Audiocase is bringing back the ghettoblaster

Danish Audiocase is the startup behind a new portable wireless speaker, with the goal of bringing back the social aspect of listening to music. The team behind Audiocase is ready to take the startup a step further, and will be launching their Kickstarter Campaign this Friday at CROWD15, a crowdfunding conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Premium sound on the go!

Audiocase is a Danish startup, built by music and technology enthusiasts. The startup is behind a new portable wireless speaker, which gives you a great music experience no matter where you are. It is equipped with the latest Bluetooth technology and can connect to almost any device with a viable Bluetooth connection.

Its build in battery ensures at least 12 hours of non-stop playing, and can go as far as 24 hours on a single charge. The weight is only 6 kg making it easy to carry around, and its pro speaker units ensures you the best possible music experience wherever you are. You can read more about the specifications here!

“We have made an amazing speaker that is able to play louder than any other battery powered speaker of its size while maintaining premium sound quality, by combining our high sensitivity pro drivers and an extreme-efficient digital amplifier.”– Mikkel Thorup Pedersen, Interaction Designer at Audiocase.

The case is built from high quality laminated poplar plywood, has a weather resistant surface, and its flightcase aluminum angles and steel corners and makes it very sturdy. The Audiocase is assembled in Copenhagen by Søren Larsen himself, and is available in five different colors.

“We decided to go against the trend, by developing a speaker without thousands of buttons. We designed the speaker to be tough, enabling users to bring it wherever they want to go.” – Søren Larsen, CEO and Founder of Audiocase.

The team behind Audiocase

Audiocase consist of the two great people, who loves working with music and developing speakers. They work together to bring back the sound quality of wireless speakers.

Søren is the CEO and Founder of Audiocase, who has a background from Copenhagen Business School and has a deep passion for technology and building his own speakers.
Mikkel is an interaction Designer who started as an intern at Audiocase, and is now a part of the company. He got a lot of knowledge about the music scene, as he has been working as a DJ for several years.

Audiocase is part of Lydenshus, a co-working space dedicated to people within the music industry. The co-working space has contributed a lot to development of Audiocase, and helped Søren and Mikkel on their way towards success.

“Being part of Lydenshus is great! The people here are amazing; it is always possible to get good feedback on an idea, because everybody is involved with the music industry. They have played a big part in getting us to where we are today, and for that we are forever grateful.” – Søren Larsen.

Inspired by the 80’s ghettoblaster

The idea for Audio case came from Søren Larsen, CEO and Founder of Audio case, when he was attending Roskilde Festival, one of the biggest music festivals in Europe. Søren is involved with the Maker Movement, and was part of a team arranging a makerspace during the Roskilde Festival back in 2013.

Søren always had an interest for building speakers. He got the opportunity to create a workshop for the workspace, and decided to make one about building speakers. The event was a big success and they ended up with 100 small speakers, which they called for “Campblasters”.

There has always been a big culture for building your own speakers in Denmark. After seeing the success of the workshop and talking to the people attending, he realized that there was a need here.

“I have always known that the Danes like building their own speakers. After the workshop, I realized that it was an expression of the fact, that there was no commercially products on the market, which could live up to peoples’ expectations.” – Søren Larsen, CEO and Founder of Audiocase.

Søren saw the trend for mobile streaming of music, but realized that everybody was using headphones or low quality speakers. He wanted to bring back the social aspect of music, and turned towards the ghettoblaster from the 80’s for inspiration.  Audiocase is now ready for launch, after two years of hard work!

“The ghettoblaster don’t really exist anymore, but we saw potential in the design philosophy. Many of the problems that the ghettoblaster had, such as having a limited music and keep buying batteries, have been solved by technology, making it more relevant than ever”– Søren Larsen.

Many potential target groups

The main target group for Audiocase is young people between 20 to 35 years old, who appreciate premium sound and the social aspect of music. Audiocase was introduced to a completely new target group, when they was on the Danish TV show, Pengemagasinet.

“We was actually introduced to a lot of new segments, which we had never thought about! We found out that a lot of people actually wanted one of our speakers for their vacation homes, garages and even their fishing boat.” – Mikkel Thorup Pedersen.

There is also a big potential for doing some business-to-business. Many street performers, dancers, musicians and even some schools have reached out to Audiocase, about using the speaker for their music education.

The launching price for their standard speaker will be 3.500 kr. ($530), with the opportunity for customization for an additional fee. You can pick up an “early bird” edition, which is the same as the standard edition, for 3.000 kr. ($455) if you are between the first 15 buyers.

Launching Kickstarter campaign at CROWD15

Audiocase will be launching their Kickstarter campaign at CROWD15 Friday, 27 of February. CROWD15 is a big crowdsourcing and crowdfunding conference, which began yesterday. Audiocase will be taking the scene today around 16.30 CEST, to launch their Kickstarter campaign.

“We decided to launch at CROWD15 because we are able to obtain more press coverage that way, and will be able to network with some very exiting people. As a bonus by doing it this way, we will not have to throw our own party” Says Søren Larsen

The Kickstarter campaign will be launching with a pledge of 150.000 kr. ($22,700) and will be running for 30 days. Since the product is quite expensive, compared to the normal standard of Kickstarter products, is it important for Audiocase to have smaller rewards available.

“We have a few different smaller rewards available for our pledgers, such as an awesome Audiocase poster made by a professional artist, sticker packs, postcards and some amazing special edition speakers decorated by different artists.” – Mikkel Thorup Pedersen.

Audiocase decided to go “the Kickstarter way”, because it is the most international crowdfunding platform.

“Our concept is easy to understand, making it ideal for crowdfunding”. Says Søren Larsen.

What makes Audiocase especially interesting for potential pledgers is the fact, that Audiocase will already be able to have 150 speakers ready for delivery in June. By pledging to Audiocase, you will not have to wait several month or even years, as sometimes occur with these type of campaigns.

South by Southwest

Audiocase will be attending South by Southwest, the largest music festival in the world, with more than 2,200 performers in more than 100 venues every year. This year’s conference will be held from March 13 through March 17. Audiocase own a competition for the ticket to South by Southwest, and intend to use the time to its fullest.

“The festival is in the middle of our Kickstarter campaign, and this is an amazing opportunity to promote Audiocase, since crowdfunding campaigns are normally quite dead in the middle of the progress”. – Søren Larsen

If you want more information about Audiocase, check out their website here!