PS Audio Revises Marketing to a Direct Sales Only Model

Price rarely plays into it.

’shiny shiny crow’ is the big arbiter on the "buy/don’t buy" scenario.

Shiny shiny crow, is a euphemism for the attractions of the product, however that may play out.

Is the item shiny - to your inner crow? If it is, you’ll probably buy it.
I'd like to think that audio qualities are at the top of all lists of everyone who might buy a piece of audio gear.

Decades in the industry taught me that this idealization on my part is not the dominant part of the market. Or, that quality may be there, but the shininess of the item is what truly seals the deal. 

It's not truly a criticism, but more of a idealism on my part - that gets shot to pieces in the real world. The reality is that few people know how to evaluate a item in the best sense. Thus appearance and neatness takes second spot and sometimes first place in the decision tree in buying behaviour.

the next problem we encounter is that most dealers these days are merely a sales desk for a one off order, for an inquisitive customer.

things are so close and tight, that no one really stocks anything anymore.

Gone are the days when you could see the delivery truck showing up at the audio shop and watch 10-20-50 pieces from a given audio company be delivered to the shop and shuffled into the stock room of the shop.

Or where you walk into the shop and see the main listening area floor covered with stacks of new gear boxes, 10x of a given integrated amp, 6 boxes of a given tuner or CD player, 10x turntables, etc.

Changing times, tighter finances, internet markets, and so on, all killed it off. We saw the first signs of it when the market was still in good shape, with all the cross territory sales of one given sales location, until the companies involved shut that particular dealer down.

the buyers and the marketing/sales methods have put themselves in the drivers seat,and killed off the very product companies they wish to buy from. That aspect combined with the commercial/monetary/financial scenario we are now facing globally.

I’m just rambling, and this is not a perfect explanation by a long shot. But the real scenario heads off in similar directions to what I speak on. And we will all see it differently.

the point is, a distributor is supposed to stock large amounts of a product from a given company, and be the elastic delivery source point of singles or multiples of a given product, for a given dealer. that is what they are paid for.


Note that Daniel of Plurison and Audio Plus, probably the most successful large high end audio distribution company on the planet, just sold his company off to other interests.

The audio distribution model is dead. Internet killed the audio star.

Direct sales is all that remains, essentially, re potential for success and future existence. The other models are just hanging on, and have not yet got the memo....

One last point, the buyers are certainly not innocent in this demise of the model. Their position is essentially contradictory. They want the company to be around to give them what they want when they want .,.at the same time they want the product for as low a price as possible, and even free, if it can be arranged, or forced.

People would and do pay if they can and have the cash for it, but the economy is being tanked by gamesmanship at the federal financial level by inside players..and those players seem to be insistent on a slow choke-hold into a death spiral that moves slow enough that people don’t see it for what it is. the tick-tick-tick of slow elimination of the prior us middle class, as they used to be called, when they existed. Exhausted and used up via proxy war. Apparently... purposely so. A two-fer, by the hidden players, as that’s how they roll. (they don't want any veterans coming back, veterans talk too much..)

Now even the bigger players (in audio) are feeling the water rising to overcome them, re the distribution of the higher end components with better (more financially comfortable) markets..now signing that even it.... has exhausted itself.

Whatever the final end game is, whether it is a slow motion thing or a fast moment, it is getting close. Definitely closer than it is further.

Everything is cutting edge in high end audio (yes, this is true, think it through), and no reams of support staff (location with 1200 people on the phones, 7000 in R&D, etc), as high end audio companies are just too small to cover it all.

I’m not saying you want cutting edge products, low prices, with personals service and the support levels of a multi billion dollar corporation.

But, that some actually do expect that and get upset when it is not that level of perfect.

The other thing is that when things go wrong...lots of people get brushed off by those major corporations.

Direst sales also has the advantage of the producing company being in direct contact with the end user. Usually at least a few times, for each major sale. This is a very good thing for the company and ultimately, the customer.

I’ve seen up front and personal...I’ve seen dealers mess around with manufacturers and mess around with the buyer, as they are in control of both ends of the relationship of people - to the the equipment they buy.

Dealers can be a good thing but they can also be a bad thing.