Anatomy of an endorsement deal.
Posted September 10th, 2008 by Oliver CheslerFiled Under: Propellerhead Reason
So it’s official: The Horrorist is endorsed by Propellerhead Software. I, as you know record under the name “The Horrorist” and today the box of goodies you see in the above photo arrived at my studio. I also managed to get one of the bands on my label Ionic Vision the same deal.
So how does one get such a good proposal? To be honest it’s kinda like getting laid by a female… You stay nice, friendly and available and when they are in the mood it happens! When I was in college at Suny Purchase I spent my free time in the music department hanging out with John Selway, Scott Richmond (Satellite Records) and Jack Elliot. During that time, the early nineties, the rave scene was beginning to take over the NY area. John invited me to techno parties in Long Island where I met Frankie Bones, Adam X, Heather Heart, Dave Trance and many more. I’m not sure how it exactly happened but I ended up at the recording studio of a guy named James Bernard who had a techno act called Influx. Ah… bingo you say! James Bernard I know that name. Yep hold that thought…
Flash forward fifteen plus years, 75 singles, 3 albums, 3 studios, a move to Berlin, a pro-audio blog and some grey hair. A band on my label Things to Come Records called Ionic Vision was coming to perform in Germany. I met them at Club Maria and did a quick video interview with them to help promote their new single. During the interview they got all gushy about how great Propellerheads Reason is. I wholeheartedly agree Reason is the bees knees and the video went up on the internets. I mentioned to Andy de Decker (one of the band members) that I should send it over to Propellerheads and did just that.
I knew James Bernard worked at Propellerheads and from time to time I cracked a smile when I saw him demoing things on YouTube. I would say to myself, “There’s that Influx guy. Dam he landed a cool job!”. So I was pleased when I found out he was the one in charge of artist relations and more pleased when he was the one who emailed me back. Without me asking he offered the endorsement deals.
So what can we learn from this tale?
1. James Bernard kicks ass.
2. Propellerheads kicks ass.
3. Being nice to people and putting your work out there gets free stuff. (And laid by females)
This arrangement will be good for you too because I will be posting more Reason tutorials, videos and Refill reviews.
So far I can tell you the 15″ laptop bag is very nice. The area where you hold your laptop is well padded and smooth so you don’t need to use one of those crappy inner sleeve things. It’s made of “polyester ripstop” which like it’s name: feels like it won’t ever rip. It also has a rubber handle, zippered pockets, a mobile cell holder and key ring.
Check out more photos of the bag and goodies: click here
Listen to James Bernard’s music: myspace.com/jamesbernardmusic
Visit Propellerhead Software: propellerheads.se
Loading ...
That’s great , it’s nice to see that kind of support .
crap- I just found this site last week b/c Ive been getting out of Reason and more into Ableton…dont forget about Live! btw- this has quickly become my favorite site..outstanding job
Oh don’t worry SephRock my Ableton tips will continue! I find Reason and Ableton compliment each other… just more tools in the arsenal! Thanks for reading too!
[...] the backstory of the endorsement deal head over to the Wire to the Ear blog post titled, “Anatomy of an endorsement deal.“. “So it’s official: The Horrorist is endorsed by Propellerhead Software. I, as you [...]
I use Proppelerhead’s softwares since Rebirth (RIP) and they really do a great job. The GUI are very intuitive and you can work on their apps without any user’s manual (for the beginners functions).
I hope they will release a new and enhanced Rebirth version someday (on iphone/ipod ?) !
James is a legend in the world of demoing software for audiences, but he pissed me off at the last Reason Producer’s Conference.
http://www.thebulkdump.com/article/review-of-the-producers-conference
He’s done a lot for the music community though and i’m sure he’s done even more behind the scenes that we don’t know about.
Sometimes for simplicity purposes I visualize Reason more convenient than Abez for a live set…if Reason can only hold VST’s(put the word in).
I don’t want to break the party, but the downside of endorsement is, that every other customer has to pay for the endorsement. Okay, this may not be such a big deal with software as it is cheap in production (and the bag as well) but i once read an interview with jim marshall where he made the clear point, that he hates endorsement, because he does not want to charge some 13-year old for metallicas backline. but nethertheless, propellerhead seem to be nice :D
Hi freenerd. I think the point of endorsement deals are to raise the profile of the software so more people buy it. Wouldn’t that mean the 13 year old would pay less?
heh, congrats on the sweet free stuff. I want some endorsement deals (jack daniles and b&h would be cool)
on the point about the customers paying for your copy of the stuff – it doesnt actually cost anything to make a copy of software (ok, maybe $1 for a blank dvd) if its things like amps, then they are made on a production line, and they dont cost $1000 to make, they cost about $100 to make if there are enough being made (it costs less the more you make) so the 13 year old might be paying an extra $0.00001 to the company. its the distributors and retailers that make most of the money (as with anything)
nice stuff man – admit it though – you just love doing ‘unboxing’ type posts :p
wow I never realised James Bernard was ‘Influx’ I loved that ‘Braineater’ song on ‘The Secret Life Of Trance’…
yeh I do think that Reason needs some more good press to counteract the flood of forumite crap which seems to suggest that because reason is so easy to use, it must be shit. Reason is a great tool and although I’ll admit that nowadays I usually cant finish something without it becoming a combination of Reason and Live (and tbh sometimes Reason rendered to WAVs in Live). It never ceases to amaze me whenever I fire it up again how good the sound is, and how it just works perfectly, and uses so little CPU, I cant think of many VST reverbs that provide such good quality sound with such little CPU overhead as RV7000. Also the MClass compressor is beautifully liquid/springy sounding (to my ears) and can be made go VERY over the top, which I like.
Also, I dont own Kontakt, so Reason’s Refills are in effect my main sample libraries.
also Redrum + Tape909 + Tape808 = :)
anyway as usual my post is too long so Ill end it there ;p
ditto, congrats oliver! i’ve been checking out your blog for a few months now but this is my first successful stab at a post (i miserably failed before due to computer issues). looking fwd to your continued reason & live posts, too. as a longtime user of other software products, i am really enjoying reason & live’s fun factors and i spit on those that insinuate they’re only toys and not serious production tools — pppft pppftt!!
also, i intend to be very very nice to you because i secretly hope that one day you’ll be interested in working some magic on some of my tunes.
bless you, guvnah,
holls
Oh yeah I do admit I like taking these photos… some kind of sick consumerism. Oh well… I’m an American I guess!
I’ve been playing with Reason 4 all day… much fun and some very nice stuff here. I will surely be posting about some of it soon.
Thanks everyone for the good words and your visits. Always good to hear from people!!!
Feat. Dr Rex!!
[...] you remember not too long ago I mentioned I was recently endorsed by Propellerhead Software. An old friend of mine James Bernard who is a Product Specialist at the company helped set me up. [...]
[...] a reader of Wire to the Ear you know I was graciously given a free copy of Reason 4 not too long ago. As soon as I finished the yummy manual I did my usual forum and blog troll for [...]