Native Instruments in preliminary insolvency ...

[rwillett]

Just seen this in a data feed

 

https://www.musicradar.com/music-tech/native-instruments-has-been-placed-in-preliminary-insolvency

 

Doesn't look good

 

Rob

[2pods]

Oh, S**t !

 

I have oodles of Komplete and Kontakt stuff, and find them very good.

I hope they manage to salvage the business

 

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Annoying! 
I have a maschine mini purchased ages ago . Also launchpad app with packs that I paid for .

Wondering if the apps will be eventually deleted . Will Inmusic buy them ?? 

[DF Shortscale]

This would be a big loss, Reaktor and Kontakt are both great, Reaktor in particular is pretty unique and the user library is full of amazing stuff going back decades.

 

I have a feeling that this will keep happening to similar companies and we are seeing the early stages of the death of electronic music, or at least software based electronic music. As AI eats everything digital, people are slowly losing interest in this stuff and values are beginning to shift. If AI can crap out a generic house tune which is indistinguishable from a human-made one, it’s game over. When people can’t tell the difference between digital and AI, they will just lose faith in the whole thing and move on. Same thing is beginning to happen to digital art too. Interesting times.

[velvetkevorkian]

Hard to see them disappearing, you'd imagine they'll get acquired by one of the bigger conglomerates. Kontakt seems like such an industry standard that someone will want the IP at least.

[80Hz]

Thanks for the heads up on this. As a daily Izotope user I think it will be a smart idea to download and archive some offline installers this morning, just in case…

 

But I can’t see a company with such well established products disappearing completely.

 

Another triumph for private equity.

[BigRedX]

It's news like this that has made me glad that I have decided to stick mostly with the plug-ins that are part of the standard installation for my DAW. I have made a couple of exceptions, which make life easier for me when recording but none are essential to my workflow should they stop working tomorrow.

Edited 1 hour ago by BigRedX

[SumOne]

8 hours ago, DF Shortscale said:

 

 

I have a feeling that this will keep happening to similar companies and we are seeing the early stages of the death of electronic music, or at least software based electronic music. As AI eats everything digital, people are slowly losing interest in this stuff and values are beginning to shift. If AI can crap out a generic house tune which is indistinguishable from a human-made one, it’s game over. When people can’t tell the difference between digital and AI, they will just lose faith in the whole thing and move on. Same thing is beginning to happen to digital art too. Interesting times.

 

Unfortunately, I think you might be right. At least that's what it feels like to me as someone who has spent 30 years making electronic music.

 

There is software that suggests chords progressions, song structure and drum patterns, Reason has just been bought by an AI company. Or can fully go with something like Suno. 

 

On quitting digital music, Daft Punk said 'the last thing they'd want to be now (with AI music) is Robots'. One of them went on to hand write an orchestra score for a ballet. A bit like being a digital visual artist but now AI can do it it'll kills off the need for humans doing that stuff and the market/rarity/value of digital art decreases, but AI won't replace hand painted oil portraits.

 

Along with Daft Punk, one of my favourite electronic producers is Jamie xx, I think he does innovative stuff that's still accessible and more than most he has a signature sound, but a comment on one of his latest releases was 'sounds like AI'. If people think his stuff sounds like AI there's no hope for someone like me to not!

 

I'm thinking there will be push-back in listening trends, AI will be great at personalising music (e.g. linked to mood/time of day, where you are in a marathon and heartbeat etc) but people will want to see real people perform live music with instruments. 

 

Edited 37 minutes ago by SumOne

[rwillett]

Just now, SumOne said:

I'm thinking there will be push-back in listening trends, people will want to see real people play live music with instruments. 

I think you are right here, it's very sad that AI is creating electronic music that most people think sounds 'real'. The genie is out the bottle now, and people who are desperate for clicks on social media will be in a race to the bottom to use it. There is a whole generation of people who live on social media and will do anything to get those clicks. Witness people blowing up Ferraris or doing other stupid 'stunts' to get attention. 

 

Perhaps the "Dog and Duck" will be the centre of the fightback for real music, but I somehow doubt it. On the plus side, both my daughters love live music and want to go to gigs, they then buy the music for the band or singer, they love the live element of it all. Whilst they may be in a minority, most of their friends seem to be the same, and they will continue to keep going to gigs so long as the price is right (apologies for the pun). They have introduced me to new music, though I have to say that Kneecap is not my idea of a good time, but I can't imagine I'm their target audience