Native Instruments Layoffs?

[Jim Rosebrook]

"Senior talent from Google, Airbnb, Hewlett Packard, Salesforce and SoundCloud drafted in to deliver a new music creation ecosystem for everyone"

HA HA HA HA

Gibson mark 2

What more needs to be said.

The article give insight as to the roles of these 2 people.

One of them was hired to improve the internal teamwork, not the products themselves. So that can be a very good thing.

The other was hired to improve the understanding of who the NI customer actually is and what they want. Not the directly the product itself. This could be a very good thing too.

[vitocorleone123]

Here's some more helpful info about what's going on at NI.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/native-i ... 1568466316

Some impressive upper-level people came aboard in January 2019. Having a large internal shift ready to pivot by August is pretty rapid.

Give it a read.

That's some impressive corporate cockspeak.

"Putting people first". I'm sure the "people" who lost their jobs will be overjoyed. I always love to hear anything about flexibility, transformation, and modernisation (or pay cuts, job losses, degrading terms and conditions, in non business bollocks terms)

Exactly this. I've been "people first-ed" a few times myself over the last couple years. Any time there's new management, anytime you get a new HR person because the other left (potentially not wanting to layoff so many people), you get layoffs. Any time there's a "vision change". There's zero loyalty of companies toward workers, at least in anything resembling tech. Workers need to have zero loyalty for companies. Same with customers.

[telecode]

Here's some more helpful info about what's going on at NI.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/native-i ... 1568466316

Some impressive upper-level people came aboard in January 2019. Having a large internal shift ready to pivot by August is pretty rapid.

Give it a read.

not at all. usually when new upper management get hired, they sit around observing for about 6 months and then they start taking action and making changes. so this is pretty standard corporate MBA by the books stuff.

The legacy NI product sales channels are fauked. These people all come from Internet e-commerce companies (Airbnb, Google, Saleforce...) they know nothing or care about music makers. Its gonna be all sales action targeted at social media hobbyists by social media ambasadors.

[Unaspected]

"Senior talent from Google, Airbnb, Hewlett Packard, Salesforce and SoundCloud drafted in to deliver a new music creation ecosystem for everyone"

HA HA HA HA

Gibson mark 2

What more needs to be said.

Oh god. I tend to keep a neutral yet optimistic mind. I thought that these layoffs could result in something good for the consumers. But.. Google? "Talent"? NI is screwed. And it's not funny.

[Jim Rosebrook]

There will be changes for sure... and reaching towards a greater affordability is the direction.

Some excerpts from article:

Nicholas Goubert, a seasoned technology executive and innovation champion joined Native as Vice President Products. Reporting directly to the Chief Innovation Officer and President Mate Galic, Nicholas will focus on user-centricity, product strategy, innovation management, big data and analytics to further enhance, renew and expand the product and platform vision at Native Instruments.

Nicholas is an active member of the tech and data sector and serves as an advisor and board member to various international tech startups. In his previous roles, Nicholas led product innovation and strategy at SoundCloud, the Daimler Innovation Lab and at HERE Technologies.

This suite of top executives will work alongside Lars Kroeger (CFO) and Jan Wergin (CTO) and report to the Native Instruments Management Board, made up of Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Daniel Haver and Chief Innovation Officer and President, Mate Galic.

Commenting on the news, Haver said: "It's not overstating the point to say that Native has played a significant role in the evolution of the music industry, since the business was formed 23 years ago in Berlin. However, we now face our biggest challenge to date: to redefine the industry with the emergence of a truly connected and accessible ecosystem of tools, sounds and services, enabling everyone to make music. With the appointment of these stellar leaders, the final pieces are in place to execute against this ambitious vision and usher in a new era of music making for all."

The executive hires come on the back of Native Instruments' most successful sales quarter in Q4 2018, which also marked the company's biggest product release to date, comprising of nine new products and three updated online services. In January 2019, Native introduced a wave of new affordable products, underlining the company's commitment to making digital music creation accessible for all.

[dellboy]

some more stuff...........

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/ ... r-history/

The guy who put out the stuff on the NI forum yesterday - Paul Jeszenszky came from google.

The good news is that they all have a guitar in the loft somewhere

[andypryce]

A company this big couldn't even release a synth (Massive X) in a complete shape despite all the delays.
All classics left in the dust like Battery,FM8, Absynth etc.
Kontakt 5 to 6 almost no change for users.
Sounds.com failure.

Currently NI is all about HW controllers, expansions and sample libraries.

[Jim Rosebrook]

Currently NI is all about HW controllers, expansions and sample libraries.

I'm kind of OK with this.. so long as the they all nicely work together with each other & with a variety of DAWs, there is a wide range of sounds & samples for all genres, and is affordable.

Throw in some forward-thinking AI technology of how these sounds & samples embrace interactivity with each other.

That's a win for me.

[v1o]

Here's some more helpful info about what's going on at NI.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/native-i ... 1568466316

Some impressive upper-level people came aboard in January 2019. Having a large internal shift ready to pivot by August is pretty rapid.

Give it a read.

Now everything makes sense. NI lost direction over the past few years so they really needed a kick up the backside. Whats going on with Absynth? Why is Battery 4 worse than 3? Maschine Miko mk3 launched unfinished. Then they lost the ball with Komplete 12 and Massive X.

[Sinisterbr]

I'd really like to know if the average NI customer (which I don't think is a KVRer) is aware of the kind of details we are discussing here, concerning the company. But, if they do, I wouldn't say it's good advertising for NI at all. I'd think twice from now on about purchasing anything NI in their place.

[v1o]

NI are going down the toilet imo, how the hell do you even get support from them anymore ? And they are laying people off. ffs.

Go back a few pages. NI support still is very good according to a poster who dealt with them recently.

[glokraw]

That explains why they shafted all their workers recently then.
So that they could afford to offer big salaries to all the new fat cats that they've taken on board.

These people already had jobs when they took on these new duties.
Probably compensation will be tied to profits, in addition to
keeping up much or some of their previous activity. as there are only
so many hours in a day, hence salaries instead of being paid
an hourly wage + overtime. Salaried workers can work under
vastly different agreements than hourly workers, and not
always advantagious. Keeping in mind that some people thrive
on long hours and saving/recreating/improving a business.
At least they know what we as kvr members desire: new instruments'
effects, and hardware, huge improvements to old but excellent products,
and any subscriptions offered not tampering with existing licenses.

Getting laid-off does not equate to getting shafted. It's basic
and serious economics, not some hi-school social club.
Cheers

[Forgotten]

The legacy NI product sales channels are fauked. These people all come from Internet e-commerce companies (Airbnb, Google, Saleforce...) they know nothing or care about music makers. Its gonna be all sales action targeted at social media hobbyists by social media ambasadors.

Or it could be that they know a lot more about running successful businesses than musicians, so they will give things the impetus they need based upon demand and profitability. If musicians want the products then it makes sense to develop and update them, but it could be beneficial if those making the decisions don't have any potential conflict of interest if they are musicians themselves and have their own biases.

[Hanz Meyzer]

No, I think ultra neoliberal monopolists took over the company and now milking the cow until death. Ingenious ideas like reselling the same over and over and over and over, or making unlimited amount of sound libraries which you did not even know you would need or could exist. Or planning the total user lock-in. Such a trustworthy company... Wait, is this Apple?

[Forgotten]

That's some impressive corporate cockspeak.

"Putting people first". I'm sure the "people" who lost their jobs will be overjoyed. I always love to hear anything about flexibility, transformation, and modernisation (or pay cuts, job losses, degrading terms and conditions, in non business bollocks terms)

One can really only laugh in such situations...I was laid off from a very large company just over 5 years ago, and so I got hit with 3 things - I lost my bonus, I did not get the promotion I was due to get, and I no longer had a job. This was just following the end of year reviews in which I got an "exceeds performance goals" rating.

They very graciously allowed me to stay at my desk to search for a job internally for one week after I got the notice, and in that time an email was sent to everyone from up on high that stated that their primary goal in the coming year was to ensure "reward, recognition and retaining the best employees".

Err...fail on all 3 counts for me..."