UPDATE (25/01/24): AlphaTheta has responded to our story with the following statement: “For the foreseeable future existing Pioneer DJ products will continue, and AlphaTheta will be a new brand running alongside.”
Original story below
NAMM 2024: If you’re a market leader, you might argue that it takes a supreme amount of confidence to sideline the brand that got you to that position, but that’s what AlphaTheta - the parent company of Pioneer DJ - appears to be doing.
As of today, it seems that new products from the company will now bear the new AlphaTheta logo, seemingly at the expense of the Pioneer DJ name. It’s not quite up there with Elon Musk changing the name of Twitter to X, but in the DJing community, it’s not far off.
“Since the introduction of the CDJ-500 in 1994, Pioneer DJ has built a strong legacy of state-of-the-art products, becoming a leading brand for professional DJs while also providing a pathway for people to begin their DJ journey,” reads a statement on the Pioneer DJ website.
“Now, with products launching as AlphaTheta, we’ve created a brand that will propel us into the future, while also maintaining the quality and innovation that you’ve come to expect from us.”
If a wholesale change comes to pass, many will wonder why, but so far, AlphaTheta hasn't made that clear (MusicRadar has reached out to the company for comment). However, what we can say is that it's been on the cards for a while: The new AlphaTheta logo was unveiled last August, and Pioneer DJ’s accounts, support and other services were rebranded in December 2023.
By way of explanation, all we’re told is that “The name AlphaTheta directly refers to the brain wave frequencies achieved in optimal performance. Music often guides us into these extremely powerful states of mind. Our aim is to use our innovative technologies in sound and music creation to enable and enrich these peak moments.
“Central to our mission is our collaborative relationships with a worldwide network of DJs, artists, and creators who’ve helped shape our products. We’re indebted to this community, and we look forward to deepening our relationship with all our industry partners.”
Just to confuse things even further, a new video flagging up Pioneer DJ/AlphaTheta’s presence at the NAMM Show suggests that there will be gear from both companies, and directs people to both websites.
Much to the chagrin of InMusic, one of its biggest competitors, AlphaTheta is currently in the process of trying to acquire Serato, another big player in the DJ market. If the deal goes through, it remains to be seen if Serato products will also become AlphaTheta ones; we were previously told that the New Zealand based company would continue to operate as a separate brand.
AlphaTheta isn’t the first music technology company to attempt to bring multiple established brands under one roof. In 2022, it was announced by the owners of Native Instruments, iZotope, Brainworx and Plugin Alliance that they would all now fall under the Soundwide banner. Little more than year later, the entire collective was rebranded as Native Instruments.
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"The last 5 or 10 per cent drove me crazy - at one point I had about 130 mixdowns... I’ve come to realise that the perfect mix doesn’t exist": Ben Böhmer on overcoming perfectionism in production
