NI / Izotope partnership. A good thing for musicians?

[metaside]

I'm not getting into any subscription stuff for my audio tools. Gonna switch back to using freeware exclusively if it's necessary. Not using anything by NI that I would need but I would miss some iZo stuff, especially RX.

[noiseboyuk]

Some people seem to be ok with subscription in one form or another. I'd say it is a good idea to clearly reject it in any form just now. I fear a stepwise introduction of subscription,which ends with just subscription one day. Resist the beginnings.

I've asked this in three different threads now I think. Name a company that went full subscription after starting with a subscription option. There may be one, but I can't think of it and there's crickets every time I ask.

None of this will stop people wildly projecting I realise, that's what this thread is all about after all. I'm just curious.

[nightjar]

I own about 2TB of sound libraries.... and they've cost me thousands of dollars. And in reality, only a fraction of this content gets actively used... it all just awaits an occasional audition for a nugget to be found.

As faster internet gets cheaper.... a better way to find the right nugget from an even bigger source of possibilities might be quite welcome. So who knows how this will all look in 3-5 years? What is REALLY the better way to spend time & money in the creative process?

[metaside]

Some people seem to be ok with subscription in one form or another. I'd say it is a good idea to clearly reject it in any form just now. I fear a stepwise introduction of subscription,which ends with just subscription one day. Resist the beginnings.

I've asked this in three different threads now I think. Name a company that went full subscription after starting with a subscription option. There may be one, but I can't think of it and there's crickets every time I ask.

"we fear this development will continue and lead to subscription-only stuff at some point" != "here is a list of companies that already went full subscription"

[noiseboyuk]

Some people seem to be ok with subscription in one form or another. I'd say it is a good idea to clearly reject it in any form just now. I fear a stepwise introduction of subscription,which ends with just subscription one day. Resist the beginnings.

I've asked this in three different threads now I think. Name a company that went full subscription after starting with a subscription option. There may be one, but I can't think of it and there's crickets every time I ask.

"we fear this development will continue and lead to subscription-only stuff at some point" != "here is a list of companies that already went full subscription"

*crickets*

[mi-os]

Some people seem to be ok with subscription in one form or another. I'd say it is a good idea to clearly reject it in any form just now. I fear a stepwise introduction of subscription,which ends with just subscription one day. Resist the beginnings.

I've asked this in three different threads now I think. Name a company that went full subscription after starting with a subscription option. There may be one, but I can't think of it and there's crickets every time I ask.

None of this will stop people wildly projecting I realise, that's what this thread is all about after all. I'm just curious.

Don't get me wrong, but it doesn't matter if there are precedent cases. I'm looking into the future and various monitary temptations for some companys.

Going full subscription sadly worked for Adobe. They had (still have?) a monopoly on creative tools and are milking their customers like there is no tomorrow since then (ok, they did so before as there stuff was already expensive). I for one stopped buying Adobe software licenses after CS6.

I just hope most of the audio companys realize they don't really have a monopoly like Adobe. On the bright side there would be opportunities for other players on the field which won't go subscription.

[mi-os]

I really wonder what NI did with all the money and manpower in recent years. Normally, instead of corporating with another company and have to share profit with them, your goal would be to own 100% of the IP and be in full control. This is why i'm sceptical about the underlying reasons of this so called partnership. This wouldn't definitely be my first choice if i were in charge. Less dependencies instead of more if you will.

[ericj23]

I find all the gnashing of teeth about NI considering doing subscription odd. Sounds.com (a wholly owned NI subsidiary) has been (mainly) subscription from the start. It never changed anything much else.

I can see that NI could go subscription but I think it is far more likely that everything is about hardware. Maschine/Komplete Kontrol are pretty well known and must account for a lot of NI's income. The more accessible for the customer the software is, the more hardware they sell. Komplete is easier to work with one of them anyway. So they will offer subscribe to own, purchasing, subscription etc etc - whatever is needed to drag you into the hardware eco system.

[nightjar]

Think about this.... A much deeper analysis of the sonic characteristics of samples and patches. And a much better way to present a library for finding what you want from a far bigger source. Think NKS compatibility on AI steroids.

iZotope's machine learning can bring this scenario to NI's products and any 3rd parties that join this "Ultra-Library".

And this is just one benefit of bringing AI into our sound libraries... there is SO much beyond catalogue management. iZotope is already good at having their processing be interactively aware of the sonics of the content, and also to parallel channels of processing. Imagine this interactive awareness being applied to creative instrumentation arrangement.

[Cancel Culture Club]

It will just come down to cost if "the shit hits the fan"- is the sub worth it? For Izotope that is a tricky one as the competition is huge, but for NI, there is no competition for Kontakt and its huge amount of fantastic libraries. Not sure what I would pay, but at the moment I update every version and on an annual basis that doesn't cost much at all.
So 100 a year - easy, 200 a year and I would start wanting to see genuine development in the usability

there is no competition for Kontakt and its huge amount of fantastic libraries

Not sure that's exactly true, but that's the main reason they are expanding into different areas of revenue, because the industry as a whole is over saturated. They even over saturated their own product lines by reaching version 13 of the Komplete bundle. It pretty much already has everything you need to make music for the rest of your life, let's be honest here.

So the idea of consolidating 3rd party developers under the umbrella of a subscription model makes sense for right now. Everyone is vying for the limited number of consumers willing to rent digital software. And hopefully the smart companies will still offer their perpetual options or this may be the beginning of the end for them.

Because, anyone can just take their already owned Komplete bundle and just make music.

All just speculation of course...

[nightjar]

There is intense competition for "music creation ecosystems", and to rise to the top, it pays to have innovative distinction.

The complementary strengths and market positions of these two companies have the potential to offer something that others would be hard-pressed to do as rapidly and with a built-in customer base.

The future of "technically powerful" music production is gonna lean even more heavily on a creator-tool ecosystems. Cobbling together bits and pieces from different ecosystems is gonna fail to reap the benefits of going all-in with one.

I see myself committing to at least 2 ecosystems as they evolved rapidly over the next 3 years. I'll keep the fundamental capture of audio and midi "performance files" as ecosystem agnostic as possible. It might take a few years to really feel out what environment works the best for me AND also has enough market strength to have confidence it's gonna have vibrant support for at least a 10 year window.

[Cancel Culture Club]

There is intense competition for "music creation ecosystems", and to rise to the top, it pays to have innovative distinction.

The complementary strengths and market positions of these two companies have the potential to offer something that others would be hard-pressed to do as rapidly and with a built-in customer base.

The future of "technically powerful" music production is gonna lean even more heavily on a creator-tool ecosystems. Cobbling together bits and pieces from different ecosystems is gonna fail to reap the benefits of going all-in with one.

I see myself committing to at least 2 ecosystems as they evolved rapidly over the next 3 years. I'll keep the fundamental capture of audio and midi "performance files" as ecosystem agnostic as possible. It might take a few years to really feel out what environment works the best for me AND also has enough market strength to have confidence it's gonna have vibrant support for at least a 10 year window.

Just remember not every good idea turns out to be a great idea...

[mi-os]

iZotope's machine learning can bring this scenario to NI's products and any 3rd parties that join this "Ultra-Library".

And this is just one benefit of bringing AI into our sound libraries...

But Izotope didn't invent or holds an exclusive patent on machine learning/AI, right? If you want something like that in your products tell your devs or hire some who know how it's done.

[mi-os]

The problem here is that NI stated they will partner with a company that just went subscription (yeah, not subscription only but still). So the notorius user unfriendly (to most users at least) idea called subscription is coming closer to NI land. Therefore we should whine as much as possible to let them know it would suck just to be sure they know about our feelings regarding subscriptions.

I'd rather not have to think about that stuff, but remember that Adobe incident very well. It was hard to watch them getting away with it because enough users fell for it.

[nightjar]

Pretty much all the points about subscription have already been made in this thread.

However, other aspects of this partnership have barely been mentioned.

Lots of interesting things to ponder beside the money aspect. Thread title includes "a good thing for musicians?" I'd like to think imagining how this partnership might yield better creative tools is at the top of what some musicians want.