The music gear super-company inMusic is purchasing Native Instruments. This is a big deal for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the acquisition puts Native Instruments under the same umbrella as long-time hardware and software rival Akai. The US-based inMusic also owns Moog, M-Audio, Denon, Numark and several other high-profile brands.
Native Instruments owns several popular digital brands like Plugin Alliance, iZotope and Brainworx, all of which will now be run by inMusic. The acquisition also puts an end to the Native Instruments bankruptcy saga, which had left its future uncertain. The company will continue on, which is encouraging for those tied to NI’s ecosystem of products. This does, however, create a massive juggernaut in the industry.
The deal isn’t exactly unsurprising. Someone had to buy Native Instruments and inMusic had already partnered up with the company to bring some of its plugins to Akai devices. The acquisition will likely lead to more NI software popping up on stuff like the Akai MPC XL. Native Instruments makes some of the most respected software in the industry, as synths like Reaktor and Massive are regularly used in music across multiple genres.
There are some questions regarding hardware. Akai makes multiple standalone grooveboxes. We aren’t sure where Native Instruments’ standalone Maschine+ fits in there, if anywhere. There will also be some major product overlap in the world of MIDI controllers. Akai and Native Instruments both make popular controllers and the same goes for other inMusic-owned brands like M-Audio.
Native Instruments CEO Nick Williams wrote in a blog post that the business will continue to operate normally as the transaction completes in the coming weeks. The company did just launch Komplete 26, the latest iteration of its music production bundle. This includes over 190 digital instruments with 180,000 presets. The latest release features a new version of the popular Abysynth synthesizer, along with updated pianos, vocal soundscapes and more.
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