> Is "musicians who don't even know the genre they'll use professionally yet" a valid market in the first place?
Genre is contextual. An instrument can “sound like” one genre solo / when highlighted, yet contribute an entirely different sound when submerged in the mix.
Modern country music uses “disco” instruments but not in a way that sounds like disco. A guzheng makes pretty much the same sound as a banjo, but nobody notices because the music the two instruments conventionally get used in doesn’t have much overlap (in play style, but also in terms of what other instruments are used together with them.) A fiddle is literally just a violin, but they’re used so differently that people call them different names (mostly because a “trained fiddler” knows a very different skill than a “trained violinist.”)
Also, there are music genres that just use “everything”, with musicians constantly looking for a new sound for every track they put out. Industrial and electro are both like this.
In short, there are plenty of professional musicians — especially live keyboardists — that already have a setup, but still hunt for new instruments/effects to achieve a new “sound”. (Normally that’s just through VST plugins, sure, but there’s also a thriving market for physical old analog synths that haven’t been digitally replicated yet — and this product is clearly intended to appeal to people used to buying in that market.)
Genre is contextual. An instrument can “sound like” one genre solo / when highlighted, yet contribute an entirely different sound when submerged in the mix.
Modern country music uses “disco” instruments but not in a way that sounds like disco. A guzheng makes pretty much the same sound as a banjo, but nobody notices because the music the two instruments conventionally get used in doesn’t have much overlap (in play style, but also in terms of what other instruments are used together with them.) A fiddle is literally just a violin, but they’re used so differently that people call them different names (mostly because a “trained fiddler” knows a very different skill than a “trained violinist.”)
Also, there are music genres that just use “everything”, with musicians constantly looking for a new sound for every track they put out. Industrial and electro are both like this.
In short, there are plenty of professional musicians — especially live keyboardists — that already have a setup, but still hunt for new instruments/effects to achieve a new “sound”. (Normally that’s just through VST plugins, sure, but there’s also a thriving market for physical old analog synths that haven’t been digitally replicated yet — and this product is clearly intended to appeal to people used to buying in that market.)