Meldaproduction acquired by Image-Line???

[ozonepaul]

I bumped into the following post from Scott from Image-Line:

"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"

You can find the post in the KVR Forum/ Instruments/ Image Line Acquires UVI topic. Link:
viewtopic.php?p=8615930#p8615930

I'm wondering:
- Will Melda products gradually merge into the product line of Image-Line?
- Or perhaps what Scott wrote about UVI is true for Melda as well, so Melda and Image-Line "will continue to work independently from a product perspective"?
- Will this "merge" (change of ownership) affect current Melda users as far as free-for-life updates, further product development etc.?
- Is it perhaps nothing more than some mutually beneficial know-how transfer between these companies?
- Will Vojtec now have way more human/financial resources to do his own thing or there will be a huge demand from Image-Line to make major changes to current Melda products (eg. UI redesign etc)?

Anyway, it's a pretty interesting news I think. It would be great to hear something from Vojtec/Melda.

[FakeNatty]

Oh nooooo.... Time to watch pure data and supercollider tutorials again.

On a positive note, I truly believe that, at least for the near future, this whole thing is about the teaming up of companies who believe in the free-for-life updates policy to survive against the increasingly exploitative industry of subscriptions, yearly updates that cost as much as a new license, charging major version updates for bug fixes, sneaky changes of upgrade policies, releasing redundant products to milk sales, etc.

I've asked UVI before about Falcon future updates being free, and they say that they have no plans on charging updates for the foreseeable future. Of course, this can change at their own discretion, but at least that is their vision to keep product updates free.

Melda and UVI introducing subscriptions definitely show that the pressure of subscriptions is gradually creeping up to them. I am sure other companies doing subscriptions, big bundles with half-baked products, buy-cheap-first-pay-thrice-to-update-later schemes definitely put pressure on UVI's and Melda's business.

I hope this merging is not a dire attempt to stay in business in this increasingly profit-first-everything-else-second world, but rather a demonstration of their persistence in their original business philosophy.

[Biome_Digital]

I read that too.

[Frankie.T]

This is a news to me.
Anyway fortunatly it's IL and not iLok or companies with different business model.
Free lifetime updates are common on Melda and IL. There is no subscription model for IL afaik, so i don't think this become a things on Melda, i mean, they are offering the good subscription model, rent to own, it's perfectly fine.

I don't know what this mean, i hope they will keep doing everything as they are, without revolutions (with mixing revolution exception :p) but i'm confident about everything keep going in the right way, so free update, and a friendly licence management as we have here (the best one tbh)

[jan-sandahl]

I for one, get a feeling of greater stability, because my sense has been that Melda relies on one man only - Vojtech. And in a way it may continue to do so in terms of what he is capable of achieving, that is hard for others to replicate, or take over. I know he's mentioned his particular programming framework earlier as an example. Maybe that's transferable somehow. I hope it is. What if Vojyech - God forbid - had a serious accident as an example. I wish for continued independence, with greater actual support when and if needed.

[MirkoVanHauten]

I can understand UVI, am surprised about WA and shocked by Melda. But as long as I don't see these plugins in FL or am forced to suddenly click through 1000 pop-ups, I don't care. Maybe thay can start aquiring some devs, FL would actually profit from.

[Scotty]

I didn’t see that coming. Melda always seemed to me to be fiercely independent, lean and highly efficient. I suppose that would make them attractive to pick up but it seems a bit unmelda-like to be owned. I have always been blown away by their coding efficiency. That framework if transferable would be gold.

[mibby]

Wow!?? Well, maybe one upshot is that Vojtech can be freed from the shackles of the business side of things and can spend more time developing and programming and enjoying what he does? (I have no idea, but maybe he likes doing the business stuff too?) Anyway, a HUGE congrats to Vojtech (and crew) for sticking with his vision and for building an excellent company around excellent products that we customers thoroughly enjoy working with! (This is also assuming it was a friendly sale and not a hostile takeover. )

[Hevy_IL]

Melda will stay Melda, same with UVI and the others.

[mevla]

As far as my experience is, IL were (is ?) quite creative with their synths at some point in time. They had (have ?) creative synth designers and developers. I run Bitwig Linux and use from time to time Harmor, Harmless, Sakura and Morphine. Which weren't updated in ages, a point that is squarely opposite to Melda's.

If it can bring resources to Melda, good !

Who knows, maybe Vojtech wants to change his domain of business. If so, please do it after creating a MSequencer !!

Heck, a MSequencerMB. Different sequences triggered by the octave the notes are in.

In the end, words are words but actions speaks louder.

Cheers.

[Scotty]

It is highly unlikely that company aquisitions result in business as usual. The profit motive doesn't have to be evil but it is relentless. In this case, I am more optimistic. Melda and ImageLine have a policy of free life time updates and that seems burned into the DNA of both entities. I've picked up everything Melda sells (except the instruments) so I am more or less locked in.

Melda will stay Melda, same with UVI and the others.

[Held]

I hope this has a positive impact, but only time will tell...

[al808]

I hope the documentation will see some improvements

[jan-sandahl]

One question lingers in my mind; why haven't Melda communicated this to its users? Does it mean Melda/Image Line are not in sync somehow?

[rtoip]

One question lingers in my mind; why haven't Melda communicated this to its users? Does it mean Melda/Image Line are not in sync somehow?

Very good question. Communication between the company itself and its customers is also important. Customers like to know more or less what the company's intentions are and what the overall plan for further product development is.