Image Line Acquires UVI

[seangm]

The idea is just to keep on doing what we do while offering premium content to FL Studio users.

So does "offer premium content to FL Studio users" mean that there will be UVI releases that only run in FL studio? That would suck because I like UVI products but I'm happy as a pig in sh*t using Cubase and there's about 0% chance I will ever switch to FL Studio (or probably any other DAW). So I would miss out on some UVI releases because they are restricting them to FL Studio, unless I am misunderstanding what you mean by that.

Premium just means good sounding content

I appreciate the reply but I'm still not clear what that means, are you talking about Falcon expansions? Preset packs? Those are some of the things I purchase and would be bummed if they are FL Studio only, but I guess you guys are going to do what you're going to do.

[pdxindy]

The idea is just to keep on doing what we do while offering premium content to FL Studio users.

So does "offer premium content to FL Studio users" mean that there will be UVI releases that only run in FL studio? That would suck because I like UVI products but I'm happy as a pig in sh*t using Cubase and there's about 0% chance I will ever switch to FL Studio (or probably any other DAW). So I would miss out on some UVI releases because they are restricting them to FL Studio, unless I am misunderstanding what you mean by that.

Premium just means good sounding content

I appreciate the reply but I'm still not clear what that means, are you talking about Falcon expansions? Preset packs? Those are some of the things I purchase and would be bummed if they are FL Studio only, but I guess you guys are going to do what you're going to do.

offering premium content to FL users might mean free or cheap compared to regular cost for other DAW users.

[seangm]

The idea is just to keep on doing what we do while offering premium content to FL Studio users.

So does "offer premium content to FL Studio users" mean that there will be UVI releases that only run in FL studio? That would suck because I like UVI products but I'm happy as a pig in sh*t using Cubase and there's about 0% chance I will ever switch to FL Studio (or probably any other DAW). So I would miss out on some UVI releases because they are restricting them to FL Studio, unless I am misunderstanding what you mean by that.

Premium just means good sounding content

I appreciate the reply but I'm still not clear what that means, are you talking about Falcon expansions? Preset packs? Those are some of the things I purchase and would be bummed if they are FL Studio only, but I guess you guys are going to do what you're going to do.

offering premium content to FL users might mean free or cheap compared to regular cost for other DAW users.

That would work.

[machinesworking]

Garageband is on iOS too... which is a huge market...

Sort of. You're thinking specifically European and USA here. Most of the world is on an old PC or android.

This is why it's easy to say FL Studio is probably the most installed DAW, but IMO probably not the one with the most unique users. Basically FL is the most cracked DAW, then probably Live, but that doesn't account for actual sales. Actual sales it could be Logic considering price and marketing. IMO it's just near impossible to tell between Logic, FL, and Live, but Live has the edge in that it's cross platform with no history of being PC centric, and a whole hell of a lot of Logic, Cubase, DP, Pro Tools users also bought Live.

[sjm]

I suppose it is possible... but I just never see evidence of it. It's a very small sample set, but I know about 50 musicians over the past 5 years and not one of them used FL. At least half used Live, some Studio One, some Garageband/Logic, etc.

And all the hardware companies who market to Live users and hardly mention FL Studio speaks much louder to me than a few claims online. If FL actually had such a large and active userbase, companies would market to it.

I think the thing here is that you're looking at the wrong demographic. The average new FL Studio user isn't a musician looking to record some tracks. They're kids who can pester their parents to get it for them for Xmas/birthday money, and then have a tool that they can use to create music by clicking it into the piano roll. That might sound weird and wacky to some people - but it's a much, much lower barrier to entry. Catering to musicians means that your potential customer base is limited to those who have the resources to purchase an instrument or two (costing much more than the price of entry to FL), and had the dedication to pursue it for a few years before deciding they wanted to record their music.

Your sample size doesn't matter so much as who is in your sample set. You've been on KVR nearly two decades, so you come from a different generation. You're obviously seeing this from a totally different perspective - that of the traditional musician, and those are quite likely the bulk of the people you associate with. Not people calling themselves "producers" or "beatmakers".

So the fact that FL Studio is, quite frankly, shit when it comes to MIDI hardware support (hence nobody supporting it, because it isn't even MIDI-compliant) and makes audio recording a convoluted process doesn't matter to these kids. What matters is the affordable pricing and the fact that they can use the PC/laptop they already have to create music. They don't need anything else to get started. And FL Studio's piano roll is far superior to the competition when it comes to this use case, so it really ticks the boxes for that demographic.

That's not to say there aren't musicians using FL Studio, or that you can't create rock or whatever in it, just that it's probably not the first port of call for the average user who is playing in bands and coming at this from the whole "capturing a live performance" angle. But those kids are all somewhere else (reddit, Discord etc.), doing their thing without you even knowing it

[gryzor]

Will they release a free Falcon with minimal feature and and release regular/premium version with more content...?...

[otristan]

The idea is just to keep on doing what we do while offering premium content to FL Studio users.

So does "offer premium content to FL Studio users" mean that there will be UVI releases that only run in FL studio? That would suck because I like UVI products but I'm happy as a pig in sh*t using Cubase and there's about 0% chance I will ever switch to FL Studio (or probably any other DAW). So I would miss out on some UVI releases because they are restricting them to FL Studio, unless I am misunderstanding what you mean by that.

Premium just means good sounding content

I appreciate the reply but I'm still not clear what that means, are you talking about Falcon expansions? Preset packs? Those are some of the things I purchase and would be bummed if they are FL Studio only, but I guess you guys are going to do what you're going to do.

I cannot tell you what we will be doing for FL but we will keep doing what we are doing now.

[j wazza]

What is Fruity Loops?

FL studio stands for fruity loops

Fruity Loops = Fruity Loops.
They changed the name in 2003. Which means Fruity Loops isn't anything anymore for 20 years now.
Weird how 'certain' people still call it 'Fruity Loops' ..

lol what do you mean by 'certain' people?

It's not really weird that people still call it that, its the original name of it, they just shortened it

and who cares if people call it fruity loops or fl studio? its the same thing

[pdxindy]

Garageband is on iOS too... which is a huge market...

Sort of. You're thinking specifically European and USA here. Most of the world is on an old PC or android.

There's over a billion iOS users in the world... that is a plenty big market... and android sucks for music.

[pdxindy]

Your sample size doesn't matter so much as who is in your sample set. You've been on KVR nearly two decades, so you come from a different generation. You're obviously seeing this from a totally different perspective - that of the traditional musician, and those are quite likely the bulk of the people you associate with.

And you would be completely wrong... most of the people I know making music are in their 20's. Some of them play instruments, true, but others are entirely ITB making dance music. None of them use FL Studio (that I know) and most use Live.

[pdxindy]

They're kids who can pester their parents to get it for them for Xmas/birthday money

They're not talking to their parents, they are downloading a cracked version online. And 6 months later it is forgotten, but is counted towards this mythical massive userbase.

[eagle007]

The former CEO of NI is now at IL. I think their plan is to no longer be just a small indie developer. They now want to grow the company.

Well this is interesting. So maybe they want to compete with NI now and make Falcon finally the Kontakt killer, which it technically is, but content wise far from it. Reading that they also acquired Melda, it makes all sense. NI also has instruments, effects and with Machine something that is more and more DAW-like.

If this all means we will get more Falcon content, and the UVI platform will become more open to 3rd party developers, this is all good news!

That they will adapt it all to be FLStudio locked in plugins seems highly unlikely to me. No investor is spending large amounts of money on a gamble they need to set a new standard before they can recoup their money.

And as FLStudio has lifetime free updates, there is not so much money to be made on the current user base. Image-Line needs to come with something new, so the current used can and will upgrade.

So the 'we will create a NI competitor bundle' doesn't look so unlikely to me.

[noiseboyuk]

So the 'we will create a NI competitor bundle' doesn't look so unlikely to me.

Not a bad bet, but I suspect any bundle will not feel like Komplete (for better or worse). IK still feels like their most obvious competitor on the music-making side at least.

Having a DAW squarely in the centre of the mix will make this different. They’d be able to offer a best-in-class bundle for newcomers. Where it might be harder is in converting existing users. I’ve avoided Melda ever since I demoed something over a decade ago and found it was like malware. UVI products always seem better on paper than in practice to me, and I do own a fair few. VIR Harmonic going their own way (with much slicker products) felt like the platform was getting less attractive to third parties, not more.

[donkey tugger]

People can blather on speculating about the number of users, wither anecdotally, or from other sources. The bottom line (hoho...) is that the company accounts show a pre tax profit of e29 million, with a ratio of total assets to total liabilities of about 1 (very healthy..) and current assets to liabilities (less than one year) of around 2 (not going to be wound up anytime soon due to creditors/insolvency etc.. )

Something they're doing is obviously working...

[sjm]

But others are entirely ITB making dance music. None of them use FL Studio (that I know) and most use Live.

Yeah, it generally seems to be either one of FL Studio or Live for EDM. Hip-hop/trap etc. seems to skew more towards FL Studio. They're definitely not using Cubase et al in great numbers at any rate.

I was talking about teenagers btw. For the most part, it's kids in the 13-17 bracket that are getting started with FL.

They're not talking to their parents, they are downloading a cracked version online. And 6 months later it is forgotten, but is counted towards this mythical massive userbase.

It's a running joke among FL Studio users that their mum's name appears at the top left of the info area when starting it up. Obviously not the case for everyone, but that's the demographic, 13-17 year old kids. The Fruity edition costs X-box game money, and there's enough kids out there requesting it for Xmas/birthday.

There's always going to be a certain amount of churn, for sure. Which ties back with the point about other DAWs (for "musicians") having to deal with a large number of potential users being weeded out before they even get to the stage of wanting a DAW, by virtue of being in the "gave up guitar after six weeks" group.

FL Studio gets a certain portion of those sales to kids who thought this music malarkey would be a great way to get famous/rick quick - then discover that it's not quite that easy and there's effort required, before giving up. Some after them do this after having got mum to buy them that Fruity edition. I'm sure there's a lot of FL Studio licenses not in active use!