NI acquired by tech investor

[ElmerJFudd]

https://www.gearnews.com/native-instruments-acquired-by-technology-investor-plans-end-to-end-music-creation-platform/

 

"Technology investor Francisco Partners has acquired majority ownership of Native Instruments with plans to create an 'end-to-end user centric platform for the music creation industry'. As part of the deal, investor EMH Partners and Native Instruments" founders become minority shareholders. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021."

 

"The changes in leadership have already produced some ambitious goals. The company wants to consolidate its products and industry influence into a singular platform for seamless music making experience. NI already indicated that it"s going in this direction with the launch of Native Access and the Sounds.com audio library. The probable next step is tying together Maschine, Komplete, and Traktor into a cohesive ecosystem of services, software and hardware. There"s lots of potential in this endeavour, so it will be interesting to watch the company pull it off over time. If Francisco Partners has its head and heart in the right place and NI employees get to have their say, the manufacturer could become a dominant force in music technology and the broader music industry. Here"s to what will hopefully turn out to be a strong start to a new era for Native Instruments."

 

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210120005349/en/EMH-Partners-and-Native-Instruments%E2%80%99-Founding-Shareholders-to-Sell-Majority-Ownership-in-Native-Instruments-to-Francisco-Partners

[Mark Schmieder]

This sounds like a lot of marketing speech with not much behind it. I don't see anything new behind that announcement, so far. But perhaps it will have an impact on the future direction of Kontakt. It almost sounds like they plan to build a DAW of sorts.

[Sam CA]

I hope this won't turn into another rise and fall Flickr/Yahoo type of story.

[stoken6]

Or Sibelius...

 

Cheers, Mike

[Docbop]

I don't see things like this as positive. Suits talk big, then look to see if they made a boatload of money, if not start making cheapening things. Still no more big profit then sell to another bunch of suit who think they can cut more and make money.

[Mark Schmieder]

Yep, if the suit fits...

[Doerfler]

worst case scenario, download everything now, I see a subscription service in the future. I really, really, hope I am wrong about this

[Stokely]

I have Komplete and was thinking about upgrading to Ultimate at the next sale. That probably won't happen now until I see the direction this takes. I'll (probably) never sign up for any kind of subscription.

[RABid]

My worry is what happens when they try to maximize profits.

[ElmerJFudd]

I wonder if it means they"ll do a DAW and or some hardware you have to use for access to the plugins. Without a doubt they will push membership/monthly plans.

[Geoff Grace]

Hey, maybe something good will happen. You never know.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[Bobadohshe]

I am in the skeptical camp too. I bet a lot of companies look at what UA does and gets jealous. The last thing we need is special hardware to run NI. Sadly some of their staples are no longer the go to standards in the industry. (Massive and Absynth come to mind).

 

But we'll be in trouble if they start to get cute with Kontakt.

[David Emm]

Does anyone here still sport a scar on their foot where NI suddenly dropped their KORE interface? Too soon?

[RABid]

Does anyone here still sport a scar on their foot where NI suddenly dropped their KORE interface? Too soon?

 

I have a useless Kore and a useless audio interface.

[Al Coda]

I see a subscriptiom service in the future.

 

Me too !

 

A.C.

[Jonathan Hughes]

I doubt they'd force you to use their own DAW to use their plugins. Aside from Kontakt, nothing they have is so unique that it couldn't be replaced with something else, so I doubt very few people would jump ship from a workflow they know just to use Massive or FM8 or whatever. And they make money from companies paying for compatibility with the Kontakt library and the Native Access system, and THOSE companies would be mighty ticked off if their customers could no longer access their products.

[KuruPrionz]

worst case scenario, download everything now, I see a subscription service in the future. I really, really, hope I am wrong about this

 

This is excellent advice. I need to get all of their installers for my plugins. I've been using Native Access. Maybe I should kill it and see if you can still down load.

 

I am also wonder about the future of Metapop, NI sponsors it and has been giving away a buttload of software for winners of the remix competitions. I'd still like to win one, even If I'd never really listen to a third of Komplete Ultimate.

All we can do is wait, I've been through several corporate takeovers as an employee and I don't have much good to say about the topic in general.

[Mighty Motif Max]

Not terribly happy about that. I literally just bought Kontakt and a bunch of stuff from them last November, but I absolutely hate subscription plans. I hope they don't pull a Pro Tools on us and break updates unless we subscribe. I'm not a big VI guy but a lot of developers I like use Kontakt for their instruments. Bah humbug.

[Tusker]

I"ll admit to some concern about this. It could go either way. Corporate deals are often predicated on an aggressive growth strategy. NI"s instruments are great and I wouldn"t want to lose that. On both the sampler and the synthesis front NI has heavyweight offerings. You hope they don"t dumb things down as they integrate the tools. But wouldn"t it be cool if Kontakt samples could be integrated with Reaktor dsp? And maybe they could pull off a daw-as-instrument paradigm? If I were NI, I"d rather compete with U-He than with Apple (Logic Pro). So why change? The fact is, these days, orchestral libraries are developing bespoke sample players as alternatives to Kontakt, and new modular synths are alternatives to Reaktor. Even Massive has plenty of competition. So perhaps it is time for NI to make big and risky moves.

 

As long as they do it well, we all win I think. I hope.

[Stokely]

There's no actual evidence that a subscription plan is coming, or did I miss something?

 

I get the impression NI doesn't compete with u-he, it would be the other way around. They are orders of magnitude larger. I've actually considered it quite possible they would buy u-he, based on nothing more than they have a relationship and they are both German

 

I'll keep using their stuff until I can't. As I said though this does make me hesitant to upgrade to Ultimate (I was already hesitant whether it would be worth it value-wise,this makes me more so!)

 

Who knows, maybe they'll update FM8 with a new gui now

[Doerfler]

There's no actual evidence that a subscription plan is coming, or did I miss something?

 

nothing more than speculation on my part

[Anderton]

Companies have a mixed track record in the music business. Pinnacle was a horrible owner for Steinberg, but the company found a good home in Yamaha, even if it hasn't quite matched its former glory. Emagic didn't do well with Ensoniq, but has thrived with Apple. The Sonic Foundry stuff languished under Sony except for Vegas, and so far things seem okay with Magix. Cakewalk didn't work for Roland, didn't work for Gibson, and although the jury is still out on exactly what will happen with BandLab, BandLab has kept the software alive and kept its promise to customers. As to Avid and Pro Tools...well, despite Avid's issues Pro Tools is still around. PreSonus taking over Kristal sure turned out well for all concerned.

 

I didn't see any other music companies in Francisco's portfolio. Hopefully they realize they're investing in a fashion industry, not something like health care.

[Anderton]

It just occurred to me...I wonder if this means NI will cut out retail altogether and sell only direct? You buy NI stuff from the NI store. Seems more software companies are going in that direction.

[Doerfler]

It just occurred to me...I wonder if this means NI will cut out retail altogether and sell only direct?

 

I thought they were already doing that with software. Hardware soon to follow maybe...

[jerrythek]

Companies have a mixed track record in the music business. ... Emagic didn't do well with Ensoniq, but has thrived with Apple.

 

Well, let's be accurate here. When they formed Emagic, splitting off from C-Lab they came to us (Ensoniq) to help with their US distribution. This was in 1992. By early 1994 they had formed their own company/operation in Grass Valley and took things over themselves. So we (Ensoniq) didn't have them very long. And Notator Logic 1.0 on the Mac was not really ready for "prime time". It's clear that we were nothing more than a needed stepping-stone for them on their way to becoming their own operation, which they ran from 1994 until Apple bought them in 2002.

 

Sorry, you struck a nerve... Carry on!

 

Jerry

[Geoff Grace]

It just occurred to me...I wonder if this means NI will cut out retail altogether and sell only direct?

 

I thought they were already doing that with software. Hardware soon to follow maybe...

I think for the most part you're correct, at least as far as individual software titles are concerned. That said, I just checked Sweetwater, Best Service, and JRR, and they all sell Komplete 13. I suppose that's technically a hardware sale as a drive comes with the software.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[Anderton]

Companies have a mixed track record in the music business. ... Emagic didn't do well with Ensoniq, but has thrived with Apple.

 

Well, let's be accurate here. When they formed Emagic, splitting off from C-Lab they came to us (Ensoniq) to help with their US distribution. This was in 1992. By early 1994 they had formed their own company/operation in Grass Valley and took things over themselves. So we (Ensoniq) didn't have them very long. And Notator Logic 1.0 on the Mac was not really ready for "prime time". It's clear that we were nothing more than a needed stepping-stone for them on their way to becoming their own operation, which they ran from 1994 until Apple bought them in 2002.

 

Sorry, you struck a nerve... Carry on!

 

Jerry

 

Well, "didn't do well" wasn't meant to be a value judgement, although being sandwiched between Pinnacle being "horrible" and Sonic Foundry "languishing," I could see where they would seem to be lumped together. Things don't go well for a number of reasons, but probably the weirdest one I can remember is when Apple announced they would be distributing Samplitude for a hot minute, just prior to buying Logic. Never could quite figure that one out. I don't think I hallucinated it...

[Anderton]

It just occurred to me...I wonder if this means NI will cut out retail altogether and sell only direct?

 

I thought they were already doing that with software. Hardware soon to follow maybe...

 

The thing that caught my eye in the press release was the "end to end user centric platform" phrase, If it's really end-to-end, I would assume that includes hardware as well as software and content.