Investor pumps 50 million Euro into NI

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fluffy_little_something wrote:
Spencer Maddox wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:I will continue to boycott NI 8)
Any Particular reason why?
Well, to begin with, it is a big company, which I don't like. I tend to support one-man shows...
Nor do they have anything that interests me, except for Massive to a certain extent.

One man shows employ, well, one man. Big evil companies put a lot of food on the table for a lot of people.
my music: http://www.alexcooperusa.com
"It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am." Muhammad Ali

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mostlyjustj wrote:
elassi wrote:Oh, and other topics are online- and cloudservices. :roll:
Yes, sadly this is what comes to mind when I look at this VC firm's description here : https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stoc ... =247089133

These people don't seem to be very interested in developing cool software or cool hardware... they seem interested in restructuring income/pricing models. I can't say I like the smell of this :-?
Here we go again. iZotope anybody? The beancounters take over.

:( :( :(

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The only area where NI has a strangehold is with Kontakt.

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lnikj wrote:
mostlyjustj wrote:
elassi wrote:Oh, and other topics are online- and cloudservices. :roll:
Yes, sadly this is what comes to mind when I look at this VC firm's description here : https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stoc ... =247089133

These people don't seem to be very interested in developing cool software or cool hardware... they seem interested in restructuring income/pricing models. I can't say I like the smell of this :-?
Here we go again. iZotope anybody? The beancounters take over.

:( :( :(
From what I can tell ... http://www.billboard.com/articles/busin ... h-partners ... NI went to EMH Partners and said "hey, how bout giving us 50mil for this new idea we have?"... and the idea is a collaborative/online/cloud-based/whatever content creation platform. I think the "democratization" part of it is exposing the NI ecosystem (somehow) via online... maybe Reaktor live render farms? Network enabled Traktor? Who knows... youtube did it's part in democratizing web content, maybe this new NI venture is along those conceptual lines. Plus (not surprisingly for any business) it sounds like they're interested in expanding their customer base to the remix kiddies who would otherwise be downloading fruity off of torrent and stare confusingly at the screen... can't afford Komplete but you want to make music? Sign up for this $5/mo cloud service and go to town with your friends... I'm just throwing out some ideas here based on the marketing gobbledy-gook.

Now... you could argue that NI is going head first down a rabbit hole... which may indeed be accurate... BUT at least they went out and secured 50mil specifically for this purpose... which to me means (in theory) they are intending to spin this off into it's own project and will not forsake the lucrative software business... hire more people, R&D on somebody else's dime, that sorta thing. That being said, in the software world 50mil doesn't go along way when you're talking about designing and implementing an entirely new content platform, UI design and usability, new hosting contracts, a couple dozen new employees, fancy new mobile apps, ongoing maintenance and support, etc. etc. Maybe the 50mil is a "let's see how this goes" down payment, and they were promised more when things come together... or maybe 50mil is enough... Mind, EMH's "Digital Growth Fund" is only EUR 350mil, so 50mil of that is sizable.

So if they can build out this new platform without affecting the software business in terms of implementation/support resources and schedules, then I'm all for it. Have fun. If they intend to run the software and content businesses side-by-side, with equal priority and importance, then I say "Go For It!". Anything other than that... refocus business priorities on cloud nonsense and content creation and delivery, replacing standalone software products with something else entirely, or something requiring subscription (including removing ability to buy/upgrade kontact by itself), then I'm going to be concerned... and by "concerned" I mean "really pissed".
You need to limit that rez, bro.

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The new NI National Anthem ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7r0-F_VrwM
Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

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kmonkey wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:
Well, to begin with, it is a big company, which I don't like. I tend to support one-man shows...
Good lord allmighty oh well..just what the heck..

Imagine this. Your favorite one man show after successful product line hiring 10 people - and it start exponential grow. By your logic you will start not to like it because company is expanding, developing new ideas, new products, hiring more people (which practically is what NI is doing), feeding more families and doing public well.

Yeah that make sense. Remember NI was only a few geeks. Even U-he was one man show now more then eight people.

I am betting you never started your own company right? I can't seem to know one single person which started a company business and having vision of not growing income (thus demanding more resources, more people etc.), non development and to be some sort of weird one man show in the long run. That must be a joke. Well unless you have some sort of weird business mission then possibly not. Or you are painting artist that sort of thing.

edit: i get it. you dislike rich people or rich companies that's it. Like all people which have money are bad by default right?
I should probably just shut up because these discussions rarely lead anywhere constructive, but as you said it - what the heck.. :)

I'm not second-guessing what Fluffy thinks, but my personal experience is that it is a mistake to automatically suggest that growth is synonymous with better. A small company are in touch with its user-base, a large company needs a larger bureaucracy to function: meetings, groups, more meetings and more groups. The path between the end user and the company is getting increasingly larger.

I remember when NI was totally fresh on the scene. I still have the first NFR box of Generator that Mate Galic or Stephan Schmitt sent me for a review. Back then I was on speaking terms with both. Today NI has transformed into a anonymous corporate affair that focuses more on creating sample packs for Maschine than actually updating Maschine.

I think that if NI is earning lots of money and they are employing lots of people - great. But NI is no longer the cheeky and innovative company I helped to fund with my purchases - and I have very little interest in modern NI any longer. I feel they more and more are focusing on things that absolutely does not interest me.

From a personal perspective (and yes, I have started a few companies of my own) there is a zone in terms of size where there is little bureaucracy - you have personal contact with your users and updates can be done and sent out rapidly.

A personal example. I've been offered a couple of times to start selling my sounds through the major sound portals, and although it's been tempting to forget about doing all PR and sales myself - I actually enjoy it. I like when users contact me about whatever they like to talk about. Music, suggestions or old tech. I will never grow to become a big company - but I don't want to. If I earn ten times more - my life will not become ten times better. I earn enough and I love what I do, and I think that's so appealing with smaller companies. U-he is a great example. He has all the potential to grow into something really big, but I sincerely hope he will keep it small-ish. I value his personal presence on this forum enormously.

I really feel the bean-counters have taken over NI and the passion of making cool music tech has almost entirely disappeared. But I truly wish them the best of luck.

/C
CLUB VICE for ARTURIA PIGMENTS
HARDWARE SAMPLER FANATIC - Akai S1100/S950/Z8 - Casio FZ20m - Emu Emax I - Ensoniq ASR10/EPS

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DrGonzo wrote:I'm not second-guessing what Fluffy thinks, but my personal experience is that it is a mistake to automatically suggest that growth is synonymous with better.
Its exactly the same mistake to automatically suggest that it is synonymous with worse.
my other modular synth is a bugbrand

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whyterabbyt wrote:
DrGonzo wrote:I'm not second-guessing what Fluffy thinks, but my personal experience is that it is a mistake to automatically suggest that growth is synonymous with better.
Its exactly the same mistake to automatically suggest that it is synonymous with worse.
Seeing where NI has been going the last five years, I honestly can't see how 50 million is going to make NI a better company.

But of course - you are absolutely right.

/C
CLUB VICE for ARTURIA PIGMENTS
HARDWARE SAMPLER FANATIC - Akai S1100/S950/Z8 - Casio FZ20m - Emu Emax I - Ensoniq ASR10/EPS

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This makes total sense to me... As it becomes more and more difficult to make money either as a professional musician or studio the income for companies developing tools for musicians and studios is becoming more dependent on hobby/home musicians/studios, therefore companies like NI will obviously start developing more and more product for that target group. To dumb down music making tools so that a wider market has access to music composition and studio technology is where a lot more companies are heading or indeed have already gone, just look at all the artist series that Waves have released in the last years or even the new Izotope Ozone and Neutron releases. I guess there's no point in going all King Canute about it. That's capitalism folks!

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kmonkey wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:
Well, to begin with, it is a big company, which I don't like. I tend to support one-man shows...
Good lord allmighty oh well..just what the heck..

Imagine this. Your favorite one man show after successful product line hiring 10 people - and it start exponential grow. By your logic you will start not to like it because company is expanding, developing new ideas, new products, hiring more people (which practically is what NI is doing), feeding more families and doing public well.

Yeah that make sense. Remember NI was only a few geeks. Even U-he was one man show now more then eight people.

I am betting you never started your own company right? I can't seem to know one single person which started a company business and having vision of not growing income (thus demanding more resources, more people etc.), non development and to be some sort of weird one man show in the long run. That must be a joke. Well unless you have some sort of weird business mission then possibly not. Or you are painting artist that sort of thing.

edit: i get it. you dislike rich people or rich companies that's it. Like all people which have money are bad by default right?
Well, I think when a company dominates 50% of the audio software market as I read somewhere, then it is too big in my view.

I am not a capitalist, I don't believe in that whole ridiculous growth mantra.

All the stuff I use (Mulab, Sylenth1, Toneboosters) is from one-man shows, that have been around for a long time. It is not grow or perish.

And regarding jobs, every job NI creates takes a job away from another company as the market is only so big. I don't want the music software scene to look like the OS scene.

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DrGonzo wrote:If I earn ten times more - my life will not become ten times better.
There's a wonderful short story from Heinrich Böll (noble prize 1972) named "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral" which basically means "Story to reduce the motivation to work". It goes like this:

A tourist meets a sleeping fisherman in the harbour somewhere at the coast in Western Europe and asks him about his fishing success for that day. The fisherman replies that he's satisfied. But the tourist can't understand that he does not go on fishing again at that day. He describes how much more he could fish then, and when he does it regularly, he could invest in a second boat, then later on in a third boat and so on. Eventually the fisherman would be become rich and could stay in the harbour and snooze in the sun.

The fisherman replies: "I can do this already."

:tu:

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fluffy_little_something wrote:Well, I think when a company dominates 50% of the audio software market as I read somewhere, then it is too big in my view.
So, everyone who has done a good job, and got a big piece of the market should be punished? Hmmm...

Seriously, we should be happy that a company in this business does THAT well. It's exceptional. Especially when you consider how good NI's service is, at least that's what i experienced.

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elassi wrote:
DrGonzo wrote:If I earn ten times more - my life will not become ten times better.
There's a wonderful short story from Heinrich Böll (noble prize 1972) named "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral" which basically means "Story to reduce the motivation to work". It goes like this:

A tourist meets a sleeping fisherman in the harbour somewhere at the coast in Western Europe and asks him about his fishing success for that day. The fisherman replies that he's satisfied. But the tourist can't understand that he does not go on fishing again at that day. He describes how much more he could fish then, and when he does it regularly, he could invest in a second boat, then later on in a third boat and so on. Eventually the fisherman would be become rich and could stay in the harbour and snooze in the sun.

The fisherman replies: "I can do this already."

:tu:
Thing is, that's not what most of the humans are about. And, IMO, it should be about what makes most humans tick.

Anyway, maybe rather a HPC style discussion.

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If even 50 million dollars cannot get Native Instruments to release a new VSTI synth, then I don't know what will. :hihi:
High Quality Soundsets for Lush-101 | Hive | Electra 2 | Diversion | Halion | Largo | Rapid | Dune II | Thorn | and more.

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chk071 wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:Well, I think when a company dominates 50% of the audio software market as I read somewhere, then it is too big in my view.
So, everyone who has done a good job, and got a big piece of the market should be punished? Hmmm...

Seriously, we should be happy that a company in this business does THAT well. It's exceptional. Especially when you consider how good NI's service is, at least that's what i experienced.
Who says anything about punishing?! All I say is that I won't give such a big company none of my money, simply because it is that big, regardless of the quality of their products. It is a matter of principle.

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