Native Instruments and iZotope join forces

[mhschmieder]

https://www.kvraudio.com/news/native-in ... roup-51216

[HCMarkus]

Interesting. I had heard NI was having some issues awhile back, but haven't been following. Sounds like a fairly loose alliance under a newly-erected tent.

[stubbsonic]

Both have experience with install/update managers.

I generally don't get that excited (or happy) about mergers. But if it means both companies can survive, I suppose that's important. It's hard to believe that either is struggling, given their high profiles.

[mhschmieder]

The timing is interesting as it comes just a day or two after iZotope announcing their "Pro" series, which is subscription-only and is how they will roll new features and products going forward (no guarantee of back-ports to perpetual license versions).

[mikehalloran]

The timing is interesting as it comes just a day or two after iZotope announcing their "Pro" series, which is subscription-only and is how they will roll new features and products going forward (no guarantee of back-ports to perpetual license versions).

Uh yea… Giving us the hard sell on that without a single new feature to offer someone like me — and not including everything I own in the subscription model either. Pass for now.

[Michael Canavan]

Not a fan of subscription models, and heavily invested in both companies. Komplete 13 Ultimate, and Production Bundle.
Fun times. Hopefully they release native M1 versions without a subscription.

Mostly though, I'm a big fan of Tonal Balance Control and the Kontakt universe of sample libraries. Those are the only two products from them I find invaluable.

[mikehalloran]

If there's a Black Friday sale on upgrades to Komplete 13 Ultimate Collector's Edition, I'll buy. Their last sale excluded upgrades.

[nk_e]

I’m waiting for a K13 Ultimate upgrade sale also, but I think it highly likely that Komplete will go subscription. (Something like Composer Cloud from EW with different tiers most likely.) If so, I think that is a disincentive to them for offering a sale. Hope I’m wrong on that.

Totally agree on the iZotope Pro subscription. Makes no sense if you already own all of their stuff to subscribe for a subset of their stuff.

[mikehalloran]

I’m waiting for a K13 Ultimate upgrade sale also, but I think it highly likely that Komplete will go subscription. (Something like Composer Cloud from EW with different tiers most likely.) If so, I think that is a disincentive to them for offering a sale. Hope I’m wrong on that.

Totally agree on the iZotope Pro subscription. Makes no sense if you already own all of their stuff to subscribe for a subset of their stuff.

Perhaps 13 was just too new last November. Anyway, we should know in a few weeks. I’d like to get the complete Symphonic Ensembles for $599 instead of $999, ya know? The rest of the Collector’s Edition does little to whet my appetite. Currently have Komplete 12.

I’ve written iZotpe’s Marketing Dept. I’m not opposed to paying once a year to have everything up to date, especially with the haphazard way they release bundles (who knows how many redundant licenses I have by now?) but it has to include everything to get me onboard.

[BobK]

Why would a Private Equity firm want to be involved with music tech firms? That’s a rhetorical question. No doubt it means that both companies are in trouble financially. I bought RX Elements on a flash sale recently. I hope it stays around and doesn’t turn to a subscription.

[mikehalloran]

Why would a Private Equity firm want to be involved with music tech firms? That’s a rhetorical question. No doubt it means that both companies are in trouble financially. I bought RX Elements on a flash sale recently. I hope it stays around and doesn’t turn to a subscription.

Private equity firms have been gobbling up every aspect of the music industry for over a decade.

[bayswater]

Why would a Private Equity firm want to be involved with music tech firms? That’s a rhetorical question. No doubt it means that both companies are in trouble financially. I bought RX Elements on a flash sale recently. I hope it stays around and doesn’t turn to a subscription.

Asset stripping. It's a way to make money without having to do anything useful to anyone.

[BobK]

Asset stripping. It's a way to make money without having to do anything useful to anyone.

Yep.

[Michael Canavan]

So it looks like iZotope are stepping back from the edge of total subscription, this is good.
From an email I sent:

Ken G (iZotope)
Mar 26, 2021, 3:39 PM EDT

Hi Michael,

Thanks for reaching out to iZotope Customer Care.

There are no plans to discontinue licensed products at this time. If it was it would be communicated proactively to our customers.
The way our subscriptions work is- those will always be up to date and you if stop your subscription the plugins can still stay on your tracks, you just won't be able to make edits.

I understand your question and we are waiting for our teams to decide things like: what exactly or how many features/improvements will there need to be for a product to essentially be "Ozone 10".

If you have any other questions I'll be happy to help to the best of my knowledge!
Regards,

[mikehalloran]

… if stop your subscription the plugins can still stay on your tracks, you just won't be able to make edits.…

Yea, that.

Because it's often less expensive to upgrade bundles than individual licenses, I have no real idea how many licenses of anything I actually have (nor can that be looked up). Except for a few of the Exponential Audio Reverbs that I picked up in bundles, I have at least one license for the current version of everything they offer.

I don't mind the idea of paying an annual fee to keep everything I own up to date. That would stop the redundancy and the time I spend examining each bundle to see what exactly I was getting. The idea that what I owned would lose functionality plus the fact that neither of their subscription plans cover everything… that's just whack.

No thank you.