From Consultancy to Thriving Audio Distributor: After launching his career in the manufacturing end of the pro audio industry, Brad Lunde in 1996 founded Lunde Consulting, which served as an outsource marketing and sales consultant to the manufacturing community. Attending a trade show in Germany, he learned from various small manufacturers that they were unable to find solid distributors in the U.S. to help them develop their business Stateside. He started TransAudio Group out of his home in Thousand Oaks, CA to help fill this niche. Drawmer and SoundField (both U.K. family run manufacturers) had hired Lunde Consulting to find them a U.S. distributor. When Lunde couldn’t find one, one of the Drawmer’s executives convinced Lunde to become a distributor himself. In 2005, Lunde—who moved operations to Las Vegas in 2000—formed the subsidiary Las Vegas Pro Audio as a product launch vehicle.
Partnered Brands: A large proportion of TransAudio’s clientele is engineers, producers and studio owners. One of the focal points of TransAudio’s ads in MC is ATC Studio Monitors, the core of a producer or engineer’s work life. The brands that Lunde partners with have a strong emphasis on invention and new ideas. These include A Designs, Auratone, Bettermaker, Bock Audio, Cranesong, Daking, Dave Hill Designs, DrawmerHakan, Pauly, Pete’s Place Audio, Sabra-Som, Sonodyne and Tube-Tech.
Product Management as Part of the Equation: TransAudio is a collective personal statement of its staff that business does not have to be selfish to be successful––and that in its very best form it exists to contribute something beyond the product it sells. The company’s employees are all ex-musicians, and most have experience as a dealer or rep with established audio companies. Another part of the TransAudio business model is its auxiliary role as a product manager. “Our goal is to find unique products that are considered top of the line in the marketplace,” Lunde says. “We often take info and input from our customers in the field and give them to the manufacturers to help them improve their existing products and create others that fit specific new demands.”
For more information, visit transaudiogroup.com.
