Music gear marketplace Reverb announced this week that two new investors —Creator Partners and Servco — have entered into an agreement to purchase the company from Etsy.
Once the deal closes, Reverb will be a privately-held, independently operated company, backed by two investors that share Reverb’s experience in the music industry and focus on musicians.
“Creator Partners and Servco share our passion for the musical instruments industry and a community-first approach, plus a deep desire to strengthen creative industries,” said David Mandelbrot, CEO at Reverb. “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 music-making community in new and better ways.”
“Reverb is the #1 global marketplace for musicians, and a one-of-a-kind platform that has transformed access to quality used gear for creators of all levels” said Kerry Trainor, Creator Partners Founder and former CEO of SoundCloud and Vimeo, “We are thrilled to join the Reverb mission to make the world more musical, and grow the entire industry through seamless secondhand commerce.”
“We are thrilled and honored to be a part of Reverb’s continued success,” said Executive Chair of Servco, Mark Fukunaga. “For nearly 90 years, Servco has been deeply involved in musical instruments and music education programs. And we remain committed to being good stewards of leading musical instrument companies, like Reverb, and supporting players everywhere in pursuing their passion to create music.”
When the deal closes in the coming months, Reverb will return to being an independent business. According to Mandelbrot, buyers and sellers won’t notice any disruption as a result of this news, but he does expect the Reverb community to notice positive changes and new innovations in the coming months as the team continues to focus on making Reverb the best place to buy and sell music gear.
“We’ve got a lot of exciting changes in the works. We’re expanding access to music-making software on Reverb and we’re getting ready to pilot a new option for selling that allows musicians to get paid faster, while skipping the listing and shipping process. Our teams are working on improving our search functionality, making it easier to ship, and shortening the time it takes to resolve support issues,” said Mandelbrot. “All and all, there’s a lot for our community to look forward to and I’m very excited about what’s coming as we move forward as an independent company again.”
I quit ebay and thiels fascist paypal. reverb manages to take CC’s directly, please don’t change that.
Cheers to you, I avoid PayPal like the plague!
unfortunately Reverb is still going to be the most overpriced place to get equipment
Prices for synths and drum machines before and after the existence of reverb are staggering. and there’s nothing more insulting than standing in a used gear shop or pawn shop and watching the proprietor “look up” the price of the gear by going on reverb, where everything has been sickly inflated
alas, unless the internet collapses, we’ll never see localized, colloquial pricing again .
Hooray for tariffs! No one will want to pay the super-inflated prices for new gear, so Reverb and Ebay are poised for greater profits than before as $150 used synthesizers will soon be listed at $500. This timeline sucks. Looks like I’m just going to have to enjoy the hardware I already own, and spend more time using plugins.
Nah, if more people list stuff for ridiculous prices, I can sell mine for actually reasonable price somewhat more quickly. Reverb is a last resort after scouring German / French / Dutch marketplaces for stuff I want. No loss. Very happy to list stuff indefinitely, which is the main perk of dumping everything there.
i always list mine stuff at the lowest price. goes fast. i’m not about making profits, just want to save stuff from the dumpster if someone else would like it.
Tarrifs are temporary, synthesizers are forever.
I support the tarrifs personally, but I know they are primarily used as a leverage tool. Expect 10% tarrifs to stay but the highly inflated ones will lower after deals have been made.
Maybe Reverb will go back to providing gift certificates/cards.
This is great news! Reverb’s wonderful customer service went away once they were bought…I hope it can come back, it was industry leading (before Etsy bought them).
They also will delist your listings now if you are selling sonething that has never been unboxed…
which is crazy, I am not gonna devalue something just to sell it on your site, sorry not sorry.
I’m struggling to understand the logic here.
If you’ve never unboxed something, how do you know it isn’t broken inside the box?
This isn’t a Schrodinger’s cat question, it’s a genuine question.
I’ve bought stuff I don’t plan on using immediately (bought for very cheap etc), but I still check that it get’s delivered in a working state just in case.
Havent had the time because I am in the process of moving and catastrophe happened at the new house and insurance wont cover it so been too busy to open a piece of gear I pre ordered long ago and was delivered recently.
I used to buy and resale all the time and often would not even re open gear…never had a problem selling like that back in the old days of Reverb.
Wow man….. (toke). Knew Brown has a dog, but didn’t know Schroeder has a cat, that could be dead. And alive……. woooow man (toke). Brother Heraclitus knew that you never step into the same river twice. So, you never play the same synth twice. … Far out (toke). I used to shave with Occam’s Razor but lost that in the most likely way. Now I use Hanlon’s Razor. Groovy man……Heavy……(toke).
Fair enough.
I get being busy. I really do, especially this time of year when I’m usually swamped.
But I can generally find 30min or so to “play” with something to check it out. Especially if I’ve bought 2nd hand.
Self discipline must be maintained however. I have found myself “trying something out”, then realising 5-6 hours have passed!
Anyway, whatever the catastrophe that happened at your house was I hope you solve it and it turns out okay for you.
Hope you have fun making music / sounds.