Native Instruments is in preliminary insolvency.
If you don’t know what that means, it means they’re broke. Bankrupt. The company that made Kontakt, Massive, Reaktor, and half the sample libraries sitting on your hard drive is going under.
And if you’ve been paying attention, you already know what this means for you.
Remember when I said you don’t own shit? This is exhibit A.
What Happens When the Company Dies
Here’s the difference between hardware and software when a company goes belly up.
I bought an Alesis ADAT in 1993. Alesis went bankrupt in 2001. The ADAT still works. Still records. Still plays back. Still syncs with the other two I’ve got in the rack. Alesis being dead doesn’t matter. The machine doesn’t need permission from a server to function.
Now let’s talk about your Native Instruments libraries.
You’ve got Kontakt. You’ve got thousands of dollars worth of sample libraries that run in Kontakt. Maybe you’ve got Massive, Reaktor, Komplete, whatever. You paid for it. You “own” it.
Except you don’t.
When NI goes under completely, what happens to the authorization servers? What happens to the software that checks your license every time you open a session? What happens when there’s nobody left to maintain the DRM that keeps your “owned” software locked down?
Your hardware keeps working. Your software becomes a brick.
The iLok Problem, But Worse
At least with iLok, there’s a third party managing the DRM. If one company using iLok goes under, the rest keep working. Native Instruments managed their own authorization. Their own servers. Their own infrastructure.
When they shut down, that infrastructure goes with them.
Sure, maybe someone buys them. Maybe the assets get picked up by a bigger company who keeps the lights on for another few years. Maybe.
Or maybe they don’t. Maybe the new owner decides supporting legacy products isn’t profitable. Maybe they sunset everything older than two years and tell you to upgrade or get fucked.
This has happened before. It’ll happen again.
Gibson bought Cakewalk in 2013 and killed it in 2017. Tascam bought GigaStudio and ran it into the ground. MakeMusic just discontinued Finale after 35 years. These weren’t small companies. They weren’t fly-by-night operations. They were industry standards.
And they’re all dead now.
What NI Didn’t Do
You know what Native Instruments never did? Open-source anything.
Steinberg open-sourced VST. That was the right move. VST is the backbone of the plugin ecosystem, and making it open-source means it’ll outlive any one company.
But NI? Everything proprietary. Kontakt format is locked down. Their authorization systems are locked down. Their sample libraries only work with their software.
When NI goes under, all those libraries you paid for become dead weight on your hard drive.
The samples are still there. The software to play them won’t be.
Sound familiar? That’s because this is the exact same thing that happened with GigaSampler. Revolutionary format. Dead company. Thousands of dollars worth of libraries that don’t work anymore unless you want to spend weeks converting them and hoping the conversions don’t fuck up the keyswitches.
Hardware Doesn’t Need Permission to Work
I’ve got synths from the eighties and nineties. Roland JV-2080. Yamaha TG500. Roland U-220. All of them still work. The companies are still around, but it wouldn’t matter if they weren’t. The machines don’t phone home. They don’t check a license server. They don’t need an internet connection to function.
You turn them on, they work. That’s it.
That’s what ownership looks like.
Software ownership is a lie. You’re licensing access. And when the company that sold you that license disappears, so does your access.
Is It Time to Stop Relying on Software?
I’m not saying ditch your DAW and go back to tape. I’m not saying software is worthless.
I’m saying stop building your entire setup around proprietary formats controlled by companies that might not exist in five years.
Use open-source tools when you can. Use open formats. Use software that doesn’t require a company to stay in business for you to access your own work.
And when you do use proprietary software, know what you’re getting into. You’re not buying a tool. You’re renting access to it. And that access ends the moment the company decides it’s not profitable anymore.
What’s Next
I’m going to start a series on open-source tools and open formats. How to use them. Why they matter. What you can do now to make sure your work outlives the companies that sold you the software.
Because here’s the thing: your work should outlive you. It sure as hell should outlive a software company’s quarterly earnings report.
Native Instruments going under is just the latest proof that you don’t own what you think you do.
Hardware survives bankruptcy. Software doesn’t.
Plan accordingly.