SNAMM03: Roland Buys a Piece Of Cakewalk

Roland has been the sole distributor of Cakewalk products in Japan since 1995. Since then Roland and Cakewalk have worked together to co-develop and expand the new growing market of Desktop Music.

Roland clearly has plans to move further into software, as the VariOS platform and the new vintage emulation plugins VariOS-8 and VariOS 303 (see recent news item) clearly shows.

"We're thrilled about the alliance and look forward to collaborating on joint software development projects, says Katsuyoshi Dan, President of Roland Corporation.
"In order to strengthen our relationship with Cakewalk worldwide, Roland moved forward with this investment. It was a natural course of action for us as Cakewalk will provide us with the key software expertise necessary for us to move ahead with a new wave of innovative music products."

"What is unique about this alliance is that our two companies have come together with a shared vision to create and deliver the best music products for musicians," commented Greg Hendershott, Founder and CEO of Cakewalk. We look forward to a long and profitable relationship.