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Spitfire business things

  • Thread starter Thread starter thereus
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thereus

thereus

Our feet shall stand in thy gates.
I just wondered if anyone had a view of what is going on over at Spitfire. Labs releases seem to have reduced to a trickle. A CEO change seems to have taken place with no public announcement which is rather unusual. Is there a change in its approach and does that mean things will change in terms of releases or support for older products?
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I feel like they're reducing the status of some low-priced or free products. For example, Originals products are not as easy to find as they used to be. Same goes for LABS.

I don't like companies that are too commercial, and their products have various problems. I feel like Spitfire is going the same route as Waves.
 
I don't think we know. The CEO change came in the wake of the controversy over Henson and perceived mishandling of that situation. (How exactly that situation might have been handled better has never many clear to me, since it was a case of SF, the company, being presented with only bad options.) I presume there were also some very lackluster revenue numbers, which may or may not have been related to the Henson controversy—both because of the way the matter was handled and because Henson was a key figure driving SF's approach to marketing.

SF's focus now seems to be around AR1 and shoring up regular income streams from past products. I would not be surprised if SF's predictable regular sales—40% off libraries, 30% off bundles in December, May, and August—no longer happen, or at least not at those discount points. Not that SF won't have equivalent sales of some sort, but I expect they might appear in a more irregular fashion, closer to what OT or Strezov does.

Labs always seemed an initiative pushed mostly by Henson, so beyond the fact that Labs do not contribute to income streams, Henson's departure would likely mean less advocating within the company for resources to go to Labs.
 
DavidDong said:
Originals products are not as easy to find as they used to be
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It’s literally 4 clicks/taps and you’re there:

(On my iPhone so might be different on a desktop browser)

  1. Hamburger menu.
  2. Shop.
  3. Ranges.
  4. Originals.
Maybe it was slightly quicker/easier before, but that doesn’t seem too traumatic to me.
 
To me it looks like they are focusing more on cash flow over growth with the new CEO coming in. It is likely they have taken somewhat of a hit with the cost of living increases.

Newest products have either been reissuing / reusing current libraries or pretty big releases with decent profits (the intro discount seems less than previously at 20%).
 
thereus said:
I just wondered if anyone had a view of what is going on over at Spitfire. Labs releases seem to have reduced to a trickle. A CEO change seems to have taken place with no public announcement which is rather unusual. Is there a change in its approach and does that mean things will change in terms of releases or support for older products?
Click to expand...
A few comments by forum members in CH’s thread (linked here:
Thread 'I'm Starting Something New...'
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/im-starting-something-new.144419/) mention the business.
 
Maybe Spitfire needs to reset and see what type of company they want to be in the future. I am sure there were certain things that Christian prioritized and these will probably fall by the wayside. Spitfire also seem to be very focused on the Solar synth engine and their association with some world class orchestras. It might make sense to narrow their scope and focus on the things they believe will be the most marketable in the future.
 
Just a quick caveat that I'm not a big business watcher, so my perspective could be naive.

A lot of developers have been through some very strange times over the last four years, but I think that Spitfire has perhaps suffered more than many from the boom then bust of demand relating to Covid and economic malaise, together with Brexit. And so some amount of change in their business model makes a lot of sense.

Losing one of the two founders and central creatives behind the company who was also the most public facing of them, has got to be a serious blow. And being in a situation where being noticed by more people was actually or potentially bad for business must have been a huge frustration.

So, yes, I think the potential for growth fell away. The long development time of libraries means that we are still seeing releases of projects that originated in a very different economic time.
 
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Yeah I’m a bit upset with them as I purchased Chamber strings for regular price $249 then a month later they offer for 40% off at $149…lesson…always wait before you purchase newly offered sample libraries!
 
sourcefor said:
Yeah I’m a bit upset with them as I purchased Chamber strings for regular price $249 then a month later they offer for 40% off at $149…lesson…always wait before you purchase newly offered sample libraries!
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I mean, you never buy sample libraries at full price unless you need them immediately for a project. That's the first rule of the sample buying club.

Inevitably, you will find a sale on the library that is better than the price you paid. That's the second rule.

And the corollary to that second rule is no regrets on what you paid. If you judged it an acceptable price when you bought it, it was a good price for you at that time. Then, too, you had the opportunity to use the library during the interval where you owned it and before the sale occurred. There is real value in that opportunity.
 
https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/profile/in/olivierrobertmurphy?trk=universal-search-cluster
The new boss of Spitfire looks to my cynical old eyes like an absolutely stereotypical music biz c-suite hack.

No mention of music, lots of mentions or the b-word, business .

I fear for the plucky few in the Spitfire.

Bring back Henza

I don't think the new boss will understand just how important LABS and piano book are to potential Spitfire consumers. My view is that Henza and these initiatives that don't bring in the moolah are crucial.

All too soon the aura of class and walnut panelled rooms and cigar smoke and chesterfields and Air studios and The Zim and the Whiteactre will fade...

Like the sound of C-beams glittering in the Tannhauser gate VST...

all this will be lost like reverbs in the mix...
 
thereus said:
A CEO change seems to have taken place with no public announcement which is rather unusual.
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Actually, I would find it unusual if they publicly announced their new CEO. Have they in the past?

What happened to the other guy - I don't even know who that is. Was he fired? Did he quit? Mutual agreement to part ways?

Whatever the case there, the changes did seem to start when Christian "took a step back" some time ago. Personally, I think SF took a lot of heat for distancing themselves from Christian; I think the silent (extremely vast) majority: a) feels that every human should have the right to be what and who they want to be, and b) agrees with what Christian said. The two CAN go hand in hand if you let them.

We will see what happens in 2024 - I think by the end of next year, we are really going to see how big Christian's role in SF really was.
 
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