Stepping out on limbs

I began writing Paul's Posts on August 1st, 2011. My goals haven't changed in four years: to build community through stories, education, entertainment and personal engagement. A little over a year ago we launched Sprout, an affordable all in one integrated we hoped would serve the same purpose as Paul's Posts, but to a different crowd. Sprout was well received with our core group, but didn't do as well with younger aspiring Audiophiles - and they are the ones we had hoped to entice. Sprout taught us much of how to engage the 28 to 40 year olds interested in hearing something better. Perhaps the biggest lesson was price. There seems a barrier of $500 they're uncomfortable exceeding, and Sprout was $800 - a fair price based on traditional retailing models. But Sprout is anything but traditional. We stepped out on a limb to create Sprout. Now we're moving farther out on the branches by permanently lowering its price to $499. And while this price is currently available only in the United States, that's not going to be forever. Plans are afoot to carry lowered pricing to other countries as well. If you know of aspiring music lovers on a budget, we might just have something for them.