There have been recent rumours of layoffs at Native Instruments which it seems are true, in an official statement NI have confirmed that in spite of growing revenues around 100 redundancies, approximately 20% of its workforce will be laid off so it can focus on “a new, unified and fully integrated platform on which the company’s entire portfolio of products and services will be available next year.”
In the statement they said: “We strongly believe that by improving accessibility and usability of our portfolio, we will be able to provide an enhanced and more cohesive experience, both for existing and new customers. Rather than releasing more and more products, we want to ensure that users are getting the most out of our current products through a connected and unified experience.”
Of the job losses Daniel Haver, CEO and co-founder of NI said:
“Today is a very emotional day for the Native community,” “We’ve been driving innovation in music creation since the 1990s. First through software instruments, then by expanding to an integrated ecosystem with complementing hardware and now by creating a unified platform experience for the modern music producer. To make this transformation successful, we needed to adapt our strategy, including a centralised functional setup that can support our vision of ‘One Native’. Unfortunately, this also means we had to make some tough decisions and part ways with a number of employees. This has been the hardest part of this transformation.”
Mate Galic, Native Instruments’ Chief Innovation Officer and President, commented:
“Customers today are expecting a seamlessly integrated experience when consuming and accessing creative goods and services. We are confident that we can offer music producers worldwide a unique and premium experience by connecting our existing ecosystem of award-winning software and hardware to a centralised online service. In the past, we expanded in different product lines, which was also reflected in our organisational structure. Our platform vision, however, requires a much more collaborative approach, having all parts of the company work together towards one common goal.”
The new platform, which is currently in development will offer new ways of accessing NI’s core products and services, as well as complementary ones from third parties. Loops and samples - currently available on NI’s sounds.com website - will also be included.