How many units of Ableton Live sold annually?

August 25, 2009 7:36 AM

Marke research: how can I find out how many units of Ableton Live music software have been sold annually?

My colleagues and I are trying to create a startup that develops software that allows people to compose and perform music in a new way. We are currently trying to evaluate whether there is a real busienss opportunity, and it is really stumbling us up, because, frankly, none of us has done anything like this before. Our main competitor is very likely Ableton Live, and the best ways we have thought of trying to understand market demand and growth is to directly ask our competitors, and also to ask suppliers about how many units of our competitors' software they have sold. Unfortunately, both have turned out to not be fruitful.

Does anyone have any idea how we might be able to estimate market size and growth for this software package and for the composition/live performance industry as a whole?

Thanks.

posted by SilentSalamander to work & money (8 comments total)

Your best bet may be to find the total revenue for the company that produces it (Ableton AG) and divide by the cost of a license. Ableton AG is registered in Germany, so I searched the financial records section of German Company Register. Linking to specific records is fragile, but I've copied their most recent record to here.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 7:53 AM on August 25

I think that their sales revenue is "Verbindlichkeiten aus Lieferungen und Leistungen
": for 2007, this was 9495 euros.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 7:59 AM on August 25

I suspect Ableton make slightly more than 10K EUR a year.
posted by Jairus at 8:24 AM on August 25

Jairus, I agree. Please disregard the entirety of my second post. Perhaps someone who actually speaks German could have a look?
posted by James Scott-Brown at 8:30 AM on August 25

I sent the PDF to a friend who speaks German, but I suspect that line B-II in AKTIVA might be the relevant figure:

Forderungen und sonstige Vermögensgegenstände / Receivables and Other Assets: 3,046,904.46
posted by Jairus at 8:36 AM on August 25

Also, I would be surprised if Ableton's revenue hasn't at least doubled since 2007, given the number of people I know who work with it.
posted by Jairus at 8:37 AM on August 25

NAMM's Music USA report is an excellent high-level view of US and worldwide sales of musical instruments, equipment, software and accessories.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:40 AM on August 25

All great answers. Thank you all for the help!!!
posted by SilentSalamander at 11:26 PM on August 25