Member Profile - Sam Counihan| Musiclink Australia

IMSTA is proud to announce that Sam Counihan, who is the manager of Musiclink Australia’s Software Products division, has expressed his interest to be more involved with IMSTA in that country. We had the pleasure to interview Sam and get his thoughts on the subject of software piracy.

Sammy, could you please tell us about yourself and about how you got involved in Music? 

I started playing guitar when I was about 8 or 9 with my dad. We'd play old Kinks and Rolling Stones songs on this beautiful old Epiphone acoustic that he has.

The high school that I went to had a really strong music scene as well. All my mates were into late 60s and early 70s blues rock; Zeppelin, Cream, Hendrix, all the usual suspects! I must have played in about a half a dozen different bands in high school. At the same time I was slowly getting to know this phenomenon known as hip hop that was emanating out of the US...I was a huge Beastie Boys and Public Enemy fan. After high school I actually went to art school with every intention of wanting to move into the arts. During this time I started working in a couple of night clubs here in Melbourne, bartending and cooking. The continued exposure to the house and techno being played slowly, but surely, wormed its way into my musical consciousness and I fell head first into a lasting love affair with electronic music. Sam Counihan

After I stopped working in the clubs in my early twenties I got myself a pair of turntables and joined a local improv jazz band as a scratch DJ and sample wrangler. I used to carry a rig that took me longer to set up than our drummer with his kit! We had Piezo mics hanging off his kit as triggers feeding my old Roland S-220 with a whopping 4.4 seconds of sampling time! From there I went onto running a number of club nights and DJing around town, got into production and started playing live with a friend of mine in an act called Supersquare. I then landed a job in a second hand music store selling old synths, which led to another job at a larger music store managing the Recording Department, and, well, here I am! My beautiful girlfriend works for Hal Leonard in classical licensing and is a classically trained pianist and percussionist. Our house is full of all sorts of instruments and a fairly hefty record collection!

How long have you been with Musiclink Australia? 

I've been with Musiclink for about 18 months.

With your busy schedule, do you get any time to play music? Are you in a band now?

I still DJ at a couple of clubs on the weekend, and very occasionally find some time to actually work on my own tunes at home, but that's about it. I think that my band days are behind me...

How does Musiclink Australia approach the software piracy problem?

It's a big challenge. We start with our retail dealer network and try to ensure that both hardware and software are presented in the same light. When the customer is budgeting for their studio needs, software must be included in that consideration with the same attention that is given to the hardware requirements. We also employ a zero tolerance policy towards any staff that is using cracked software.

What are some reasons that you joined IMSTA?

I think that it's important that the industry works together in a unified manner towards resolving the problem of software piracy. Software, now more than ever, is an absolutely essential part of any modern studio. A lot of time and effort is invested in creating the software that we all rely on for a variety of uses. Having a dedicated body championing the rights of software manufacturers is an important step in achieving this goal and we felt the need to show our support.

Relatively speaking, how important is software sales to Musiclink?

The software brands that we represent are an integral part of the Audio Technology department here at Musiclink. We are lucky enough to be working with some incredible software manufactures, and we certainly want to do everything we can to ensure that they can continue to resource and develop new products well into the future.

We ask this question of all our interviewees. Is there anything you want to say to the pirates out there reading this article?

I think a large part of it comes down to respect. We need to be considerate of the future. Perhaps that's something that humanity is just starting to do with the environment, and hopefully that sense of responsibility will extend into other aspects of people's lives. It's simple; if you steal all the software you use (and maybe even love!) then the manufacturers who make all these incredible applications are just not going to be around for much longer. If you like it and use it - buy it. Support those who create the software that we all swear by.

 

Musiclink Australia

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