Future of KRK and Stanton hangs in the balance due to Gibson bankruptcy
The future of iconic brands, KRK and Stanton, hangs in the balance after their parent company, Gibson bankruptcy declaration.
It comes as no huge surprise that the more traditional turntablist brands are slowly dying off – Technics and Vestax closing down and more recently Shure announcing the end of their turntable stylus production line, the demands of the DJ industry are changing, and as sad as it can be we need to accept it.
Stanton’s foray into DJ Controllers never culminated in anything as popular as the Traktor S2s/S4s and Pioneer’s range of controllers, so it was just a matter of time until they would fall behind in the race, after over 70 years in the game!
It’s a bit more surprising to hear of the news of KRK, the world-leader in Studio Monitor sales for over two decades. The good news is that it’s not the first tango for the guys at KRK, so they’re likely to survive, hopefully with funding from a more specialised speaker manufacturer, despite taking a knock due to the Gibson bankruptcy.
Gibson Guitar’s decision to file bankruptcy doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the end for Gibson, however its more than likely that Gibson will focus all their efforts on their core brand.
What do the professionals have to say?
The industry analysts reckon Gibson may have bitten off a bit more than they can chew when acquiring a host of new audio brands like KRK, Cerwin Vega, Stanton and other non-guitar-oriented brands.
As a result of the global decline in guitar sales across the board, I think Gibson was in search of new revenue streams and may have ended up spreading themselves too thin.
With such pedigree and relevance, I’m pretty sure that KRK will be scooped up by one of the other big industry conglomerates – inMusic, Behringer, Pioneer – who knows what the future will hold.
The Gibson bankruptcy is sad though as the guitar brand is iconic in rock music.
