kb420ps wrote:nogginj wrote:somebody explain why it's not BKE anymore but now it's 'by Dallas Austin'. 
I'd like to know about that too.
It's hard to know for sure without insider info, but there are some interesting things to note;
The BeatKangz forums are a ghost town. Knowing those guys, if they were still involved with the Beat Thang, they'd be crowing on their own forums about the upcoming release. The only news being posted is Viagra spam.
Several news outlets are reporting that Dallas Austin's company "Rowdy Electronics" is marketing the Beat thang through a joint venture with AJA Emmanuel/BKE.
It looks like Dallas Austin has partnered with Best Buy for distribution.
Dallas is also heavily promoting a talent search contest sponsored by Metrolyrics in conjunction with Boost Mobile. Reports say, "The winner will receive 10,000 dollars in cash and an opportunity to produce a track with Dallas Austin at his studio in Atlanta, Georgia. The winner will also receive a Beat Thang Beat Machine, an in-studio lesson from Aja Emmanuel, as well as a collection of Dallas Austin’s “Rowdy” branded clothing."
So my best guess is that BeatKangz are no more. Aja Emmanuel has somehow secured rights to the company's remaining assets, but he really isn't in a position to go it alone. So he's licensed the assets (which include 1000 units) to Dallas. Dallas' company, Rowdy, will support the damn machine and Dallas, through his connections will market it. Dallas probably didn't have to invest much. He'll simply take a cut from the 1000 units sold through Best Buy. And he's using the machine to help with a side promotion he's got with Metro Lyrics. So he probably can't lose.
The final remaining piece of the puzzle is, how do they support this thing (thang)? My guess is, they've only produced a very limited number of units. Parts are going to be incredibly hard to come by and they may not have a very large inventory to replace from. In addition, my guess is that the folks who engineered this thing are no longer on board. Rowdy may be able to take sales calls and do limited technical support, but it's hard to believe there are going to be issuing many firmware updates.
The whole thing reeks of an attempt to recoup some of the investment the company made at the hands of unsuspecting users. It's possible the machine ends of being some legendary mythical beast and users come together on a forum such as this to support each other with workarounds and fixes. But it's more likely the the BeatThang doesn't even warrant a footnote in the history of hardware drum machines. If that ends up being the case, I feel bad for users who spend their hard earned cash on this thing because of a slick marketing video.
I don't blame Aja Emmanuel for failing. On the contrary, I credit him for trying to do something new. I do blame him for a real lack of integrity. Not even counting his crazy-ass insults against his potential customers, he let a lot of people down and disappeared without a trace. In his short time here on these boards, he offended nearly everyone. He disparaged Akai as company that doesn't give two shits about anyone (might be true but they look great compared to BKE right now). He got people's hopes up with lucrative sales rep job offers. He got people to invest in BeatThang Virtual with the belief that they would be purchasing a seamless software/hardware combination when the hardware came out. He got peoples hopes up with a contest that was never even concluded. And then to top it off he disappeared without a word when it all fell apart. He's amateur at best, but more likely has a real lack of integrity in his business dealings.
Anyways, the whole thing stinks, but it was interesting while it lasted. As a business major and a product development manager at a software company, I listened to his promises with sheer incredulity. For me, it always boiled down to a.) he either believed what he was saying which made him extremely naive or b.) he knew he was spouting bullshit which made him kind of an unethical guy. Will be interesting to see where he appears next.
Links below for your reading pleasure;
http://www.xydo.com/articles/20288609-metrolyrics_partners_with_boost_mobilehttp://hiphopwired.com/2011/05/20/dallas-austin-premieres-new-beat-machine-beat-thang-video/http://www.theboombox.com/2011/05/20/dallas-austin-unveils-beat-thang-machine-and-contest/Sometimes I still laugh out loud about the beat kangz and that time some English dude hacked the Akai marketing website and stole a bunch of pictures of the Ren before it was released.
