Music software giant Native Instruments confirms staff layoffs, a restructure and a “unified platform”

Following rumours of staff layoffs and disquiet, Native Instruments has responded with an official statement regarding the state of its business.

The headlines are that the company is centralising its operations and reducing its headcount by 20%. Around 100 staff are being laid off, most of whom are based at NI’s Berlin headquarters.

NI says that these changes are being made despite growing revenues so that it can focus on the development of “a new, unified and fully integrated platform on which the company’s entire portfolio of products and services will be available next year.”

While users of Komplete, Maschine and Traktor may be concerned at what this means for the future of their hardware and software, NI says that it remains fully committed to these brands.

“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,” says the statement.

“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.”

“A seamlessly integrated experience”

Discussing its new platform, which is currently in development, NI says that it will offer new ways of accessing its 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.

“Customers today are expecting a seamlessly integrated experience when consuming and accessing creative goods and services,” says Mate Galic, Native Instruments’ Chief Innovation Officer and President. “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 centralized online service.

“In the past, we expanded in different product lines, which was also reflected in our organizational structure. Our platform vision, however, requires a much more collaborative approach, having all parts of the company work together towards one common goal.”

Discussing the staff redundancies, Native Instruments CEO and co-founder Daniel Haver said: “This was the most difficult decision we had to make in our entire history, as our past successes have been enabled by the work of some of the best and most passionate people in the music industry. We thank all employees for their commitment, hard work, and their high degree of loyalty to Native Instruments. We are fully committed to doing all we can to take care of our employees impacted during this difficult time.”