed with this data and the power to require additional customer info through future releases of Logic, dealers claim that Apple will soon be capable of dominating the software side of the global music production industry.

According to Apple, Logic is used by over 200,000 musicians worldwide and is the industry-leading audio production software for professional musicians, audio engineers, producers and film composers.

Around the same time that Apple began dismissing world-wide Emagic distributors, the company also registered for a trademark on the word "ProBand." Some insiders have speculated that the company will eventually re-brand the Logic product line under this new name.

http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=653

paul e. · Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 3:07 pm Post subject:

that sounds scary

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 3:34 pm Post subject:

Well.. the customer info part of this is not that scary. What I am scared of is Apple messing up Logic. ProbBand my ass. Anyway, now I guess we will get another cool home made video at the Apple site featuring Jon Anderson and his most excellent ProBand. No more Yes? hahahaha.. ugh..

Apple is slowly getting very good at finding markets and managing distribution. They are running their business in an oldfashioned way and that seems to be a smart thing to do right now. Apple is great at all things video and I am not the one to complain if they at last manage to get big in the music production markets.

mosc · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 10:34 am Post subject:

I don't use Emagic products, except Unitor8. But I wouldn't like this if I was was an Emagic customer.

Business is not about products as much as relationships. When I hear about businesses suddenly breaking relationships like this, it sounds like bad business. My guess this represents an action of new management taking over the division. Usually, when this happens, it is just one move in a death spiral.

I don't know the specifics here, but I certainly wouldn't buy Emagic if I wasn't already a user of these products. If Apple wants to get into professional audio, then the products must be make OS independent. It's a fact of life in today's market. Apple's market share last I saw was 2.4%. Even it you make the leap of faith that music users are 10 times more likely to use an Apple than a PC or Linux box, then you have still only access to 25% of the potential market a cros-platform competitor has. When Cycle 74 went cross-platform a year ago, their market exploded. Protools has made the same move. There is a reason.

I think Emagic products are excellent and have the potential to become a major player again, but Apple has an uphill battle going against some very good competitors.

Oskar · Joined: Jul 29, 2004 Posts: 1751 Location: Norway

Oh, the stupidity of Apple! And to think that being a ProTools user, I thought I'd got problems? Ah, well, nice to know someone's worse off, I guess. Shocked

jksuperstar · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 12:53 pm Post subject:

Apple has always been at the forefront of visual arts, and most visual (video) companies are now purchasing an audio software company to enhance the video tools they already have. Adobe bought Syntrillium (cool edit), Pinnacle bought Steinberg, Sony got the Vegas products, and Apple has Emagic. The only other two big companies for audio software & editing are Calkwalk (which Roland bought a minority into) (and only develops for Windows) and MOTU (which mostly develops for MAC, but is completely privately held).

But, it has always been Apple's business policy to own & sell all of it's products. Despite the recent sale of the iPod & iMacs through more tpyical resellers, the move on Emagic products is more consistent with Apple's longterm history. So I'm not surprised. However, I still don't agree with it. The thing I'm more worried about is that audio software will split into three directions: High end that is too expensive for anybody besides a professional studio, low end "Everybody can be a musician" software that resembles microsoft office and controls you more than you control it, and the video suites, which will place more emphasis on video that audio, and the tools will then suffer. I hope I'm wrong, since music is still such a huge industry. Oh well, another motive to use Open Sourced software...

paul e. · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 2:41 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 7:24 pm Post subject:

Apple is doing business the old way. Considering how the old school business works, buying Emagic was a way to sell the AU etch and the Midi Core tech. Apple has succeded approx 70% and theat is a 100 % success. A lot of gifted independent programmers have learned how to program AU plugins and Midi Core tech has started to affect even Windows only programmers. Theoretically both AU and Midi Core can be implemented on Xp and linux as well as any version of BSD and related nixes. I expect the same techs to show up early on Longhorn. Emagic has pretty much delivered what Apple wanted and now Apple is taking Emagic into phase 2. I expect the Logic DAW family to be developed into something that resembles Stenberg Nuendo and Apple will probably delived some majort GUI imrpovements. Right now the Midi Core architecture offers insanely great device handling features. Next generation Emagic/Apple products will take this to the next level. The winners will be device manufacturers and small companies like those midi ladder dudes. Hopefully programs like the old dataton TRAX will return. Man.. that one was great back then. Overall the tools are better now than 3 years ago. I see nothing wrong in how Apple is handling their business. the alternative would be Emagic customers stranded wth a bankrupt Emagic. The rumours all tell that Emagic was in a very bad condition when Apple bought the company. Rumors also tell that Apple tried first to buy Steinberg but Steinberg did first not understand that Apple wanted to buy the business, and then Steinberg later tried to demand absolutely silly sums for the stock. According to rumours Apple had partly built the AU tech as a next generation VST implmentation that theoretically was multiplatform. The Cubase GUI as in Cubase VST 32 5.x was also far closer to the Apple GUI guidelines than any Logic product ever was. Apple found the Steinberg company a lost case and then chose Emagic instead. I have no idea how correct these rumours are, but based in the details ( not mentioned here ) they seem pretty reliable. Bottom line is that someone at Apple tried to get their dirty littlle hands into Steinberg, but the Steinberg company did not understand that Apple wanted to buy 65 % of the company. However, all this is irrelevant. Now Apple has establlished the AU plugins standard. Hmm... one version of the rumours says that Apple´s reaction to Cubase SX 1.0 was.... "You must be kidding"

Mohoyoho · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 10:10 pm Post subject:

mosc · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 7:19 am Post subject:

Great inside info, Electro80, as usual.

Well, what is done is done. I hope this leads to new and innovative products. Unfortunately, most of the new and innovative stuff comes from young startups, not mature corporations.

It seems to me the company in this particular segment making the most splash for our type of music is Ableton. Hope they can trive for a few more product cycles before someone with more money than vision buys them.

The good thing in all this is the it is still relatively easy to develop software. So if you have some clever ideas, and if you have the time, anyone can develop a useful product and get into business. There are still plenty of mom and pop software operations that are making great products. Algorhythmic Arts comes to mind, but there are many others.

jksuperstar · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 8:04 am Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 9:33 am Post subject:

blue hell · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 11:36 am Post subject:

jksuperstar · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 12:34 pm Post subject:

mosc · Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2004 3:13 pm Post subject:

mosc · Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2004 3:13 pm Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 12:02 am Post subject:

jksuperstar · Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 12:50 am Post subject: