Guest: Ben Thompkins, National Sales Manager- Pro Sales, Blue Microphones
TOPICS:
- Ben runs professional sales for Blue in North and South America, has been with Blue ten years
- He handles B2B business, distribution, and educational sales
- How does Blue differentiate in the microphone industry?
- Blue’s unique history (very music focused, podcasting has been recent)
- Started as a high end microphone company (many of their mics are still $6,000-$10,000)
- Took premium sound and made it affordable (see their podcasting mics)
- Blue’s marketing stands out - fun names like Yeti and Snowball
- 4:34 Story: Snowball was originally called Softball - founder story
- Softball (Snowball) was built for GarageBand, per Apple’s request- a simple USB mic
- Founder Skipper turned them down
- Emily used Snowball on her first podcast (throwback: The Digital Dive Podcast)
- Blue Microphones are the #1 SKU on Amazon for Music / Musical Instruments (these mics are not in the electronics department)
- Hear about podfading (half of podcasts fade after 6 episodes) in Emily’s episode with Phoebe Mroczek
- 8:10 Emily asks: are people ready for a more passive media experience (e.g. podcasting and voice - audio content) due to social media overload?
- "Half the picture is sound" - George Lucas on the importance of audio in film
- High quality audio is paramount for communication and marketing
- Bad audio on YouTube is worse than bad visuals
- Blue was acquired by Logitech for $117 million
- Ben is seeing a trend of XLR mics, not just USB mics (XLR is used at major music recording studios)
- If you’re paying for an expensive computer and Alienware, it makes sense to upgrade your audio too
- Video games are part of his market - gamers are buying nicer mics
- Joe Rogan uses a broadcast mic
- People are spending more money on higher quality mics
Instagram: @bthompkins, @bluemicrophones
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