Fender opens new Hollywood facility

Fender has opened a new facility in Hollywood that the firm believe will help it extend its digital product offering.

“We’re investing in the future,” said CEO Andy Mooney. “We have created a Fender digital organisation which is specifically developing digital products and services to help the next generation of guitarists. We have already launched our first digital product, which is an app-based tuner. We launched that four weeks ago and we’ve had 130,000 people download it already. We expect that over time millions of people will have that on their phone.”

It consists of two offices at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and North Gower Street. Fender’s executive, marketing, creative and digital teams are now housed in a 24,574-square-foot space at 1575 N. Gower. An additional 9,000-square-foot “Bungalow” at 1525 N. Gower will function as a kind of musical laboratory where musicians can try out new products.

With more than 100 seats dedicated to Fender’s new digital team, the move signals a significant investment in the future of the brand.

Mooney said Fender also plans to offer online music lessons, many of which will cater to beginners.

“We’re currently working on developing about 500 hours of theory and practice content and about another thousand song lessons,” he said. “So if you’re a first-time player and want to invest in lessons — whether you’re a country western fan or a classic rock fan — we will be able to provide you with a suite of products and services that can help you through that first year.”

And that first year is crucial. Many people who attempt to learn guitar end up abandoning the instrument within the first 12 months, according to Mooney.

“The numbers are quite staggering,” he said. “It’s about a 90 percent drop-out rate. But the 10 per cent who stick with it commit to the instrument for life and in some cases become obsessive like I did and have big guitar collections. If we can reduce the abandonment rate by just 10 percent we have the potential to double the size of the industry.”

Richard McDonald, who leads Fender’s product development team, said: “We’re constantly innovating and creating new products. That’s really one of the hallmarks of the Fender brand. We understand the challenges players have and we enable solutions so they have the ability to find their own individual voice.”