Reid Rosefelt Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 (edited) Venture Capital and mergers are beginning to be a thing in the music software business. I do have some experience with these things in large US corporations and I worry, but I guess we'll see how it plays out. Native Instruments is still kind of Native Instruments, so hopefully UVI will be too. Edited February 11, 2023 by Reid Rosefelt 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatstand Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 10 hours ago, telecode 101 said: yup. "The company is backed by Waterland Private Equity." I don't know enough about music software industry to make a judgement, I heard a rumour the name "Waterland" was chosen by the main financial backer, because he had recently been on a cruise.... ? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitekrazy1 Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 1 hour ago, Reid Rosefelt said: Venture Capital and mergers are beginning to be a thing in the music software business. I do have some experience with these things in large US corporations and I worry, but I guess we'll see how it plays out. Native Instruments is still kind of Native Instruments, so hopefully UVI will be too. People think one company is going to take over the other's coding and rarely does it improve. I have yet to be overwhelmed when Magix upgrades Vegas, Soundforge, or Acid. Gigastudio tech bought by Garritan never went anywhere. We know everything acquired by In Music rarely improves. See BFD 3. There's a new user at Ci Control who appears to be from UVI say not to worry. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reid Rosefelt Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 13 minutes ago, kitekrazy said: People think one company is going to take over the other's coding and rarely does it improve. I have yet to be overwhelmed when Magix upgrades Vegas, Soundforge, or Acid. Gigastudio tech bought by Garritan never went anywhere. We know everything acquired by In Music rarely improves. See BFD 3. There's a new user at Ci Control who appears to be from UVI say not to worry. You've made me feel so much better. Don't forget what a heckuva job Gibson did with Sonar. Now it's free! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 (edited) 31 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said: You've made me feel so much better. Don't forget what a heckuva job Gibson did with Sonar. Now it's free! Haha! During the period where it looked like Cakewalk was going to be history on jumped on the Studio One Professional -- or whatever their flagship version is called -- bought it -- although I didn't actually try it until a couple of years ago, and then I decided to stick with Cakewalk because I was already so familiar with Sonar -- going back to the first version and never used Studio One again (not because it isn't very good, it is, I am just more familiar with Cakewalk). As far as companies acquiring others, it is a huge question mark, but there's not much we, as consumers can do, especially when we're heavily invested in a certain ecosystem like I am with NI/KONTAKT. If NI decided to pitch KONTAKT, that would be huge for me. There are some excellent UVI libraries, but I am not in love with the user experience, so I am not as heavily invested. But my hope is that because the DAW and related market is pretty attractive, that this new company will invest in UVI beyond what the previous owners were doing and that it will result in better and additional UVI products. I would only see it as a positive if UVI continues to get better and has more libraries. And competition with NI benefits users greatly -- as it results in increased innovation and lower prices. So, I'm going to stay pragmatically hopeful that this will be good for UVI. I agree that InMusic is not a company that has a good track record with buying software companies, but isn't their leadership from the hardware side of the industry? At least that was what most of their early acquisitions were (music hardware brands). But Image Line is a software company with a good track record from what I understand, so that alone gives me more hope that they'll do a good job with UVI in terms of managing the software products. Edited February 11, 2023 by PavlovsCat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Cruz Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 BTW, Melda was also bought by Image Line. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
satya Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=593291 Really ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMaartian Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 16 hours ago, Hatstand said: I heard a rumour the name "Waterland" was chosen by the main financial backer, because he had recently been on a cruise.... ? And we know how that turned out. ? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacab Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 3 hours ago, Walter Cruz said: BTW, Melda was also bought by Image Line. Although I prefer the customer-first attitude and business model of most small or one-man shops, something like this should be reassuring to the user base. They are now more than one heartbeat away from a product line being shut down and sold off. Having strong financial backing is a plus, especially if the buyers allow the acquired brand to continue business as usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitekrazy1 Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 22 minutes ago, abacab said: Although I prefer the customer-first attitude and business model of most small or one-man shops, something like this should be reassuring to the user base. They are now more than one heartbeat away from a product line being shut down and sold off. Having strong financial backing is a plus, especially if the buyers allow the acquired brand to continue business as usual. Don't think so unless Gibson buys them. Image Line, UVI, Melda are small companies. I assume Image Line believes in each store as a separate business. Beside you can't take someone's coding and mash it into yours. I think Cakewalk never improving the staff view speaks volumes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InstrEd Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 5 minutes ago, kitekrazy said: I think Cakewalk never improving the staff view speaks volumes. You had to bring that up But you make a very valid point. I was hoping Meng would make a partnership or buy out a notation company like Presonus did with Notion. Who knows maybe dreams will come true. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris.r Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 18 hours ago, PavlovsCat said: As far as companies acquiring others, it is a huge question mark, but there's not much we, as consumers can do, especially when we're heavily invested in a certain ecosystem like I am with NI/KONTAKT. If NI decided to pitch KONTAKT, that would be huge for me. There are some excellent UVI libraries, but I am not in love with the user experience, so I am not as heavily invested. But my hope is that because the DAW and related market is pretty attractive, that this new company will invest in UVI beyond what the previous owners were doing and that it will result in better and additional UVI products. I would only see it as a positive if UVI continues to get better and has more libraries. Lowering the price of licenses for 3rd party developers should be their first step, so that the AcousticSamples guy could bring us out a better than just 30% sale on his brilliant Vpianos and we both get happy by owning them ??? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telecode 101 Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 I have been in IT for quite a while. I don't know about music software, but in enterprise IT, when these sorts of sales happen, the products goes to hell . I witnessed the butchering of Novell, SUSE, Solaris by Oracle... Now Red Hat by IBM. We shall see. Maybe things will work out. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacab Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 1 hour ago, kitekrazy said: Beside you can't take someone's coding and mash it into yours. I think Cakewalk never improving the staff view speaks volumes. I believe that the guy that was behind the original Cakewalk notation code was the guy who runs Sonic Scores Overture, Don Williams. Don had approached Gibson prior to the Cakewalk shutdown to offer to integrate Overture notation code with Sonar. Gibson declined to take him up on the offer. Now it's a bit more obvious why they declined, if Gibson were already thinking about closing the Cakewalk product line down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overture_(software) "Overture has been continuously maintained by the developer since it was first released. It was originally published by Opcode Systems, which produced MIDI sequencing and digital audio software. After Opcode ceased product development in 1999, having been bought out by Gibson Brands*, Overture found a new publisher, Cakewalk. Cakewalk published the software from 1999 to 2001. In 2001, Williams' own company, GenieSoft – now known as Sonic Scores – purchased Overture from Cakewalk. Greg Hendershott, CEO of Cakewalk at the time, announced, "The fact that GenieSoft founder Don Williams is the original developer of these products is great news for those customers. He's committed to continuing customer support and product enhancements."[1] GenieSoft later changed its name to Sonic Scores, and has published and developed Overture since 2001." *An earlier strike for Gibson... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InstrEd Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 @abacab You have to remind us of what we could of have 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacab Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 (edited) 48 minutes ago, abacab said: I believe that the guy that was behind the original Cakewalk notation code was the guy who runs Sonic Scores Overture, Don Williams. It appears that Don Williams is staying busy... He's hard at work on Encore v6, to be released later this year. "On June 16, 2022, Sonic Scores purchased the Passport Music Software assets and trademarks. Sonic Scores plans to update Encore and Master Tracks Pro software to today’s standards while adding a few critically needed features." "Don Williams, the founder of Sonic Scores, was the original creator of Passport’s software products and was an early pioneer in the music software industry. He was the creator of Master Tracks Pro, Encore, Overture" https://passportmusic.com/about/ Edited February 12, 2023 by abacab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Walton Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 Didn't care about IL acquiring UVI, but Melda is a real concern. Just when you thought one of the heroes in the industry was safe from selling out.....I also find it odd that Melda hasn't released a statement related to this impact. Short term, not expecting a whole lot of impact, but long term....not so sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 4 hours ago, chris.r said: Lowering the price of licenses for 3rd party developers should be their first step, so that the AcousticSamples guy could bring us out a better than just 30% sale on his brilliant Vpianos and we both get happy by owning them ??? chris.r, I think you're on to something about lowering licensing costs -- and also, that developer does seem to be very talented. He's definitely the one developer who makes libraries for UVI that I find most compelling. I had exchanged a number of PMs with him and, while I don't agree with his reasons for choosing UVI (largely because he's unhappy with NI's approach to anti-piracy measures), I do respect him, he seems like a very decent person and he's definitely very talented as a sample developer. Yeah, if he had a killer sale, it would be hard for me to resist. But I still am not crazy about the UVI user experience. While KONTAKT isn't perfect, I find it superior to UVI when it comes to user experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitekrazy1 Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 Yes 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 30.000 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 People gotta have their DAW drama. If you have an FL account go and see for yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reid Rosefelt Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 (edited) Duplicate info. Edited February 13, 2023 by Reid Rosefelt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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