Image Line Acquires UVI

[noiseboyuk]

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

Of those, the one I can never see being acquired is Spectrasonics. I will buy a hat just to eat it if that happens (all the while Eric Persing is at the helm anyway).

The other names on the list are maybes though, I agree.

[Frankie.T]

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

I didn't wanted to bring this in the discussion, but i have the same thought.

I understand now they may want to change the way it worked trying to getting more money, there is nothing wrong with that. But i cannot be happy to have an external dependency for reasons i wrote before, and also for the reason someone else wrote.

The more open and friendly everything can be the better for us and for the company.

Again with keys and even with piracy, IL was able to be in a point where it's not just sustainable, but also able to buy other companies

[martinjuenke]

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

Is Output a heavyweight in the market? Never thought so...

[Double Tap]

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!

Adobe did this for my kids school - the whole creative cloud for about £10 a year.

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

Is Output a heavyweight in the market? Never thought so...

They had some sort of private equity or venture capital deal a few years ago. Their Arcade subscription service is the focus.

[dayjob]

Yes UVI is now part of Image-Line.

Incidentally, so is Melda Production, WA Production and Producer Loops ( for over 1 year now ). I assume some of you noticed this on our Sounds page?

Surprising as it may be to some, we have been growing very rapidly over the last decade. FL Studio is installed 30.0000 times/day with peaks up 70.000 times/day during new releases, with some of the biggest producers using FL Studio to create chart-topping music all over the world.

That success puts us in a position to strengthen the Image-Line business with the addition of companies, and most importantly talent, that compliments what we do.

UVI are already doing very well by themselves and they will continue to create and release high-quality products independently for their entire user base. We will be looking to combine and complement each other's offerings where it makes sense for the respective customers in the future.

No, we will not mess with their business or stop the sale of their VST/AU etc, that would be silly.

Anything more, you will need to wait and see. We have proven, I would hope, with our Lifetime Free Updates policy that has stood for 25 years, we can be trusted to keep our word. The whole team prides itself in doing the right thing by our customers. Actions speak louder than words here.

We have positive and good things coming for both FL Studio and UVI customers and both businesses will continue to work independently from a product perspective.

Regards Scott

sounds good. thanks for chiming in. all sounds very reasonable and beneficial to user bases of all these products. good luck w/all the things.

[CrystalWizard]

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

Ah,, i will need to learn the details but that sounds slightly more hopeful.

[CrystalWizard]

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

Is Output a heavyweight in the market? Never thought so...

Not by any metric i would use.

[donkey tugger]

For anyone who is interested in financial/ownership etc info on companies, then the GOV.UK list of registries/regulators is a good place to start;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... registries

Some (like Companies House in the UK) make all documents freely available, whilst for others you do need to set up an account etc. Details on ownership (and of subsidiary companies) are in general (but not always) at the end of audited accounts.

[Double Tap]

For anyone who is interested in financial/ownership etc info on companies, then the GOV.UK list of registries/regulators is a good place to start;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... registries

Some (like Companies House in the UK) make all documents freely available, whilst for others you do need to set up an account etc. Details on ownership (and of subsidiary companies) are in general (but not always) at the end of audited accounts.

Would be interesting to know what the equivalents are in other countries.

[Hevy_IL]

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

Is Output a heavyweight in the market? Never thought so...

Not by any metric i would use.

They are just 'great' with marketing, reminds me a bit of unison tbh.
It happens quite often that I search for something around other DAWs, or plugins, and then the first result is the Output page, they hijack your search results with advertisements that make you think it is what you look for.
I purchased a few OutPut things, back in the days, but if you look at Arcarde, you see that marketing took over everything.

So they are not a heavyweight in my books, not by far.

[nordickvr]

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

Is Output a heavyweight in the market? Never thought so...

Not by any metric i would use.

They are just 'great' with marketing, reminds me a bit of unison tbh.
It happens quite often that I search for something around other DAWs, or plugins, and then the first result is the Output page, they hijack your search results with advertisements that make you think it is what you look for.
I purchased a few OutPut things, back in the days, but if you look at Arcarde, you see that marketing took over everything.

So they are not a heavyweight in my books, not by far.

Well, tried to contact them a few times without being responded.
I think they are heavyweight

[Urs]

So they are not a heavyweight in my books, not by far.

I always thought there was a disconnect between the way they present themselves and the reality of their popularity, but then I ran Output Arcade in Google Trends against Omnisphere, and by that metric they seem quite on top of things.

OTOH I usually compare hits in forum searches (how many topics/posts etc.), and there their products don't seem to play a significant role.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Oh don’t tell them that or the marketing SEO freaks will create bots to post inane forum questions about whatever they’re flogging just to get their visibility up.

[Frankie.T]

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

Is Output a heavyweight in the market? Never thought so...

Not by any metric i would use.

They are just 'great' with marketing, reminds me a bit of unison tbh.
It happens quite often that I search for something around other DAWs, or plugins, and then the first result is the Output page, they hijack your search results with advertisements that make you think it is what you look for.
I purchased a few OutPut things, back in the days, but if you look at Arcarde, you see that marketing took over everything.

So they are not a heavyweight in my books, not by far.

Hi Hevy

Any thoughts about the authorization topic?

[LFO8]

Oh don’t tell them that or the marketing SEO freaks will create bots to post inane forum questions about whatever they’re flogging just to get their visibility up.

Lol.. probably accurate.