NI / Izotope partnership. A good thing for musicians?

[ThomasHelzle]

For me it's a bit different.
It's not about doom and gloom, I just notice for quite some time that I don't see much innovation from NI and many of their decisions in recent years leave me baffled or underwhelmed. Other stuff is no longer as relevant.

As it is, I could mostly replace Reaktor with the Bitwig Grid for what I do. Almost everything else I could live without.
The only plugin I'm heavily invested in with many libraries is Kontakt.

With Izotope I don't have deep bonds but also see them moving very slow and having very high update prices compared to the added value. Iris they abandoned, that was my favourite tool from them.

And it looks like a pattern to me, that when such companies reach a certain point, they can no longer rely on innovation to make customers interested in their products and updates, so instead, they go for rent/subscription.
You no longer pay for cool new stuff but for usage of what's already there.
The biggest such happening was Adobe, which I left behind because I couldn't see the value for the price.
They have the clout to pull it off, since some industries are dependent on Photoshop, InDesign and AfterEffects.

This usually is not a problem for companies or users who rely completely on such a solution, for them the cost makes sense. They may even prefer subscriptions since it's a regular cost they can plan for.

Now in the music market, things look a bit different to me. The only "Photoshop" I can see is Kontakt, that's really hard to replace. DAWs there are plenty, Effects and Synths even more and the quality is rising even in the low-cost area.

So what they do is hijacking human nature and slap you with tons and tons of stuff and content. That simply works with us.
You get that Komplete package with more stuff than anyone can ever use and it feels like you pay very little for the heap.
They invest less and less in maintenance, FM8 gets an update so it works on OSX, Absynth too + some presets.
No scaleable, new GUI, no VST3, no love spent.

Izotope are a bit different but also a bit similar, they have high quality stuff that looks really good but moves rather glacially.
So they get us with the feeling of it being "professional", "high-end" and "needed" to do the good work.
And the Suites of which many people will only use a fraction again feel like we get a ton for less.

For some people here that is just fine and dandy, they love what they get, are productive with it and that is just great.
I personally get inspired by different things. Piles of stuff get me into a stupor. I still regret ever buying Komplete, I should have stayed with Kontakt and Reaktor and Absynth alone.

As for corporate mergers and takeovers: I've been burned by so many of them, I can't even count it anymore.
The wording was always pretty much the same as this one.
About 5% of them turned out okayish, 95% of them were pretty bad, loosing me solutions I relied upon for years, my investments gone to waste, turning great pieces of software either to dust or unusable or suddenly into a part of something I don't care for at all.

It's not doom and gloom, it's a sadness that NI isn't the love-child of Stephan Schmitt anymore but something investment bankers see a profit in.
Is that bad?
In my world: Yes.
YMMV.

And since that comes up all the time as an example of "how things are":
No, I don't have any subscriptions for music, tv, video, games etc. either.
But I do miss our fantastic down-the-street movie-rental a lot, with that guy who knew every film and had the most interesting stories to tell...

Cheers,

Tom

[pixel85]

The audio software industry needs time to catch up with other industries. Do you really think that big corporations will forever care about old dinosaurs who prefer the old-school way of buying software? What about all those youngsters including thousands of bedroom producers who can't buy expensive software but can subscribe to one company or two for $19,99 per month? It's a very attractive offer for them. With time which part of the sales target will be growing up? Old dinosaurs or youngsters who are growing up in a world where subscriptions for digital goods are already normalized (Netflix, Disney+, Spotify etc.)? How long do you think big corporations will support the decreasing number of people buying software? At some point profit from subscriptions will exceed normal sales to the point where they will simply close that segment which is not profitable enough.
iZotope's ideology of bringing updates firstly to the subscription version of plugins and then later to full license plugins is just the first step.
Don't be short sight. Just because something is not happening now it does not mean that it will not happen in the future.

That may be the case.

But at the same time, do you think those bedroom producers who are already subscribing to Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, a live TV platform, Photoshop, etc. while paying rent and/or student loans are going to be looking to add more to their monthly bills versus the occasional software purchase?

I could very well be wrong, but I don't know that the plugin market is large enough and/or viewed as essential enough for people to add multiple subscriptions to their monthly expenses. I personally think a bunch of private equity guys are looking at Adobe and thinking "who can be the next version of that" not realizing that Adobe has close to monopoly status and audio users are buying products from a wide multitude of companies, not just one or two brands.

I think subs will be fine as an option but I think a lot of people will lose a lot of money if they think they're going to get hella rich by investing in audio software companies and then pushing a sub-only model.

My impression after going back to university and studying with people around 20 years old was that subscription is viewed in a totally different way than eg. in my perspective. This sub is just $9.99 and that sub is only $9.99 - looking at a small number without looking at the entire sum. Of course, when someone is on his own then the budget is (most likely) better considered. But it seems that there's a large group of youngsters who don't even consider leaving their parents house until... well, never maybe? Especially now when Covid hit students so hard and it crashed their future perspectives.

A similar impression I'm getting from FB groups (which were about music production and then later renamed to be my fav genre eva EDM groups ). The amount of hardware/software these kids can afford today is shocking, anyway for me who couldn't afford even a single hardware synth as a teenager (besides maybe some Yamaha PSR arranger )

Of course, as many people as many different stories. This is only based on my experience and what I see around. I may be totally wrong about everything.

[midi_transmission]

Option to buy plugins is only temporary and it's just one last step before going full subscription.

People do seem to keep typing this stuff.

I asked this question in another thread - can anyone point to a single developer who has gone from permanent license only to full subscription only via a half way house of both? There may be one out there, I just can't think of one.

The audio software industry needs time to catch up with other industries. Do you really think that big corporations will forever care about old dinosaurs who prefer the old-school way of buying software? What about all those youngsters including thousands of bedroom producers who can't buy expensive software but can subscribe to one company or two for $19,99 per month? It's a very attractive offer for them. With time which part of the sales target will be growing up? Old dinosaurs or youngsters who are growing up in a world where subscriptions for digital goods are already normalized (Netflix, Disney+, Spotify etc.)? How long do you think big corporations will support the decreasing number of people buying software? At some point profit from subscriptions will exceed normal sales to the point where they will simply close that segment which is not profitable enough.
iZotope's ideology of bringing updates firstly to the subscription version of plugins and then later to full license plugins is just the first step.
Don't be short sight. Just because something is not happening now it does not mean that it will not happen in the future.

Good analysis. BUT... the audio market is small compared to other areas. And I bet Serif is only successful now because Adobe was going sub and they provide the 'indi' alternative which is doing some things even better than Adobe.

I would really like to see big investment corporates not having success in audio market, because I like to keep my most important hobby free from too much BS.

That will not happen, BUT... you can educate people that there are so many very talented developers out there who often do much better products than the big players and care about them because the doing it intrinsicly motivated (that's my guess at least).

These products are more than enough for every task you can imagine. There is no need to have so many tools besides GAS.

I would rather see these smaller devs, like u-he, TDR, Ploque, TAL, DMG, Fabfilter etc...... who care a lot flooded with $, than having these investment focused players that play cash cow with you. And I think to some extend it's working already. I'm not aware of any media industries with so much small devs with leading products in some areas.

I'm also starting to get sick of any online requirements for products and the cloud focus.

The ONLY exception are products that are very expensive to develop. I think subscription based big sound libraries are not a bad idea, because they require a huge amount of money to develop and are not affordable for a lot of people (easy to spend 10k$ for that at Spitfire and not possible to resell them, that's a lot when you notice after 2 month that you e.g. don't like the library). I see this more as a kind of Crowdsourcing that is beneficial for everyone, including the company.

[pixel85]

I think people in the future will just smarten up and buy a version of a DAW and just stick with it. Because there's nothing stopping them from just breaking the upgrade chain and making music.

you are saying this on a forum where adults have 2, 3, 4, 5 (maybe even more) DAWs and a gazillion of plugins (I'm one of them). I'm pretty sure that most of the owners of all this software are also aware that others can do awesome music with just Atari, old Akai and one basic synth yet GAS is unstoppable

I wish we could smarten up and stop this endless consumerism but it does not look like we are on the right patch. So far, the value of what we have is not respected as it should and I'm a sinner too

We need a GAS Vaccine asap

[ShawnG]

Option to buy plugins is only temporary and it's just one last step before going full subscription.

People do seem to keep typing this stuff.

I asked this question in another thread - can anyone point to a single developer who has gone from permanent license only to full subscription only via a half way house of both? There may be one out there, I just can't think of one.

Isn’t pro tools sub only at this point?

[midi_transmission]

In a nut shell: I want to see my DAW and plugins as a device like a piano and not as a web service.

That's why I dislike all the cloud focus and too restrictive copy protections (I'm for CP and to be clear I've spend multiple 1000$ in audio software, but CP needs to be balanced), because you have no control over your devices this way.

I think rent to buy is a great alternative to subs by the way.

Furthermore, I think the best way to do somethings like subscription is the way Plugin Alliance does it, because you can buy the things you really want to keep with the already invested money when you chose to cancel the plan. Best of both worlds.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Of course, as many people as many different stories. This is only based on my experience and what I see around. I may be totally wrong about everything.

I honestly don't think we know all that much less than the investment groups that are gobbling up software companies and pushing subs, or the companies that seemingly came to that conclusion on their own. So we're all just speculating. Only difference is, if we're wrong, it won't cost us millions of dollars.

I just hope the companies taking money from these VC's recognize what they're getting themselves into and we don't end up losing good companies or technology in the end, not to mention their employees. Once they start taking money from investors, they're making a Faustian bargain. Yeah, you can invest, and bring new products to market and bring on more people, but that type of fast growth ends up failing way more often than it's successful.

[nightjar]

This partnership between iZotope and Native Instruments looks quite exciting. They do not have too much overlap in their product offerings, and instead have very complimentary strengths.

All this talk about selling strategies and such is SO besides the bigger point: Future product development. The potential for exceptional integration of iZotope's strength in Audio processing, and Native's strength in VI is huge.

What iZotope has been doing with machine learning and spectral analysis may bring tremendous benefit to library tagging and how instruments interact with each other.

And what iZotope has been trying with its Spire device might find its way into how Maschine+ handles audio.

[Cancel Culture Club]

I think people in the future will just smarten up and buy a version of a DAW and just stick with it. Because there's nothing stopping them from just breaking the upgrade chain and making music.

you are saying this on a forum where adults have 2, 3, 4, 5 (maybe even more) DAWs and a gazillion of plugins (I'm one of them). I'm pretty sure that most of the owners of all this software are also aware that others can do awesome music with just Atari, old Akai and one basic synth yet GAS is unstoppable

I wish we could smarten up and stop this endless consumerism but it does not look like we are on the right patch. So far, the value of what we have is not respected as it should and I'm a sinner too

We need a GAS Vaccine asap

I think the older you get the more responsible and wiser you become. It's only a matter of time until they figure out you can pretty much do anything you want in any DAW with the right plugins. I don't think the DAW host companies have as much leverage over their customer base as there once was.

There is now a more noncommitted relationship with young and uneducated consumer that are willing to rent their digital catalogs for shorter periods of time. I would bet they won't be doing that for a lifetime, probably not even for more then a couple of years. There's only so much forum chatter, exclusive videos, collaboration options and sound packs a person can swallow.

The better musician you become, the less you are reliant on your tools or the need to acquire more. This doesn't eliminate the spontaneous, GAS, Black Friday Sale hypnosis, and the treat yourself purchases that are short term rental agreements, or extended demos.

[Noumena]

When I bought Generator from NI in 1998 that was REVOLUTIONARY. Literally 10 years ahead of it's time. I used it primarily as a smart matrix mixer and output limiter for the next five years and even that application was just magic. Before that you couldn't make something work exactly like you wanted it to... you just couldn't! Reaktor native was incremental but still magic... and Kontakt was interesting, and the sample library industry that was made possible by NI's DRM was transformative. And Massive showed us all what spending enough money on a synth's development looked like... so copied now but at the time it was so profoundly good that I bought a dedicated PC for it. But now NI is holding things back, imo. They are afriad of the VCVs and the Bitwigs and Vitals. They are now gatekeeping the Kontakt sample libraries in their weird proprietary platform instead of enabling innovation. No MPE support. I think we'd be much better off if they shut down and open sourced... which is an indicator of a dead company walking if you ask me. Just my opinion. I feel badly for the people that are sure to lose their jobs in this transformation (I've worked for companies that went through this kind of thing...) but aside from that I'm not sure what could be lost. NI is now the company that I think about when I get mad that I can't load my $10k worth of sample libraries into something better.

[DJ Warmonger]

Well, I already use most of products offered by both developers. Amazing stuff.

Now, a thing: I recently had to install all my software on a laptop... started with NI Access and newest Izotope Product Portal. This already covers most of my actual needs for music production, and everything else is quite subjective or boutique choice.

[SLiC]

Well, I already use most of products offered by both developers. Amazing stuff.

Now, a thing: I recently had to install all my software on a laptop... started with NI Access and newest Izotope Product Portal. This already covers most of my actual needs for music production, and everything else is quite subjective or boutique choice.

Other than a DAW....I wonder....

[midi_transmission]

The better musician you become, the less you are reliant on your tools or the need to acquire more. This doesn't eliminate the spontaneous, GAS, Black Friday Sale hypnosis, and the treat yourself purchases that are short term rental agreements, or extended demos.

This. Buying things is not really connected to making music unless absolutely necessary like having a specific sample library to get a specific sound you need. I buy plugins because they are cheaper and much more environmental friendly than cars and give me even more endorphin release.

I exaggerate of course, but you're usually not limited by tools. I came to the same conclusion as CCC.

People that doesn't care about tools usually make better music, but it's also about fun to play around. I just like playing with audio tools a lot, as much as I like music. But you should not fool yourself thinking that GAS is helping you to make better music.

[EvilDragon]

They are afriad of the VCVs and the Bitwigs and Vitals.

Nope.

I feel badly for the people that are sure to lose their jobs in this transformation

Nobody is losing any jobs, this is not a merger.

[Mr Arkadin]

If Kontakt goes subscription-only I will be royally pissed off, I have a ridiculous amount of libraries. I'm just glad people like Spitfire are developing their own apps for their libraries, hopefully they'll port all of them (also VSL, OT, EW etc.). Sadly all those smaller libraries and freebies would be lost. I really wish it was an open format at this stage.