Craig Cooper, Sales Manager for Bluesound Professional North America speaks to Greg Spain, VP of Dealer Development at Steady Brand in Episode 7, Season 8 of the SurroundScapes Podcast
In the latest episode of Bluesound Professional’s SurroundScapes podcast, host Craig Cooper welcomes Greg Spain, to discuss their new partnership and the opportunities it creates for commercial AV integrators.
Steady Brand is a relatively new name in the commercial audio industry, having been established around seven years ago. The company provides commercially licensed background music, overhead announcements, on-hold messaging and digital signage exclusively through a network of independent dealers and system integrators.
This shared commitment to supporting dealers and integrators is reflected in the new partnership between Steady Brand and Bluesound Professional. By combining Bluesound Professional’s networked audio hardware with Steady Brand’s commercial music services, the partnership expands the solutions available to integrators, helping them meet a wider range of customer needs.
“We’re really looking forward to this. It’s going to be a great relationship,” says Greg.
From physical media to streaming
Despite Steady Brand’s relatively recent arrival, Greg brings almost 40 years of experience in the AV industry, having witnessed the transition from physical media to satellite distribution and, eventually, streaming.
“I can remember when tapes and CDs were used to deliver music,’ he recalls. “You would get a tape and put it in your cassette player. Then we moved to satellite – satellite analogue and then digital satellite. As these platforms grew, streaming still hadn’t been created yet.”
“Streaming finally came around, and people started accepting it,” Greg continues. “We now base our music products on streaming services, using a number of different proprietary devices to deliver this service. It has opened up a whole different world.”
For Craig, this evolution is still taking place in commercial audio. “From our perspective at Bluesound Professional, our industry is only really starting to adopt streaming now,” he confirms. “Many of our competitors still use speakers wired to an amplifier using traditional technology. It’s very fun to now have speakers with streaming capabilities built in.”
Putting integrators first
When Greg joined Steady Brand in 2021, the company had an opportunity to build its offering around the needs of independent dealers and system integrators.
“We just said, let’s build this the way we want it for a focused, dealer-centric program,” he recalls. “I knew their pain points from working with the bigger companies from an operations side, sales side and field resources.”
Operating exclusively through its dealer network, Steady Brand helps integrators expand their service offerings and develop recurring revenue opportunities, supported by tools designed to simplify deployment and management.
To streamline management, the company has introduced its Conductor Studio platform, designed to bring devices and services together in a single portal. “You can go to one portal, see all your devices, see what’s streaming and manage your products from one place, which is something other companies had not been doing,” Greg notes.
Greg also points out the importance of local integrators and building real relationships with customers. These relationships are central to Steady Brand’s dealer-first approach. “They’re basically the boots on the ground for the industry,” he emphasises. “Our dealers and integrators, they go to church with their customers. They’re in the neighborhood eating in their venues and stuff.”
“It’s a relationship business, it really is,” he reiterates.
Craig agrees, stating, “At Bluesound Professional, we want to keep growing and creating cool new products, but I also really enjoy going to our installs with the integrator and patronising the businesses. I don’t want to miss out on that side of things.”
The new partnership with Bluesound Professional builds on Steady Brand’s philosophy, offering integrators more flexibility in the products and services they can offer customers. “With our relationship now, dealers will be able to offer the Bluesound equipment, they can install it, they can have our service on it,” explains Greg. “Aside from the convenience, it also gives them a great way to generate recurring revenue.”
“We want to position our dealers so they don’t end up being turned away because they cannot deliver what the customer needs.”
Creating better customer experiences with music
Beyond the benefits for integrators, commercial music services also offer businesses greater control over the customer experience.“Probably the most important thing is controlling the atmosphere in the environment,” Greg notes. While music should create a pleasant working environment for employees, the priority is ensuring it reflects the needs and expectations of customers.
“If you walk into a car dealership and they’re playing consumer radio, they could be broadcasting an advert for a competitor down the street! You need to allocate music and pick the right tunes for your clientele. And keep it legal!”
Looking to the future, AI is already playing a role in Steady Brand’s services. The company uses AI to generate scripts and voiceovers for commercial announcements, reducing a process that previously took several days to just minutes.
“You need to embrace it. It’s not going to go away,” says Greg, who sees further opportunities for the technology. “I think there’s some potential for us to use AI for future expansion across our music services and integrations.”
With the new partnership set to expand the opportunities available to both companies and their dealer networks, Greg is enthusiastic about what comes next. “It’s a great product, and we’re always happy to support these integrations. We really appreciate our relationship with Bluesound Professional because I think it’s a win for everyone involved.”
Listen to Episode 7, Season 8 of the SurroundScapes podcast with Greg Spain here.
Follow every episode of the SurroundScapes podcast and dive deeper into the world of commercial AV at surroundscapes.bluesoundprofessional.com.
