It has been apparent for several years now that Native Instruments is a slowly sinking ship in the music tech business. As exclusive deals used to be, they now flood the market with them. You can buy NI plugins everywhere. At Plugin Boutique, Thomann, etc. It’s good that they’re opening up, but the constant deals show that golden times are over.
I think Dirk Ulrich also recognized it, which could be one reason why he withdrew from the business. I can imagine that working with investors is never easy because, at some point, they want to see their invested money back. And that’s currently difficult with Native Instruments.
No groundbreaking products, developments of popular plugins are discontinued, devaluation of their own plugin portfolio through massive, endless sales, etc. Anything that damages the reputation. Plus, customers have more and more alternatives.
We’ll see where Native Instruments goes in 2024. Maybe 2024 will be the golden year. One would like to wish it on them because their products have shaped the music production market. It will remain a shaky affair, but I hope that will get more positive news this year from NI than the previous years. I wish Dirk Ulrich all the best for the future.
https://synthanatomy.com/2024/03/dirk-ulrich-has-left-native-instruments.html