Trade Tariffs and the effect on synth marketplace

The Lounge General Discussion
#114

A good point. I was just reading The Guardian’s article on the $4.5bn (yes, billion) Foxconn deal to set up a flat panel factory in Wisconsin. I had no idea states could do this sort of thing to tackle unemployment - learn something new every day I guess - and I presume the US government was heavily involved (Tump is taking the credit of course…) but it does make you wonder what the long term holds.

In our little microcosm of synthesisers and music hardware, I guess we’ve got pretty decent seats to watch how this all plays out over the coming months/years.

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#115

CNY has been falling pretty aggressively against the USD. This is yet another way that a sovereign can influence/manipulate trade.

US Fed Gov: “We’re putting tariffs in place to counter Chinese trade practices.”
PBOC: “Oh you’re going to put tariffs in place? OK, we’ll devalue our currency 10%, rendering your tariffs impotent.”

And on and on it goes…

Watch, the yuan will go back to 8 and the PBOC will tell the IMF and BIS to piss off.

#116

The globally low interest rates set by central banking across the globe has injected a lot of liquidity into comsumer markets but driven up personal debt. The outsourcing of manufacturing processes to low-wage places has driven prices down and allowed formerly luxury items such as syntesizers to become available to more and more people. Back when I was a kid in the 1980s, synths which today cost $1000 would cost a magnitude more in real terms back in the day, and you’d be lucky if you could a loan or credit to acquire them.

I feel we’ve been spoilt, and that something was going to have to snap eventually. There are have been predictions that interest rates were going to climb again even before the last US Presidential elections, and this will mean more debt default and more inflation whoever was in power. The levels of US government debt were not Trump’s fault, let’s be honest here. All of the wars and unwarranted overseas commitment of US military forces was propping up a spending bubble in the military-industrial complex which was driving this government debt up inexorably. Perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye, and the tarrif-wars were an inevitable necessity.

We’ve had it too good for too long. This is blindingly obvious.

Remember what one guy could do with one synth and one drum machine and an effects rack, a mixer and a tape machine back in the 1980s and early 1990s?

I’ve always figured I’ve too many synths and do too little with them, and on the plus side … think about how lively this will make the second-hand market, and push innovation :slight_smile:

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#117

I’m probably veering too far into political subjects and a bit off topic here, but taking electric cars as an example, well meaning people buy them believing that they are doing their bit for the environment, on the face of it they seem to be a better alternative to fossil fuel burning cars, because of emmissions. However the manufacturing of the cars and batteries used to power them are far from green, not to mention the electricity used to charge them is (often) largely produced from fossil fuels, and the amount of electricity required is not very efficient either. Even if the electric vehicle remains in service for much longer (it won’t necessarily) it is probably worse for the environment than a regular sensible engine sized car. Then of course there is the end of life recycling to consider.

Same thing for the replacement of incandescent light bulbs to compact flourescent, on the face of it cf consume less power, so must be better for the environment right? Wrong. They were touted as having much exaggerated life spans and light output, thanks to creative marketing (aka bullshit) in the meantime incandescent light bulbs were phased out, cf typically last less hours than their incandescent counterparts. The process for manufacture of cf bulbs is much worse and often you would need more bulbs to get the same amount of light, and recycling effectively them is much trickier.
Side note - incandescent light bulbs used to last much longer, eventually manufacturers got together to design failure into them, because sales were stalling.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that sometimes things that seem good actually don’t do much good.

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#118

This type of “courting” has been going on for a little while. Amazon recently announced it was going to open a new major office somewhere and states/localities have been falling over themselves with proposals that provide for tax breaks, etc. I’ve heard reports that Amazon’s presence in Seattle has led to some unpleasantness, but i haven’t read anything in depth about it.

In some cases it sounds like a race to the bottom… or like paying a plague of locusts to set up shop on your farm.

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#119

I wouldn’t say that it’s particularly political, as these are just industry tricks and corruption used to generate new markets - something we witness in the synth and audio markets too. Remember the price-fixing scam uncovered recently involving very majotr manufacturers?

These are real-world problems. We as musicians and creative people are inspired by and respond to these challenges.

#120

Thanks goodness LED bulbs have gotten more affordable - well in my part of the US. Can’t buy incandescent bulbs over here anymore, not even just to make a statement.

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#121

CDM’s followup article, mentioning the MOTM guy’s retort and so forth.

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#122

Yeah except, if the locusts brought alot of money with them and made the world a better place

#123

I’m no expert on that situation, but I can relate to the feelings of the native Seattlites’ when Amazon came in and thus generated a whole new ecosystem for very well-paid tech people; fancier restaurants, fancier apartments, fancier coffee (if you can believe it) fancy this, fancy that. Same thing happened in my beloved home town of Encinitas, CA - once a very chill, sleepy hippy carrot juice drinking surfing town.

But it’s a double-edged sword, as the increase in the tax base is a huge incentive for the municipality. If it’s important enough to keep a local economy frozen in a certain snapshot, the residents will find a way to ban companies from coming in, it’s been done before. Some Seattle locals may want to keep the grunge thing going, and that’s cool, but then they can’t also keep voting for things which necessitate an ever increasing tax base to fund. Some other locality with less opposition will be next in line. Los Angeles does this all the time. It’s a balancing act which needs intelligent and rational participants and should be handled on as local a level as possible to reflect the values of the parties involved.

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#124

Not to mention the effects on housing prices and availability.

I’m sure that, as with all things, there are winners and losers, but often it seems like the same groups of people are on the losing end over and over.

#126

Most korg products on Sweetwater have jumped in price 5$-20$. Are we seeing the trickle down already?

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#127

I would not use Sweetwater pricing as an econimic barometer, as they do not offer discounts/promos as often as competing stores like PCA, Guitar Center/MusosFriend, etc. do. Korg Prologue looks priced the same as always there, btw.

#129

I don’t how many of the little guys do this but the large manufacturers have ways of hedging against currency fluctuations and other disruptions.

#130

This is exactly why I use them as a gauge for pricing. Generally they don’t do discounts so whatever price an item is going for there is “standard” retail price for the market.

Some korg stuff is the same price, hence why I said most

#131

Just took a look at Volca Sample. Sweetwater is charging $175 vs $160 at MF.

I’d pretty much ignore GC prices - GC and MF are the same company - unless you have a buddy who can hook you up at GC, just order from MF.

There’s a Japan-based store or two on eBay and the like who sell Korg stuff at competitive prices, even with shipping accounted for.

$160 appears to still be the dominant price for this thing.

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#132

I like the Sweetwater peeps, but their prices tend to be higher than other stores, even when nobody is having a sale.

Also, are you sure the tariffs have gone into effect yet? I thought the prices were supposed to go up after, not before.

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#134

July 6th is the official date the tarrifs take effect I believe. But I could see manufacturers sending out new msrp a few days early

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#136

Minilogue is still $499 at ProAudioStar, and at least 5 other stores

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#137

IMO, it is simply time for the synth community to up their actual music game in the face of an austere instrument market. A shift like this was inevitable here in the west following the analog boom, and affordability of so many new machines.

If it had not been the current US administration, it likely would have been another institution (likely in Asia). Either way, a trade war is here, and the common artist is forced to do the best he/she can with he/she has. And that means going deeper into the machines in your possession (IE, becoming an absolute bad ass on your synths, even if you are GASing for something else. The used/trade markets are also going to be much tighter. So what are you going to do?

It behooves us to practice, and to replace gear lust with long hours and sweat.

The resulting music should contain commensurate commentary on the age in which we exist.

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