Native Instruments is in preliminary insolvency

Native Instruments is in preliminary insolvency proceedings, according to documentation reported by Create Digital Music. According to that report, a preliminary insolvency administrator has been appointed, who will take responsibility for restructuring the company and any sale of existing assets.

The German music technology brand, known for era-defining products such as Maschine, Massive, Traktor and Kontakt, has been through numerous changes over the past decade. Between 2019 and 2020, the company experienced a rocky period involving staff layoffs, a company restructure and criticism from ex-employees.

In 2020, the company’s Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Haver and Chief Innovation Officer and President Mate Galic stepped down from their leadership roles, beginning a period of shifting leadership and structure within the brand. Since 2021, investment firm Francisco Partners has had a majority stake in Native Instruments.

That time period has also seen the company acquire two significant software brands, iZotope – known for the likes of Ozone and RX – and Plugin Alliance. The brands were initially merged under an umbrella brand named Soundwide, before all being brought under the Native Instruments brand name.

At the time of writing, it’s unclear what any of this will mean for Native Instruments' customers, products or staff. It is also unclear how brands owned by Native Instruments – iZotope, Plugin Alliance and Brainworx – will be impacted.

Both iZotope and Native Instruments produce product ranges that many producers and musicians rely on on a day-to-day basis, such as Kontakt sample libraries, RX post-production tools, Traktor’s DJ library or the Maschine ecosystem. Users will be understandably eager to learn whether these will be supported on an ongoing basis.

Despite the turbulence in its management structure, recent years have seen Native Instruments and iZotope release some excellent products. We were pleasantly surprised by both the latest version of NI’s Traktor DJ software, and its recently released MX2 controller.

Just recently, Native Instruments revived its much-loved soundscape-friendly softsynth Absynth, for a new version that MusicRadar’s Andy Price described as “a spectacular, unexpected comeback that goes straight for the modern sound designer’s heart.”

We will bring you updates as soon as more is revealed about the future of the company and its products. Given the company’s storied history, much-loved music making tools and many hardworking employees, we hope to see a positive resolution for all involved.

We have reached out to Native Instruments for comment.