[Ardour-Users] Could this solve Ardour's financial headache?

John Emmas johne53 at tiscali.co.uk
Fri Jan 9 02:55:13 PST 2009


First off - congratulations to Dewey for an impressively comprehensive
analysis of the available options.  I've only got one small comment to
add.....

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas Vecchione"
Subject: Re: [Ardour-Users] Could this solve Ardour's financial headache?
>>
>> Options 2) and 3) are not as out of the question as you might think. I
>> would think of 2) as being an arrangement with someone like Behringer,
>> who as far as I can tell sells budget mixers that come with cheap and
>> simple USB intefaces but no software.
>>
> The problem, as Paul pointed out already, is that similar agreements are
> hard to come by, because unless the company can make money off of it they
> don't really want to support it.
>
In fact, as someone who's worked for a number of high profile audio
manufacturers, I suspect there's another angle to this that particularly
affects Ardour, or any open source product.....

Corporate sponsors often tie up with a smaller partner in the expectation of
some kind of exclusive arrangement.  But it's pretty difficult to structure
a deal that's both exclusive and open at the same time.  SAE seems to be a
good fit but finding other sponsors like SAE might not be so simple.  Open
source products need open minded sponsors which probably rules out many
proprietory organisations.

If I was looking for a corporate tie-up for Ardour I might try some of the
industry's professional bodies - such as the AES or maybe (in the UK) the
APRS society.  These organisations tend to be small, enthusiastic and
impartial.  So even if they can't support Ardour financially, they might be
willing to broker a contact with potential sponsors and they'd almost
certainly be willing to help with publicity.  For example, the APRS will
distribute leaflets at trade exhibitions and they'll happily circulate
"awareness" emails.  On top of that, they'll probably have contacts within
the industry press  So maybe that's another avenue that could be worth
exploring.

John 




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