How Fender Brought Guitar Playing Back From the Dead
Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero · 2026-06-10 · 13 min
Episode notes
In the mid-2010s, Fender was in trouble. Sales of electric guitars had been declining for years, and the company that defined rock and roll was facing an existential crisis. Then something unexpected happened: a wave of new players, many of them adults picking up the instrument for the first time, began buying Squier and Player Series guitars. In this episode, we unpack how Fender's leadership recognized the shift, built a beginner-friendly ecosystem with Fender Play, and turned a legacy brand into a growth story. We look at the numbers: the 2019 IPO filing, the 40% revenue jump from digital subscriptions, and the decision to sell guitars at $199 instead of $1,000. This is not a nostalgia story. It's a turnaround built on understanding a forgotten customer. #Fender #GuitarIndustry #MusicBusiness #Turnaround #DirectToConsumer #FenderPlay #BusinessStrategy #BrandRevival #Squier #LessonsInLeadership #RetailInnovation #SubscriptionModel #BusinessPodcast #FexingoBusiness #Business #StartupStorieswithFexingo #Marketing #Entrepreneurship Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo