Today we had Ben from Warm Audio here to talk all things WA. Ben is a longtime friend of CRAS, and it is great to have him out here to interact with students. Ben started with a short history of his time in the music industry. He played in bands in Hollywood, got signed by Columbia Records, and then started working at a record label. He worked for Line 6 as a Propeller Head Product Specialist starting in 2007. He moved on to Blue Microphones in 2009 and worked as a national sales manager. In 2019 he moved on to WA in 2019, where he was VP of global sales and is now the CRO. He then jumped into a short history of WA. WA was founded in 2011 by Bryce Young. He wanted to make products that were equal to renowned products, but affordable for everyone. WA started as a small company and has grown into a multi-million dollar company. Ben highlighted the fact that everything shipped by WA has been 100% quality controlled in Austin Texas before making it to the consumer. WA sells Microphones, outboard signal processing, guitar pedals, and more. They've sold $100M+, over 400,000 units sold. He took us through the WA headquarters, including custom QC areas, and a world-class studio with a SSL AWS. Ben showed us various artists that have used WA gear including Bebe Rexha, Drake, 21 Savage, Snoop Dog, and Dolly Parton. He then went into the Warm formula. The formula has 3 parts, Look, Quality, and Price. Look, meaning that WA equipment has the look and feel of the product it is emulating. Quality, meaning it has a good sound with durable materials. And price, meaning it is as low of a price as possible. Ben mentioned that WA sells to over 100 companies. He went over some photos of the events that WA has done worldwide, as well as at NAMM. Ben also went over the legal side of creating copies of equipment. He covered handling patents, as well as trade dress. He also covered how WA intends to handle the acquisitions of other companies. Ben talked about some of the products that WA offers, including the WA-87, WA-47, WA-14, WA-CA12, and more. He also hinted at some new products coming out soon.
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