FROM THE TOP RICHARD CAMPBELL I BEYERDYNAMIC
my go-to when I’m comparing products or listening to a new device. It’s my go-to song to evaluate the effects of whatever it is that I’m listening to. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MANAGEMENT STYLE? I’d say that I’m very passionate, very interested and very detailed. I have high expectations, but I don’t expect any - body to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. SWITCHING GEARS A BIT. CHINESE BRAND COSONIC PURCHASED BEYERDYNAMIC EARLIER THIS YEAR. CAN YOU SHARE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THIS PURCHASE? Sure. Beyerdynamic has been a family-run company for more than 100 years. There’s a lot of nostalgia, not only for myself, but others. When you have a family-run company, there’s a re - spect and admiration for that. We’re re - ally thankful for the legacy of what the Beyer family has done for the company, the brand, its customers, partners and us as employees. But, at the same time, I’m also really excited about being a part of the Cosonic group. I’ve spent some time with them, and their team really does have the utmost respect for the history of Beyerdynamic, and they really want to do all that they can to nurture that and continue to have that be our core as part of our future. As for the impact that it’ll have on our long-term vision and our product roadmap, we’re going to continue to de - sign and develop our products in Germany. That won’t change, that’ll continue to be a part of our DNA and who we are. We’ve been on an interesting course these last 18 months where we’ve developed more new products or launched more new products than we have in that time pe - riod ever. We really want to continue that pace of develop - ment and innovation. And Cosonic gives us the resources to be able to do that. They have expertise and knowledge that we’ll be able to tap into that will allow us to continue to develop new products, potentially get access to new categories, and really extend the brand in a way that we haven’t had the resources to be able to do. DO YOU EXPECT ANY CHANGES TO THE BRAND’S IDENTITY, OR WILL IT STAY CONSISTENT? Look, under our CEO Andy Rapp’s leadership, he’s fos - tered a culture of having a global team and really working closely with the marketing, product, service and opera - tions teams in Germany. That collaboration will continue with those teams in Germany. The global executive team
remains in place, as well as our teams locally. We’ll con - tinue to design and develop our products in Germany, and the majority of our pro-audio products will continue to be handmade in Germany. We’ll continue to work with the partners that we have today and some of the world’s greatest retailers that we partner with. There’s no change in our distribution strategy. I think it’s really more of a case of ‘how can we do more of what we’re doing and how do we continue to drive the growth that we’re seeing?’ Especially, most recently, what we’ve seen in the North American market. WITH MANUFACTURING It’s kept us busy for sure. [Laughs.] Look, there’s a lot of moving parts that we have to take into consideration. So, it very much is something that’s well within the focus of what we’re doing in terms of how do we launch products, how do we bring products to market, and we want to make sure that our pro products continue to remain competitive in the marketplace and that they have the right value proposition to our partners and our consumers. It’s all part of the equa - tion. The European tariffs have been a little bit more finalized as of late, so that does give us a clearer picture to understand the impact that it plays in the decisions that we have to make. WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO SEE BEYERDYNAMIC GO IN THE NEXT FIVE OR SO YEARS? HAPPENING IN GERMANY, I HAVE TO IMAGINE TARIFFS HAVE BEEN FRONT-OF-MIND. I’m excited about our future, and we’ve seen such great growth in our brand recognition and great growth in our sales activities that, for me, the potential for the brand to be more of a household name exists. To be able to extend that brand recognition beyond professional artists or pro - fessional audio engineers and to have more mainstream folks have an appreciation or recognition of who we are and what we do is exciting, which is part of the reason why I joined the company. I really feel that the respect for the brand that exists will translate to consumers, and there will be an understanding as to why they would want to come into the franchise and be able to benefit from that technology that we offer to the pro-audio space. NICE, FINALLY, IF YOU WEREN’T WORKING IN THE MI INDUSTRY, WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING FOR WORK? I’d probably be doing something related in consumer electronics or consumer products. MI
“IF YOU WALK INTO ANY MI RETAIL STORE OR ONE OF OUR PART- NERS’ CALL CENTERS, THE UNAIDED BRAND AWARENESS FOR BEYER- DYNAMIC IS OVER 80%. IT’S UNPARALLELED.”
34 I MUSIC INC. I OCTOBER 2025
Powered by FlippingBook