Native Instruments Layoffs?

[dionenoid]

Just wondering, does anyone here use sounds.com?

Who cares? I lightyears OT

Sounds.com is the subscription (sample service) from NI.

[Jim Rosebrook]

Just wondering, does anyone here use sounds.com?

Thanks for bringing this up as part of the discussion of missteps by NI.

Sounds.com is totally relevant as part of NI's future. It will undoubtedly be part of the emerging One Native platform.

As Sounds.com exists now, it is unattractive to me. I am not interested in paying a monthly fee to have this content on standby. It needs to have all it's content available to either try, rent or buy.

Sound.com is also unattractive to me for it's lop-sided content. It tries too hard to be "flavor-of-the-month" rather than provide a truly diverse pallet of sounds.

[dellboy]

If NI are a private company and not listed on the stock exchange, why is there all this talk of bonuses - dividend payouts and the like ?

Could it be that these cutbacks are to increase profitability with the view to them becoming a public listed company on the stock exchange and to raise capital to expand into new areas ?

[PieBerger]

If NI are a private company and not listed on the stock exchange, why is there all this talk of bonuses - dividend payouts and the like ?

Could it be that these cutbacks are to increase profitability with the view to them becoming a public listed company on the stock exchange and to raise capital to expand into new areas ?

Because bonuses and dividends are not specific to public companies, they can be paid to private individuals/businesses all the same. Given NI's huge cash injection from a private investment company, it's not unreasonable to expect them to demand a slice of the profits in return for their investment, that's just how business works. More profit equals more return on investment, lower operational costs e.g. fewer salaries to pay equals lower overheads and therefore more profit, provided they can generate the same revenue at a reduced capacity.

[Jim Rosebrook]

Could it be that these cutbacks are to increase profitability with the view to them becoming a public listed company on the stock exchange and to raise capital to expand into new areas ?

I believe the layoffs are for exactly the reasons provided in the statements given by NI. The evidence that they expressed the situation rather honestly is right there in their current product offerings.

Komplete & Maschine need to be more cohesive with each other.. as complimentary control devices to the same content. The common content needs to presented in a more uniform way that is also brought up-to-date in being scalable GUI's.

One Native needs to be some amalgamation of Native Access + Komplete Kontrol + Sounds.com, with an integrated try/rent/buy mechanism.

NI simply had too many development teams going in different directions. They needed a re-focus on working towards the same goals.

What's going on is not a mystery at all.

[digitalboytn]

What's going on is not a mystery at all.

There's no mystery to what NI are doing,so we're not mystified,but we won't have them treat us as fools !

It's all about the beans $$$

[spunkmuffin]

It's all about the beans $$$

It's not the beans its the eggs. NI has quite a few golden eggs and they might try to scramble them into an omlette in the pan that is sounds.com. Or some similar crazy strategy. It looks like they are cooking something big but I don't think they have a clear idea of how to combine all the ingredients. It could be brilliant, it could be a disaster. Fun times.

[telecode]

What's going on is not a mystery at all.

There's no mystery to what NI are doing,so we're not mystified,but we won't have them treat us as fools !

It's all about the beans $$$

Agreed. There is no mystery. It seems NI *might* be going the subscription/splice/plugin alliance business model route.

Its still waaayyy to early to tell. Wait until NI actually release the new product. Until then its all speculation and guessing games by posters.

[PieBerger]

The evidence that they expressed the situation rather honestly is right there in their current product offerings.

No company, big or small is ever going to release an official statement along the lines of "yeah we cut 20% staff so we can make more profit in the short term", it would be commercial suicide.

It's not to say that this is definitely the case at NI; it's most likely many factors, because life isn't rarely so black and white, but it looks mighty suspect to lay off a large chunk of your workforce, a couple of years after a third party invests millions of dollars in a company. They likely don't care about the long term future of the company, nor its ethos, past heritage etc if only to increase the return they made on their investment of course. They weren't gifted the money by a generous donor sympathetic believer in the cause, a business made an investment and a business' first priority is turning a profit.

Truth is we'll never really know the exact reasons why, because NI is a private company, but there's no harm in a little rational speculation imo.

Edt: quote formatting

[telecode]

The evidence that they expressed the situation rather honestly is right there in their current product offerings.

No company, big or small is ever going to release an official statement along the lines of "yeah we cut 20% staff so we can make more profit in the short term", it would be commercial suicide.

It's not to say that this is definitely the case at NI; it's most likely many factors, because life isn't rarely so black and white, but it looks mighty suspect to lay off a large chunk of your workforce, a couple of years after a third party invests millions of dollars in a company. They likely don't care about the long term future of the company, nor its ethos, past heritage etc if only to increase the return they made on their investment of course. They weren't gifted the money by a generous donor sympathetic believer in the cause, a business made an investment and a business' first priority is turning a profit.

Truth is we'll never really know the exact reasons why, because NI is a private company, but there's no harm in a little rational speculation imo.

Edt: quote formatting

+1

There is a black and white part to the story. It all comes down to money and what is coming in profit wise. The only sure thing is that NI as a company and their business model is not bringing in enough profit to justify to continue business as usual. The market space has changed a lot. There are too many competitors in the music hardware, software, DAW, VST market space and the slice of the pie is getting smaller as there are so many more options and alternatives for the consumer.

Just looking at my own spending habits -- I have NI, Arturia, Steinberg, IK Multimedia, Image Line, and U-he all competing for my disposable income with all of them releasing very high quality, full featured, highly reliabile on all OS platforms software VST products that are more or less similarly priced. I just sit around waiting to get duped in with sales and discounts.

[dellboy]

There's no mystery to what NI are doing,so we're not mystified,but we won't have them treat us as fools !

It's all about the beans $$$

The big mystery for me is why this thread is so negative

Like many here I have a Komplete 12 licence which I guess is dropping in value as we speak. Others are in much deeper with hardware that could soon be on ebay at knock down prices.

All we know derives from rumours of rumours that came from a very corporate speak statement that is deliberately vague in its lack of detail.



.

[Forgotten]

The big mystery for me is why this thread is so negative

Me too. It’s almost as if many people here are willing NI to fail or to reduce the quality of their products.

[telecode]

There's no mystery to what NI are doing,so we're not mystified,but we won't have them treat us as fools !

It's all about the beans $$$

The big mystery for me is why this thread is so negative

Like many here I have a Komplete 12 licence which I guess is dropping in value as we speak. Others are in much deeper with hardware that could soon be on ebay at knock down prices.

All we know derives from rumours of rumours that came from a very corporate speak statement that is deliberately vague in its lack of detail.



.

People just dont like change. I think long time NI product users will have a hard time adjusting to the idea of subscribing to their SaaS offering(s). Its one thing if you are a new customer into the ecosystem and you got on board right off the bat as a subscriber. its another if you are legacy and are forced to change. NI are not Spotify or Netflix.

[Jim Rosebrook]

......They likely don't care about the long term future of the company, nor its ethos, past heritage etc....

Some investors do care about those things if they're in it for the long haul.

I'll maintain that this is the bigger likelihood in this circumstance.

[dellboy]

The big mystery for me is why this thread is so negative

Me too. It’s almost as if many people here are willing NI to fail or to reduce the quality of their products.

Or perhaps hoping to buy NI hardware and software at knock down prices ?