Image Line Acquires UVI

[MrJubbly]

...
Just wanted to put out here how much I (and I'm sure many others) really appreciate you and Olivier coming over to the forum to engage with us. Really means a lot, and speaks volumes (in a good way)...

Unfortunately this holds them back from serving their very own fora. Questions being unanswered there for many a day...

It's actually done in my free time. I'm not paid to be on KVR or somewhere else, my working time is in our forum and to answer questions and help people.
I also have my free time, sorry about that.

Hevy is a good egg. Always very friendly, insightful and going above and beyond to make himself available to help others out whenever he can.

Not too many good 'uns like him around.

[N__K]

Scott , good luck. Hopefully you and your VC investors have now got a full belly.

Small correction. The shareholders are Private Equity, not Venture Capital. JMC and Frank are still around also.

So am I, been leading product development at IL since Didier left in 2015.

Regards Scott

(emphasis mine)

So it is actually you I have to thank for many of the dystopian changes at IL?

Or are you merely the starscream vizier covering up for an emperor (or a shadowy council)? A Londo to a Morden? A Dukat to the Dominion? A Sandoval to Zo'or? A Gendo to the Human Instrumentality Project?

[Dunbar]

I hope they don't change that, i'd also like FL to go back with key file.

This stuff bother only legit users, while if you search you can clarly see iLok, Waves, IL, and everything to be cracked regardles the protection systems.

So in my opinion it's very important to offer the most friendly auth system to customers. And having a reliable offline method that doesn't need in any moment to connect to internet it's the best way. Like it was with FL and as it is with Melda.

So i really hope IL doesn't force other companies they aquired to a different method, and i also hope they will go back on FL too.

I don´t know where the problem is...

If it's not an issue for you, that's great.

As a holder of defunct FXpansion licenses I've had my fingers burned by software that relies on someone else's computer in order to install.

It's not a mistake I'll repeat.

[Trancit]

The problem is the need to rely on an internet connection, and a server system that may fail for different reasons, that may even not depend on IL.

I know it's something hard to happen, cause "everythings" run online, but i'm a guy who generally don't like the "internet dependency" expecially because the more services run online, the more interest for hackers, and online activists go there, along government wars.
We already saw severe attacks to the web, that made lots of services down.

I also see no benefits for this approach, because you can still find all the programs to be available on pirates websites, regardles the protection, even more "invasive" and technically harder approaches are broken.
So what's the point? It just add a worse experience and possibility issues to legit users.

It's machine locked. Your use of FL going forwards is tied to the servers staying up. With the old regkey (up to 20.8.4) you could simply back up the regkey and you were ready to go on any new PC. You were in full control of your ability to install FL Studio on new machines as long as you kept your regkey backed up. Now there's no point in backing up your regkey.

In other words, you've handed over the keys to your DAW to Image-Line, and if the servers go poof (IL gets bought out and the product gets discontinued, they go bust etc.) you won't be able to unlock FL at all any more on new machines.

That's the difference between C/R and a regkey serial file. One gives the user full control and the software can be used indefinitely (as long as you keep backups), and one means the lifetime of the software is linked to the lifetime of the company (at most).

Sorry guys, I cannot follow you...

One says he don´t like to rely on internet connections for a single short action perhaps once in a year (if not even more rarely) whilst posting in an online forum...

The other one like to use and install FL Studio every minute on a different computer and fears the IL server could go "poof" while trying to register a new installation in minute 38...

Are these really your drawbacks??

Fact is the new system works...

While FLS was one of the most pirated software on the whole planet now there hasn´t appeared a single really working crack since 20.8.4 ... means no working crack since 2 1/2 years...
I think this perhaps outperforms your single needs which I don´t consider as widely spread...

[sjm]

You need to understand that no company lasts forever. If you've been on these forums as long as your profile suggests, I'm surprised you haven't witnessed mutliple instances of companies that used C/R crashing and burning leaving users unable to use the software.

You seem to have missed the point, which isn't that you can't install it now, but that there will be some date in the future (nobody knows when that point will be), where you will be unable to unlock FL Studio. And that wasn't the case with the old regkey.

Fact is the new system works...

The reason you can't follow us is because you forgot to add "for now" to that sentence. This isn't about now it's about what it means for your investment for the future.

[n9research]

my 2p (or 2¢, or whatever):

UVI were an attractive acquisition target primarily for their libraries (and their expertise in building libraries)

I think these libraries will be put to good use as base-level content and paid DLC for FLS - and that Flex will, more or less, be replaced or enhanced with a reworked UVI Workstation to enable this.

Perhaps Falcon is the new Directwave, also?

UVI make some great FX plugins too, and they would be a very good fit to replace FL's own offerings, which (like Directwave) are archaic these days. Sparkverb, Relayer, Shade - I've a strong feeling we will see these in a new form in FLS, either as replacements for the base FL set (Reeverb2, Delay Bank, EQ2) or again, as paid upgrades.

..but the libraries are the primary draw here, no doubt about it. Easiest to "port", I would think. The FX plugs and Falcon would be much more resource and time-intensive to rework and integrate.

For context to my opinions - I'm an owner of FLS along with most of their instrument addons, and an ex-user. I moved on from it after 10 years because it couldn't (and still can't) do the things I wanted to do, and it seemed to be going in the wrong direction by trying to do those things. I suppose that's a little contradictory - and IL's continued commercial success shows that people like what they do. Nonetheless, I've always thought that IL should have worked on making FLS less complex, not more, and steered the product into being the new MPC, specifically focusing on the live sampling workflow, with dedicated controller integration to complement it, and a simple but rapid arrangement system. As it stands, the new MPC is the new MPC (honorable mention to Maschine!) and FLS is still trying to be all things to all people - but if FLS had followed a more focused path earlier, I think it would be even more successful than it is.

I also own Falcon and UVI libraries, most of the UVI FX plugins, and Melda MComplete - so I'm particularly interested in these consolidation moves. But as someone with zero interest in FL Studio in 2023, I can't help feeling that all of this is a net negative for me. I spent a lot of money on FXPansion plugins just before they were acquired, and now most of them have gone from best in class to dead in the water, with the talent that created them pulled away to work elsewhere. I hope the same fate doesn't befall UVI and Melda.

[jules99]

Interesting times in music software with all these acquisitions. The market of DAWs and plugins is still so over-crowded that we will see this happening at a much more rapid pace in the next few years. With more investors looking at your favorite software companies.

Especially smaller to medium ones like Fabfilter, Wave Alchemy, Celemony, XLN Audio, Soundtoys, Minimal Audio, Bitwig, Oeksound, Kilohearts, Baby Audio will increasingly be bought up.

Then there are ones like Reaper, Ableton, U-he or Valhalla that will always strive to stay independent.

And then there are heavyweights like Arturia, Output, Spectrasonics, Antares, Waves or Universal Audio will be looking to acquire.

And just like with Soundwide, the user base will only learn of it six months after the fact.

[Frankie.T]

Sorry guys, I cannot follow you...

One says he don´t like to rely on internet connections for a single short action perhaps once in a year (if not even more rarely) whilst posting in an online forum...

The other one like to use and install FL Studio every minute on a different computer and fears the IL server could go "poof" while trying to register a new installation in minute 38...

Are these really your drawbacks??

Fact is the new system works...

While FLS was one of the most pirated software on the whole planet now there hasn´t appeared a single really working crack since 20.8.4 ... means no working crack since 2 1/2 years...
I think this perhaps outperforms your single needs which I don´t consider as widely spread...

Few weeks ago i joined a Discord server about music production, after talking a bit with some people one of them pointed out a section of that server with links that are not legit at all.

Since i'm against piracy we started the discussion, he told me he download every software he use, and FL is it's daw of choice, and he was using v21, so apparently there is something newer working.
So this system, along all the others doesn't work, iLok, Waves, ReFX.... name what you have in mind, and they managed to broke it. It may just slow down but it doesn't stop anything.

I agree a company should do the best to protect their software and IL keep chosing the best solution they can, but at the end of the day, even stronger and imo worse proprietary solutions are getting broken, so why bhother with these systems that will be just a point of annoyance for legit customers?

Another consideration i want to make, even if as you said it was one of the most pirated software, it seems they managed to being able to (fortunatly) stay healthy and even buy other companies.
In 2 words, they have a good and working business system, being the most user friendly possible, may be a part of the success, but unfortunatly this doesn't show up in numbers, so it's important to point that out imo.

[Hevy_IL]

Imo: KiloHearts will stay independent.
They are great friends of mine and that would not fit to them at all.
But who knows.

But tbh, I personally see no reason to know about the acquired companies, if they continue to do what they did without a shift in focus, so old/previous owners aren't hurt.

[SLiC]

Interesting times in music software with all these acquisitions. The market of DAWs and plugins is still so over-crowded that we will see this happening at a much more rapid pace in the next few years. With more investors looking at your favorite software companies.

Especially smaller to medium ones like Fabfilter, Wave Alchemy, Celemony, XLN Audio, Soundtoys, Minimal Audio, Bitwig, Oeksound, Kilohearts, Baby Audio will increasingly be bought up.

Then there are ones like Reaper, Ableton, U-he or Valhalla that will always strive to stay independent.

And then there are heavyweights like Arturia, Output, Spectrasonics, Antares, Waves or Universal Audio will be looking to acquire.

And just like with Soundwide, the user base will only learn of it six months after the fact.

Bitwig and U-HE work together quite a bit, I always thought that would be a great fit (and would make one heck of a suite version for Bitwig!)

I think Ableton are probably more like to acquire other companies than be acquired, they are one of the big bigger companies.

[sjm]

Since i'm against piracy we started the discussion, he told me he download every software he use, and FL is it's daw of choice, and he was using v21, so apparently there is something newer working.

And the irony of it all is that, as a paying user, it's actually now in your interests for there to be a crack, because in the case of lights out at IL, that's how you will be able to continue using the software. It's never a good thing when a company takes a decisions that sees the interests of its paying users align more closely with those of its non-paying users and less with the company's than they did before.

[n9research]

Another consideration i want to make, even if as you said it was one of the most pirated software, it seems they managed to being able to (fortunatly) stay healthy and even buy other companies.

Would Image Line even exist these days without the rampant piracy of their products? I do seriously wonder about that.

I think it has a lot to do with the demographic of the user base.

Back when FLS was the sequencer of choice for ITB electronic producers (let's say the "pre-Live" era), the fact that young kids with no money could get into the game of commercial-level music production for a pretty much $0 software outlay using unlicensed FLS created a gigantic userbase which, while not directly monetizable by IL, has set up a legacy that they enjoy to this day - as some fraction of those kids, once they got jobs and gained disposable income, have become paid users and continue to use the software they grew up with and learned.

Infact, I would say that if software companies in general (not just music-related) could find a reliable way to allow people under, say, 18 years of age, to use their products for free, they would jump at the chance. Locking in young people to brand loyalty is, I would assume, an extremely lucrative long-term commercial goal. Perhaps it wouldn't work quite so well in the games industry, though

[Frankie.T]

Unfortunatly what you say it's true.
We already saw everything to happen, from bigger companies to fail, such wars to pandemy... So we cannot really exclude any hypothesis.

That's one of the reason the more open and user friendly something is, the more love as customers we should give. Same as for thoughts, as we are doing here

[martinjuenke]

Another consideration i want to make, even if as you said it was one of the most pirated software, it seems they managed to being able to (fortunatly) stay healthy and even buy other companies.

Would Image Line even exist these days without the rampant piracy of their products? I do seriously wonder about that.

I think it has a lot to do with the demographic of the user base.

Back when FLS was the sequencer of choice for ITB electronic producers (let's say the "pre-Live" era), the fact that young kids with no money could get into the game of commercial-level music production for a pretty much $0 software outlay using unlicensed FLS created a gigantic userbase which, while not directly monetizable by IL, has set up a legacy that they enjoy to this day - as some fraction of those kids, once they got jobs and gained disposable income, have become paid users and continue to use they software they grew up with and learned.

Infact, I would say that if software companies in general (not just music-related) could find a reliable way to allow people under, say, 18 years of age, to use their products for free, they would jump at the chance. Locking in young people to brand loyalty is, I would assume, an extremely lucrative long-term commercial goal. Perhaps it wouldn't work quite so well in the games industry, though

That strategy is implemented with the student discounts of many companies iin very different businesses.

[n9research]

That strategy is implemented with the student discounts of many companies iin very different businesses.

Yes, I was thinking along the lines of an extension to that, i.e.

You're young, at school (compulsory education) - Go right ahead!
You're in further education (non-compulsory) - You get it cheap
You're post-education - Time to hand over the cash!