FL Studio chief says Reddit is part of his daily user feedback loop
Image Line CEO Constantin Koehncke told The Verge he checks Reddit and FL Studio forums each morning as the music software maker adds AI tools.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
3 min read
Image Line CEO Constantin Koehncke says Reddit and FL Studio’s own forums are part of his daily routine for staying close to users. The habit matters as Image Line continues adding AI-assisted features to FL Studio, one of the best-known digital audio workstations.
In an interview with The Verge, Koehncke said his pinned browser tabs include internal dashboards, product documents, analytics, the FL Studio forums and Reddit. He said checking those pages every morning has become automatic.
Koehncke has led Image Line since 2022, according to The Verge. The company makes FL Studio, the music-production app that began life as Fruity Loops and has since become a staple for producers working on computers.
Under Koehncke, The Verge reported, FL Studio has added AI-powered tools including stem separation and a chatbot called Gopher. Stem separation lets users split parts of a track such as drums, vocals and bass, while Gopher is presented as an assistant inside the FL Studio ecosystem.
Reddit remains a regular stop
Koehncke told The Verge that Reddit is the social platform he uses most by choice. He described it as flawed but still close to the older version of the internet, where people debate narrow interests with real intensity and mix that with jokes.
He also said he spends time on YouTube and Substack to learn and keep current. LinkedIn, he told The Verge, comes with the CEO role, though he said he mentally filters out formulaic AI-generated business posts.
The Verge interview also sketched Koehncke’s broader tech habits. He said he had 34 browser tabs open across two windows at the time, separated between work and other uses, and that he tries to end each day with no tabs left open.
Koehncke named AirPods Pro as his most essential device, telling The Verge he uses them for calls, podcasts, walks, flights and music. He said losing them would cut his productivity by about 40 percent.
A cautious view of creative AI
Koehncke’s comments on AI drew a line between tools that help creators and systems that try to replace them. He told The Verge that writing, painting and music-making are human activities, and that technology should open more ways for people to express ideas rather than take over the act of creation.
That view sits alongside Image Line’s recent AI additions to FL Studio. The Verge reported that Koehncke has overseen those features while also keeping an eye on the software’s roots and its user community.
Before joining Image Line, Koehncke was head of Native Instruments, according to The Verge. His earlier career also included marketing work and about five years as a freelance music journalist.
Koehncke credited Didier “Gol” Dambrin with creating FL Studio, telling The Verge that music owes him a lot. He also gave his imagined biopic tagline as a “failed DJ” who turned helping other people make music into a career.
Outside work, Koehncke told The Verge he prefers long-form journalism from outlets including The New Yorker, FT Weekend and The Economist. He said his current favorite gadget is a Teenage Engineering OB-4 speaker, which he uses at home and recently as part of getting his daughter to sleep.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.