Tradeoffs and Payoffs

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Joining Soundwide

www.simoncross.com

Joining Soundwide

A new chapter for me!

Simon Cross
Feb 20
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Joining Soundwide

www.simoncross.com

When I resigned from Meta in September 2023 after 12 amazing and crazy years of growth, I wasn’t sure what I should do next, but there were two things at the top of my list:

  1. something I’m naturally passionate about,

  2. where the leadership team is based in EMEA.


I started DJing, believe it or not, when I was 8. My dad ran a school and by 10 I was running the school discos there and at my youth club. While I was a pretty rubbish young piano player, at 12 I found my musical calling: the drums. Cue years of being in bands, performing around the UK and occasionally abroad. At university, I did student radio and had a DJ residency on weekends.

Music and technology are the twin passions that have shaped my life.

Which is why I’m beyond excited that today I’m joining Soundwide as their Chief Product Officer.

Soundwide is the company that brings together some of the most influential and respected names in music tech: Native Instruments, iZotope, Brainworx, Plugin Alliance, and SoundStacks.

Me, DJing, aged, I dunno, 12?

Many of the songs you know and love were created or mixed using their technology, as well as your favourite TV shows and movies. The use cases range from restoring old audio recordings, to empowering the most cutting edge creators, producers, and artists at work today.

These brands have a long and illustrious history, and it’s beyond an honour to have the opportunity to work with the talented and experienced people behind these products.

And after 12 years working mostly with teams 8 hours and 5000 miles away, I’m excited to be working with our teams that are closer to home in Berlin, Langenfeld, London, and Boston.

I’m excited and nervous. There’s lots to be done: bringing these companies and their products together, accelerating the rate at which we ship new features, crafting the next leap in hardware, and moving the music creation world from its 20-year home on the desktop toward the web, mobile, and the cloud.

Happy place

I plan to continue blogging right here when I can find the time. I’ve enjoyed getting back into writing in my three months off — and I hope the experiences and ideas I share here are useful to even just a few people.

Wish me luck!

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Joining Soundwide

www.simoncross.com
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3 Comments
Sean Byrnes
Writes The Breaking Point
Feb 20

Awesome! Congratulations, that's exciting.

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Arne Kittler
Feb 20

Great news, this sounds like a very good move! (Nice DJ pic!)

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