saw this today, on the Reverb site - Reverb sells new and used musicial instruments and audio gear. Its a great alternative to Ebay.

here's the announcement from their site, entitled...

REVERB AS A PRIVATE COMPANY...

published April 22, 2025 by Reverb Team

• News and Reviews

Today, I’m excited to share that two new investors—Creator Partners and Servco—have entered an agreement to purchase Reverb from Etsy. Once the deal closes, we’ll be a privately-held, independently operated company backed by two investors who bring a passion for the musical instrument industry as well as a community-first approach and a deep desire to help transform creative industries for the better.

Getting closer to our musical roots
This next chapter for Reverb will bring us even closer to our musical roots. If you’re not familiar, Creator Partners is an investment company focused on digital transformation of creative industries, with current music investments including BMI, SoundCloud, Colors+Studios and Mogul. As for Servco, they’ve been involved in the musical instrument industry since 1937, including a long history with Fender—first as a dealer of Fender music gear in the 1950s, then as part of the group that bought the company from CBS in 1985 and now as the majority owner of the company, as well as an active investor in other musical instruments businesses.

The musicians, shops, and brands who use Reverb have always been at the center of all that we do and these two partners will help us support our community in new and better ways.

What this means for our community
When this deal is complete in the coming weeks, we’ll return to operating as a standalone business. We won’t be merging with either investor, or any of the other companies in their portfolios, and our team will remain intact. In short, you can continue buying and selling on Reverb as you normally would without any disruption.

That said, we hope you do notice positive changes as we continue to focus on making Reverb the best place to buy and sell music gear. Here’s just a sampling of what we’ve already got in the works:

• We’ve been working to make more music-making software available on Reverb so you can change up your sound, even if you’re limited on space or money.
• We’re getting ready to pilot a new option for selling that allows you to get paid faster and drop off your gear locally, without needing to create a listing or ship.
• We’ve got teams working on making it easier to find what you’re looking for on Reverb, ship your items safely, and resolve your support issues quickly.

full article at:

https://reverb.com/news/reverb-servco-creator-partners

 

well that investment company that bought Fender from CBS pretty much saved it. historically those CBS Fender guitars were considered the worst quality guitars they ever made and the company was starting to fail because of it and now: Fender is killing it - they make great guitars (especially their American Pro series) and amps. even their guitars made overseas are great quality for the price, they have great sponsorships for artists that pay well. BMI is also a great P.R.O. and Colors is a great platform for emerging R&B artists, has helped a lot of artists careers performing on it

W investors for Reverb.com imo

 

yeah, now tell me about Ovation, or Guild, or the other brands they destroyed like Tacoma...

 

@Garamondo Furbish i have a guild acoustic guitar, its nice. great construction, great quality wood, finish and sustain. idk what youre talking about, its a great guitar

edit: even doing just a basic google search, whether its Solid Body, Semi-Hollow or Acoustic Guilds; theyre all rated high by customers same with youtube video reviews - idk if youve played a newer Guild but theyre quality guitars

 

Last edited: Apr 26, 2025 at 10:04 PM

I agree Guilds are nice guitars, what Fender did with the Guild brand after acquiring it hasn't been so nice..

Fender has a habit of buying up guitar companies and dismantling them.. especially acoustic guitar companies.
i find it monopolistic, and now with buying up Reverb, they will be attempting to control and influence the used guitar market as well as the new market and channels.

After several changes in management and ownership, Guild was eventually purchased by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in 1995. In late 2001, Fender decided to shut down the Westerly, RI factory (citing difficulty in climate control and factory production workflow as primary motives)[6] and moved all Guild production to its factory in Corona, California. To ease the Corona facility (which had only made electric guitars up to this point) into making archtop and acoustic guitars, the Westerly factory artisans and workers prepared guitar 'kits' that they shipped to Corona. These kits were near-complete production guitars that only needed finishing and final assembly before being sent to retailers.

Production in Corona was short-lived, however, as Fender acquired the assets of Washington-based Tacoma Guitar Company in 2004, and moved all American Guild acoustic guitar production to Tacoma, Washington and discontinued production of US-made Guild electric guitars completely.

In 2008, Fender again moved Guild when it acquired Kaman Music Corporation and its small production facility in New Hartford, Connecticut, where hand production of all US-made Guilds resumed in a manner consistent with other high-end, boutique guitar builders. The New Hartford Guild facility began production in early 2009, starting with the top-end D-55 and F-50 models. Production quickly ramped up to include most of the popular Traditional Series acoustic guitar models. Acoustic-Electric versions of these models were also made available. Starting with 2012 models, all US-built Guild Traditional Series guitars were available in right- and left-handed configurations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_Guitar_Company

 

@Garamondo Furbish : well Fender has always been bigger than those brands though, its not like Fender stole their thunder. its one of the most iconic guitar companies in the world and innovated the solid body, which is seen as the standard electric guitar now

Guild actually sold the company because they were struggling to make money and were going under, Fender kept it alive. so many guitar brands just go under cause its such a costly business and tonal woods are getting more and more scarce and expensive. i would think it was a problem if the quality of the instruments dropped but they didnt, its a guitar company, thats what matters. they sound great and they have the money to keep the brand alive

though if you have a fear of companies owning or having shares in multiple companies, thats fine i guess but i cant agree with that. i dont believe thats necessarily wrong, theres a lot of good companies and good people with money to invest in them. so we'll just have to agree to disagree on that, based on how those other companies have operated, i dont think anything will be bad, they havent shown that. though i understand how you feel

 

Creator Partners are venture capitalists. That's never good for a business. They'll cut costs to the bone, cut staff and squeeze more money out of the products then sell the business on.

 

Those whom you describe aren't venture capitalists per se - they're bottom feeders. There is a difference.
As far as cutting costs to the bone and cutting staff to squeeze more money out of the products, you don't need venture capitalists to do that. Corporate entities (e.g., Avid, Mackie, Waves) did it or do it all on their own (and I've seen it happen first hand, unfortunately - no VCs involved).

Personally, if I had a couple of Billions to spare/invest, I too would invest in audio/video/music related businesses (e.g., record label, recording studio, rehearsal spaces), and setting up a small private equity firm (or two) might prove the more fiscally savvy of other ownership structures. The added benefit of doing so is that PE general partners can then obtain control over management and other operational changes to increase profitability (whether to sell later at a successful rate or not is irrelevant - it's a business, they want and need to make money, as we all do).

I understand and appreciate your concerns, but the music industry isn't exactly known for generating skyrocketing profits. Those of us who are in it, are in it because we love it. Why not let the dust settle then, and let this acquisition fade in the rear view mirror a bit (or a lot) before rushing to judgment?

 

Both parties, the investor (financier) and the company owner, enter into a contract in which everything is stated. This contract is secret, and we will probably never know what it says. All financiers, called investors, want to make a profit.

If a company is no longer profitable and no longer makes a profit, it either goes bankrupt or is rescued with fresh capital and attempts are made to change the cost structure, improve advertising, lower labor costs, promote good products, and discontinue unprofitable products. If they succeed, the company survives; if not, it disappears from the market.

 

I don't know anything about Servco but Creator Partners most definitely are venture capitalists and will cuts costs and maximise profits to an unsustainable level, because they only have a short-term view. They will sell it on for the max profit, directors' bonuses all round and lots of the key staff will leave. It's rare for a VC owned company to end up in a better place and it's quite common for companies to fold a few years later. Maybe Servco being involved will dilute that effect. Time will tell.

 

Last edited: Apr 27, 2025 at 1:43 PM

Venture capitalists ruin every brand they touch from a consumer standpoint. They are a cancer.

 

We call them locusts; as a company, you must never let it get to the point where you run out of money and the locusts attack your business. Unfortunately, excellent management isn't always available, and sometimes the market or competition is merciless.

This is when the ugly face of capitalism reveals itself. The bankers who grant the loans are also model Terminators; if they can't pay their loan installments, your business will be destroyed.

The first thing you learn in business school is profits, profits, and more profits.

 

the mongol hordes have become bankers, its a strange world after all..nice suits and black hearts...
whats that natural phenomena called where an animal/insect blends into the environment to take advantage of the situation?

 

It's called rationalization pressure. Terms like cost efficiency. Always faster than the competition (Microsoft is quick to market and then 30 updates are due for the buggy software, but they're first to market).

I'm in favor of the big and best companies joining forces and doing their best. Unfortunately, our system is called capitalism, and all that matters is labor costs, production costs, and the highest possible production volume. A FAULT IN THE SYSTEM.

 

@Balisani same, i would love to have enough money to buy a guitar company. i actually invested in two members of my families small businesses, technically im a venture capitalist. they came to me needing money and i wanted to help them reach their goals, so we joined forces. i know tons of people whove invested in startups and established companies because they were able too and they believed in what the company was doing, of course you want to make money but thats not the only reason you invest in something if youre smart

i learned a while ago not to make generalizations, most of the time youll be proven a fool. people and the world are too varied and nuanced for blanket statements like: "venture capitalists are this". theres millions of business here in the U.S.; in the world it has to be hundreds of millions - to think they all the people running them operate the same and the ones who've funded them are all the same....idk dude

 

prices there for some vintage gear and guitars is for the rich and loaded

 

Fender (aka FMI) does not own reverb 2 people that have a stake in Fender have bought Reverb. interesting to see what if anything changes at Reverb

 

Thank you, because always stick to the facts:

Today, I'm pleased to announce that two new investors—Creator Partners and
Servco—have entered into an agreement to purchase Reverb from Etsy.

David Mandelbrot
Reverb CEO

Creator Partners --> www.creatorpartners.com
The have SoundCloud, Fender etc.

 

You are nothing like a venture capitalist. You are an investor. Investors invest money in businesses they believe in. Sometime they win, sometimes they lose but they almost always care care. Venture capitalists invest in a whole bunch of businesses in the knowledge that maybe 10% of them will progress. They asset strip them all, sell the ones that survive long enough and dump the rest. They have no compassion.