Is Car Audio Dead?

After the disappointment of the only car audio mag still standing has folded (Car Audio & Electronics), and there is VERY rarely anything worth reading in Mobile Electronics Retailer Mag, is car audio dead?  I had hoped it was just the economy, but kids seem to have no interest in stereo around my area (It looks like my boss made a smart move retiring two years ago), and even adults are less interested in remote starters (maybe gas prices, maybe just stock features on new cars for people who would have purchased one). 

I have noticed that fewer people have been posting here, and the Car Sound and Performance forums are all but dead.  Where have all the professionals gone, is it a new site, or have they disapeared all together?

Car audio is drowning.  Here's why:  Car manufacturers.  When CD's took off in the early 90's, the car manufacturers still put cassette players in the cars.   You can still find 04-05 cars with cassette players.  So, most people who had made the switch to CD's had to install new radios.  So it was easier for the sales people to talk customers into new speakers, amps, subs, etc. when a customer came in for a new radio.  Now, almost every car has a CD player, so most people are not coming into the stores in the first place.  No traffic, no sales.  Now with vehicles offering auxillary inputs for customers' iPods and MP3 players, they again, take the excuse for stopping into the store out of the equation.

All in all, it's the car manufacturers actually listening to the industry and offering all the hop-ups to the customer before they leave the car lot.  Auto start, iPod hook-up, overhead mobile video, navigation, etc. etc.  are all offered.  Yes, they are far more expensive and in most cases inferior to aftermarket equipment, but when a customer buys thier car and to add those luxuries to the car, all the have to do is increase thier monthly payment a few bucks a month it makes sense.  No money out of pocket, convenience up front and viola' goodbye car audio industry.  Also the fact that the new cars are designed so that radio replacement is impossible doesn't help.

The car audio industry will quickly decline into the specialist world.  It will become a place where only the dedicated will frequent and actually purchase things on a regular basis.    Oh yeah, that's why I'm no longer in the industry. lol.

While I say car audio is FAR from dead, the increasing use of OEM auto nav/sound/voice command type systems that are integrated into the vehicle electronics is likely to continue eroding the market for better head units.  The aftermarket speaker, amp and subwoofer segments are likely to remain strong however.  I predict more integration devices like JL's Clean Sweep in the near future, as well as more voice-recognition and cell-phone integration units, and more drop-in factory replacment speaker systems

Oh, and please keep partisan politics of any flavor out of this forum, thanks.

Auto makers have finaly see the money they have been losing to aftermarket companys So now you can

buy the upgrades at the dealer ship like premuim sound systems with subwoofers. Some auto makers

also have deals with audio manfactures and offer speakers from e.g. Infinity you can get Alpine from BMW

installed at dealer ship American auto makers have took alot of hits. Low sales so there offering more choices to customers

But Its not that car audio is die'in off Its just going to take time for the economy to stablize

I worked for a little Steel mill called Kobelco its owned by Kobe Steel LTD It got sold out and closed doors

We made steel for the big 3 (GM,FORD,DYMLAR/Crystlar) Its just the economy no company is safe.

So where are all the professionals, who work in the industry, and do custom work, hang out now?  It doesn't look like it is here, or Car Sound and Performance forums anymore.

mennitti wrote:

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So where are all the professionals, who work in the industry, and do custom work, hang out now?  It doesn't look like it is here, or Car Sound and Performance forums anymore.

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there are lots of people on here who install for a living. the ones you speak of though, are a dying breed. there are still some here too and you can tell it from their posts, but, you can also tell that they have since moved on to other jobs and things and use their knowledge and experience in other fields. you see mennitti, as some guys get older, grow up, get married maybe, have kids maybe, dog, buy an actual house maybe, they just dont stay under dashes anymore for a living. they move to bigger better things. installing is cool when your right out of highschool, and even for lots of years to come, but how many guys are gonna do it until retirement?? nuff said. there still out there and here too, but none of them work at best buy, circuit city, frys, or even the little shops anymore........anyway, you get my point.

I'll assume you didn't mean for that to sound so condesending.

I am all of the above, however I still work on my car and would like to see the projects other people are into.

mennitti wrote:

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I'll assume you didn't mean for that to sound so condesending.

I am all of the above, however I still work on my car and would like to see the projects other people are into.

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No, didn't want to sound condesending. i thought you were asking that question because you actually didnt know.

The question is car audio dead??  As one who has been in the industry 20 plus years i can tell you no it is not..  Like Mark Twain once said.."reports of my death are greatly eggsaturated"  However, what is dead is the old model of how car audio is sold and installed.  No longer can I assume that every car that rolls into my install bays can i replace the head unit, install amps and new speakers and a happy customer drives away forever grateful and happy.  The new model just don't work that way and i feel really sorry for those still in the industry who still ascribe to this business model.  Let me briefly touch on some key points as i see them.  1) The mobil electronics catagory is now middle age and not the young upstart darling of the consumer electronics industry.  As a whole we were the young turks, daring to do things once thought unimaginable in the car. At the beginning there were few products that addressed the need for enhancned high end audio.  But the wow factor was easy to achive and shops started springing up as fast as new products and manufacturers.                              2) The comodization of products, which means that when you see some new hot product at CES you will see in hardly no time at all 10 other companies each selling the identical item, so it was with the in dash monitors and the video explosion.  This of course results in a lower bottom line because who is going to pay $500.00 for widget A when you can buy widget B for $300.00 and they are identical.  There has not been a product that creates customer demand and warm embrace other than iPod integreation.  This commoditization also includes the car makers listening and designing in the vehicle these telematic/entertainment protocols which to Mr Customer is good enough for them.                       3) Internet. .. Need i say more?  For an old single strore brick and morter dinosaur like ourselves we have to reinvent ourselves and our business model every 18 months or sooner.  By that i am referring to price erosion on key products, that are sold via a zillion web sites.  Good or Bad it ain't going away and if one does not only acknowldedge and accept it than there will be no viable solution to deal with this incursion on market share and profit margins and urban legends of products and specs.         4)  The aging demographic and the changing consumer attitudes toward car audio and security as just another do-dad and not something new and cutting edge.  Like everything else we become accustomed to the wheel being reinvented every year at CES.      So to answer the question i propose to reword it... instead of is car audio dead ask what has car audio morphed into??  Into the operating protocols and oem electrical systems with out the benefit of mfr assistance or bulldoodie propriotary information with regard to wiring schematics and protocols.  Hell!  This freakin industry caused the car makers to listen and provide these now common features in standard models.  Now we have to dwelve even deeper into the computing/telematic 12 volt magic and without the assistance or help of the various mfr's come up with aftermarket features that will interface seamlessly and add value and bring the WOW factor back to the industry once known as car audio.     5) If all the above makes no sense at all you are either under the age of 25 or don't work in the industry. 

remarkable53 wrote:

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The question is car audio dead??  As one who has been in the industry 20 plus years i can tell you no it is not..  Like Mark Twain once said.."reports of my death are greatly eggsaturated"  However, what is dead is the old model of how car audio is sold and installed.  No longer can I assume that every car that rolls into my install bays can i replace the head unit, install amps and new speakers and a happy customer drives away forever grateful and happy.  The new model just don't work that way and i feel really sorry for those still in the industry who still ascribe to this business model.  Let me briefly touch on some key points as i see them.  1) The mobil electronics catagory is now middle age and not the young upstart darling of the consumer electronics industry.  As a whole we were the young turks, daring to do things once thought unimaginable in the car. At the beginning there were few products that addressed the need for enhancned high end audio.  But the wow factor was easy to achive and shops started springing up as fast as new products and manufacturers.                              2) The comodization of products, which means that when you see some new hot product at CES you will see in hardly no time at all 10 other companies each selling the identical item, so it was with the in dash monitors and the video explosion.  This of course results in a lower bottom line because who is going to pay $500.00 for widget A when you can buy widget B for $300.00 and they are identical.  There has not been a product that creates customer demand and warm embrace other than iPod integreation.  This commoditization also includes the car makers listening and designing in the vehicle these telematic/entertainment protocols which to Mr Customer is good enough for them.                       3) Internet. .. Need i say more?  For an old single strore brick and morter dinosaur like ourselves we have to reinvent ourselves and our business model every 18 months or sooner.  By that i am referring to price erosion on key products, that are sold via a zillion web sites.  Good or Bad it ain't going away and if one does not only acknowldedge and accept it than there will be no viable solution to deal with this incursion on market share and profit margins and urban legends of products and specs.         4)  The aging demographic and the changing consumer attitudes toward car audio and security as just another do-dad and not something new and cutting edge.  Like everything else we become accustomed to the wheel being reinvented every year at CES.      So to answer the question i propose to reword it... instead of is car audio dead ask what has car audio morphed into??  Into the operating protocols and oem electrical systems with out the benefit of mfr assistance or bulldoodie propriotary information with regard to wiring schematics and protocols.  Hell!  This freakin industry caused the car makers to listen and provide these now common features in standard models.  Now we have to dwelve even deeper into the computing/telematic 12 volt magic and without the assistance or help of the various mfr's come up with aftermarket features that will interface seamlessly and add value and bring the WOW factor back to the industry once known as car audio.     5) If all the above makes no sense at all you are either under the age of 25 or don't work in the industry. 

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Well put.  I stopped working in install shops back in 99'.  Still installing some during my free time, but it's definetly different now.  Alot more integration into and working around the factory units, databus, using bypass modules etc.  Definetly not like the old days anymore.  I don't think the business will die, I think it will continue to adapt and evolve.