Investor pumps 50 million Euro into NI

[whyterabbyt]

Honestly I'd be a lot more concerned about the direction NI are taking if they turned down the 50 mil without a damn good reason.

reads like they went looking for it.

(far too on-topic for most people, no duobt, but the earlier mention of the Beatport guy makes me think that Stems was the first stage of this)

[Woodgardens]

Well, for me personally it all started as a hobby.

But to destroy the competition one must be ruthless

[AnX]

You will immediately be put on the terror watch list.

[fluffy_little_something]

Who says anything about punishing?! All I say is that I won't give such a big company none of my money, simply because it is that big, regardless of the quality of their products. It is a matter of principle.

So you don't have a bank account? Cuz, you know, they charge you fees and invest your money for their own profits. You don't have a credit card? You don't own a car? Do you use a Mac, by any chance? iPhone? Google Pixel? Samsung TV? I mean, I can keep going. I'm guessing you're just trying to make a point, but I'm also guessing that your argument is full of variously flavored holes. But anyway... you don't like NI, that's fine. I don't like Waves, but not because they're one of the most recognized and successful brands in their market. I just hate that damn shell thing.

It is quite simple really. When I have a choice, I opt for the underdog, the small option. No matter whether it is products (my home appliances are almost all from Spain, I do have a Samsung washing machine, but only because I had to (I live in a renovated apartment in an old building, which has very narrow doors, so a normal-sized machine would not fit through the door, and Samsung had a slim machine)), sports (should the Ghana or Iran play against my country of origin, I will of course be on Ghana's or Iran's side) or whatever.

No, I don't have any Apple products, nor a car, nor a credit card. I do have a bank account because I have no choice.

With some categories I don't have a choice, unfortunately (printers, hard drives, etc.) as they are all made by big companies. But that doesn't apply to music software.

[Aloysius]

When I have a choice, I opt for the underdog, the small option.

The ''fluffy_little_something''. I get it. You are one sick puppy.



What brand of dog food do you eat?

[kbaccki]

I dont use any NI products. How will this affect me?

You might want to plan for a KVR sabbatical. It's going to get messy, and will probably touch every corner of the forum... instruments, effects, sample libraries, everything else (music related), production, et al. Plan accordingly.

[fluffy_little_something]

When I have a choice, I opt for the underdog, the small option.

The ''fluffy_little_something''. I get it. You are one sick puppy.



What brand of dog food do you eat?

iPie, um, apple pie

[kbaccki]

Honestly I'd be a lot more concerned about the direction NI are taking if they turned down the 50 mil without a damn good reason.

reads like they went looking for it.

(far too on-topic for most people, no duobt, but the earlier mention of the Beatport guy makes me think that Stems was the first stage of this)

+1... kinda... just found this nugget that I know I missed, perhaps others:

https://9to5mac.com/2017/03/28/native-i ... -streaming

As SoundCloud reportedly continues struggling and considers selling, one of the leaders in electronic music software and hardware just acquired a music and remix streaming and rights management platform called Metapop. It also hired former CEO of online electronic music store Beatport. ...

So Metapop is (presumably) the tech and IP basis of the platform... good, a significant chunk of their infrastructure is established, to one degree or another... "all ya have to do is" add the creational tools on top. Simple!

Useful info in that article. NI sees a hole in the market, and (if successful) this could give them huge growth potential... which brings us to...

Apple too inked a deal with a company called Dubstep for unofficial single-track remixes, showing its ambition to bring over the not-so-mainstream content usually found on Soundcloud to Apple Music. And that’s exactly what Metapop does.

Or... Google... or worst case... Microsoft. #blech

Those of us who think a lot of their products are top-notch (even indispensible) would like to see NI thrive and exist far into the future... but consumption by the corporate greed machine could be disastrous, depending. I guess Steinberg turned out ok, so who knows...

[stratum]

fluffy_little_something wrote:

Well, to begin with, it is a big company, which I don't like. I tend to support one-man shows...

As a potential one man show who doesn't believe having any chance in the existing state of the market, I would like to see it change, and I don't believe any one man show would be able to change it, so good luck to N.I.

[Jace-BeOS]

This makes total sense to me... As it becomes more and more difficult to make money either as a professional musician or studio the income for companies developing tools for musicians and studios is becoming more dependent on hobby/home musicians/studios, therefore companies like NI will obviously start developing more and more product for that target group. To dumb down music making tools so that a wider market has access to music composition and studio technology is where a lot more companies are heading or indeed have already gone, just look at all the artist series that Waves have released in the last years or even the new Izotope Ozone and Neutron releases. I guess there's no point in going all King Canute about it. That's capitalism folks!

No, that's a sign of pathological capitalism. They're responding to a saturated market by trying to increase profits... by shuffling the chairs in the board room, forgetting about the products and customers that put them where they are, and aiming all their resources at a quick cash fad. If they wanted to grow, they should've hired developers to update and expand their existing products in a useful manner (products which are being effectively ignored for Mashine sound sets), and grown organically, instead of seeking the financing of a firm that wants them to gamble the money on a popular fad of subscriptions and "services" in the pursuit of perpetual gains on profits. Gambling and capitalism aren't actually the same thing.

This lursuot of perpetual gains is the pathological component: the compulsion to perpetually grow in dominance and profits (nothing can grow perpetually except cancer) in an already stable market leads to eliminating "business expenses" (often that means cutting research and development on products, quality assurance, customer service... basically everything that makes an actual thing that consumers get in compensation for giving money to the company), while trying to guarantee a regulated monthly income (via subscriptions to "services"; often a change to licensing terms of existing product stones from which they want to squeeze more blood).

Capitalism isn't necessarily evil. Pathological capitalism, however, is a disease which destroys.

Don't we already have a thread on this subject? I seem to remember already typing a prediction here that this is the beginning of the fall of the house of NI...

[Jace-BeOS]

Well, I think when a company dominates 50% of the audio software market as I read somewhere, then it is too big in my view.

So, everyone who has done a good job, and got a big piece of the market should be punished? Hmmm...

Seriously, we should be happy that a company in this business does THAT well. It's exceptional. Especially when you consider how good NI's service is, at least that's what i experienced.

Who says anything about punishing?! All I say is that I won't give such a big company none of my money, simply because it is that big, regardless of the quality of their products. It is a matter of principle.

I don't see their success harming anyone. If NI was harming the music industry or influencing government policy in order to benefit themselves, then I'd be looking to boycott. They're not the late-1990s Microsoft; they're not a 400-ton gorilla that's killing the industry for personal gains. They used to be a shining example of "winning by product quality" that is supposed to be what's good about "the free market".

What I do fear here is this venture capital firm changing their business model and harming NI by harming their current customers by harming their current products. This is something NI has already begun to do on their own.

[Woodgardens]

Anyway, good news for the folks who still miss 90s, 00s and 10s drummer. Yay!

[Jace-BeOS]

If I earn ten times more - my life will not become ten times better.

There's a wonderful short story from Heinrich Böll (noble prize 1972) named "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral" which basically means "Story to reduce the motivation to work". It goes like this:

A tourist meets a sleeping fisherman in the harbour somewhere at the coast in Western Europe and asks him about his fishing success for that day. The fisherman replies that he's satisfied. But the tourist can't understand that he does not go on fishing again at that day. He describes how much more he could fish then, and when he does it regularly, he could invest in a second boat, then later on in a third boat and so on. Eventually the fisherman would be become rich and could stay in the harbour and snooze in the sun.

The fisherman replies: "I can do this already."

Yes, there are opposing views of the world, of the purpose of life etc. A lot of people are or pretend to be ambitious, but some simply aren't. At the end of the day it doesn't matter whether or not I was, I will die, anyway. There is no economic goal in life. The world will continue long after humans have traded and consumed themselves into oblivion.

I totally identify with this post and elassi's summary of that short story. My only ambition was to live comfortably and happily, but my culture forced me to play the game of "ambition in all things", which eroded my ability (time and peace of mind) to pursue happiness. Ambition in all things, or punishment for "failure to thrive". I think I'd have been fine if the ambition of my bosses hadn't revealed that their reach exceeded their grasp...

Having too much ambition changes a person. Nothing is ever enough. NI was doing fine until they started to lose interest in their own products. Ambition in their leadership must have grown...

[Aloysius]

I feel confident that Jordan Rudess would endorse these sentiments if there were a few shekels in it.

[kbaccki]

Did somebody say "endorsement"?