Long-Time Ultimate User Frustrated by Aggressive In-Product Advertising

databass

Hi Native Instruments community ,

I’m a long-time, loyal customer — I’ve been using Native Instruments products for over 15 years and currently own Komplete Ultimate 14. Over the years, I’ve upgraded multiple times and spent thousands of dollars building a collection that suits my specific creative needs. I deeply value the quality of these instruments and the ecosystem.

However, I’m increasingly frustrated by the aggressive advertising that now appears every time I open Kontakt. I’m constantly shown banners, pop-ups, or product panels for instruments I don’t own — despite the fact that I’ve already purchased the comprehensive Ultimate bundle. There appears to be no clear way to hide or disable this promotional content, aside from creating a custom view (which is a workaround, not a solution).

This experience:

• Makes me feel like I’m being treated as a potential customer rather than a valued, existing one
• Disrupts my workflow and focus
• Undermines the satisfaction of having invested in the Ultimate collection

I understand the need to advertise new instruments, but users at the Ultimate level should have the option to hide this content, especially when the majority of it is outside the scope of what we’ve already purchased. At the very least, let us opt out of promotional visibility, or add a toggle to display only installed or owned libraries.

This feels like a tone-deaf UX decision that prioritizes upselling over respecting long-term users who have already invested heavily in your platform.

native instrument team please take this as a request to rethink how content is presented in Kontakt and offer an experience more suited to users like myself who have already committed deeply to your ecosystem.

To add to this frustration, I’ve watched support be quietly dropped for legacy hardware I paid for in good faith — such as my Maschine Mk1 and the Guitar Rig pedal — along with various software products that were once part of my creative setup but are now unsupported or non-functional. It leaves me feeling like I’m just another wallet in your user base, rather than someone whose loyalty and investment are valued.

The recent shift toward the subscription model only amplifies this. I have no interest in subscribing or being constantly sold new content I didn’t ask for. What’s worse, if you even try the subscription, it installs dozens of products that take hours to remove manually, one by one — no centralized uninstaller, no cleanup utility. This is not respectful of users’ time, bandwidth, or storage.

I will continue to purchase what I genuinely need — on my terms — but the direction things are heading makes me feel increasingly alienated as a user who has supported you for over a decade.

Mark Oxley

You're not alone, I detest this very aggressive advertising strategy inside my expensive paid for software. It's what you might expect in a free trail. It's not enough that I already receive daily emails promoting their products.

Kymeia

You can turn it off in settings

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/45252/long-time-ultimate-user-frustrated-by-aggressive-in-product-advertising

I’m increasingly frustrated by the aggressive advertising that now appears every time I open Kontakt.

As written by Kymeia then in full version of Kontakt this can be completely turned off :

The recent shift toward the subscription model only amplifies this. I have no interest in subscribing or being constantly sold new content I didn’t ask for. What’s worse, if you even try the subscription, it installs dozens of products that take hours to remove manually, one by one — no centralized uninstaller, no cleanup utility. This is not respectful of users’ time, bandwidth, or storage.

I completely concur , I myself dislike the subscription models and also then N.I.'s subscription when cancelled leaves people with remnants of the subscription that at the moment can not be hidden in N.A.

Mark Oxley

Yeah, hide it in settings where most won't see it. Shouldn't be there in the first place. I don't see Ableton, Cubase, Arturia etc bombarding me with aggressive advertising strategies. It's a cheap trick from a troubled company imo.

Kymeia

I agree it shouldn’t be there in the first place (and was one of the first to speak up about it in the thread that ended up with NI agreeing to make it optional) but really, this was months ago, and it’s not exactly ‘hidden’ in settings, that should be the obvious place for anyone to look to turn something on or off.

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/226865#Comment_226865

I too agree that it ought to have been implemented in a better way where when opening app first time then there came a pop-up asking user if they wanted the 'info'/'advertising' turned on or off and at the same time telling user where to change their decision. That's how stuff like that usually is best implemented.

databass

Thank you kymeia for voicing this irritation to ni and showing me where to turn this off . I am so beyond impressed with this company and how they have treated their longterm loyal customers . the planned obsolescence of the machine devices and guitar rig Kontrol have annoyed me beyond belief when I look at how the ableton push 1 is still fully functional with the latest software 12 years after release even after being superseded twice . my other gripe with this company is as uptime 14 owner if I was to subscribe to the service unless I pay top tier they are literally charging me for tones of plugins and effects I already own with ta minimum of " new content and if I happen to own things like ozone essentials which I purchased before native bought that they make no connection for the fact that I own that too . such poor customer loyalty rewards ive never seen from any other company before .