You don’t really associate Google and Native Instruments very often, so I was surprised to see a story pop up on my Facebook newsfeed announcing that Google’s Executive Chairman (and former CEO), Eric Schmidt was visiting NI headquarters over in Berlin. Mr Schmidt looked like he was having fun trying out all the new shiny that NI have just released or announced, including the Maschine Studio, the Komplete MIDI keyboards and the Kontrol S8 (which must have still been warm out of the oven).
As soon as I saw the Facebook post, I sent it to Mark, asking what he thought it could mean, and if we should post something about it. His (expected) response was that we don’t comment on rumour and that was that.
Then this popped in our inbox…
Native Instruments hosts Google’s Eric Schmidt for a talk about ‘disruptive technology’
Berlin, October 15, 2014 – As part of his visit to the German capital, Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt stopped by the global headquarters of Native Instruments on Monday evening for a special event. In front of an audience of entrepreneurs, students and journalists, Eric Schmidt gave a speech about innovation, market disruption and the future of the Internet.
In his speech, Eric Schmidt acknowledged the unique appeal of Berlin as a hotbed of both technological and cultural innovation. Explaining why he had chosen the NI offices to present his thoughts, he referred to the shared mindset of both companies, and their similar approach in their respective industries. Acknowledging Native Instruments’ track record for innovation, Eric Schmidt stated that the company’s fusion of music and software “has revolutionized an industry”, from which “a whole new genre of music has emerged.” In turn, Daniel Haver in his welcome note recognized Google as “having created, more than nearly any other company, innovations that have profoundly changed everyone’s daily lives”, and that it was this same transformative vision that Native Instruments has always aspired to within the music technology domain.
Eric Schmidt also took great interest in the following first public demonstration of TRAKTOR KONTROL S8, Native Instruments’ new DJ controller that represents a paradigm shift by moving away from conventional jog wheels control. The guests of the event were also privy to artist performances featuring the recently launched KOMPLETE KONTROL keyboard series, which unites the power of the KOMPLETE software instruments range in a single dedicated instrument, and on MASCHINE STUDIO, the flagship product of the immensely successful groove production line.
Further photography and information
Additional photography (credit: Lars Hübner) from the event can be downloaded here:
www.native-instruments.com/press.info
The full transcript of Eric Schmidt’s speech can be found here:
http://googlepolicyeurope.blogspot.be/2014/10/the-new-grundergeist.html
My Take
There’s not much to say about this really, other than ask a simple question: Why would Google be visiting NI?
What do you think?
It men’s Schmidt is going to lead the charge to make $300 Chromebooks capable of ruining Traktor and Maschine just as well as a Macbook Pro, and Traktor DJ will run flawlessly on a Nexus 9 tablet! Oh, and NI will make versions of these software for Chrome and Android.
Or maybe not; a boy can dream.
Did you mean to type ruining?
Haha.
It was an auto correct error and I corrected it within 30 seconds! You’re too fast!!!
Traktor DJ on my Nexus 7 would be enough for me.
That would be fantastic. I have a Nexus 7 (2014) and use it every day.
Well, I’m actually not interested in Traktor DJ at this point and won’t unless they add timecode control. But if they ever do a Nexus 7/9 would be what I’d want to use IF it worked as well as it does on an iPad.
Or on the new nVidia shiled. That would be rather lovely if it came to pass!
Could be nothing or google could buy or collab with NI, and enter this market and have NI software run on chromebooks and android which would make chromebooks/chrome os & android a serious competitor in the market by adding support of a well known and established music company. Music tech is big and what better to way expand the reach of android and chrome os then then having a company like NI be at the front of that. Or again it could be for nothing.
I posted my knee jerk reactions and half-baked conspiracy theories about Pioneer’s new Kuvo device in another thread, but after reading a very insightful comment from my good friend and, especially now, after hearing that Google is sniffing around NI, I feel like I definitely missed the mark and by a lot. I couldn’t see the forest through the trees and jumped to worst-case conclusions. My apologies for jumping the gun and commenting with emotional blinders on guys :)
The answer was kind of obvious once I took a step back from my paranoid approach. Here’s what my friend posted about Kuvo, but I’m posting it here because I think it pertains to Google’s visit to NI HQ, as well.
“People will use this service wether they like it or not, and that is what Pioneer DJ is banking on. Their grip on the market share is pretty ridiculous. I used to look at the MI Sales Track data every month, and when it comes to media players and mixers, Pioneer is number 1 by a long shot. The funny thing is that there has been a sharp decline in sales with every other company in these markets, but somehow, Pioneer has found a way to keep their sales up and take a larger part of the market share.
They wouldn’t have made the jump to make this announcement if the software wasn’t working very well. Just so you know, everyone who uses Rekordbox has already been beta testing this for Pioneer since the last update. Pioneer now makes it so that you cant use Rekordbox without an internet connection.
I don’t believe this is going to be used to go after DJ’s for royalties or anything like that. But what I do think it will be used for is MARKETING DATA that will be sold to record labels and advertising/marketing agencies. This is the same thing that Facebook is doing right now. Facebook collects data on trends and then sells it to companies so they can have their finger on the pulse of the industry they are in. This data is very valuable and will generate more income than the sales of any mixer or CDJ.
Rather than relying on sales data, record labels and ad agencies can find out the true popularity oh a song by region. They can now see what song is being actually played in each club and at what time. They can also see how it was received by the audience.
For example, DJ Tiesto plays the new Swedish House Mafia song at the end of his set in Berlin. The crowd can instantly pull up his playlist and download the song in question. Pioneer sells this data to a Berlin based headphone company who is looking for the perfect song to include in their advertising campaign. Headphone company “A” now knows what song people are playing the most in Berlin.
I can see a definite backlash by DJ’s with this though. Remember when we used to put stickers over our label to block other DJ’s from trainspotting? We DJ’s really covet our secret weapons. With the advent of Shazam, getting a secret weapon has been even harder. I can see someone making a piece of software which encodes your songs in a way that the KUVO interface cant read. Someone is probably working on it as we speak.
So, is this a bad thing? I really don’t know and can’t tell you. I see this as a marketing tool which will generate LOADS of income for Pioneer. While many of us may complain about it, the truth is that Pioneer owns the market share, so stopping it is very unlikely. And people will most likely aqueous to the technology.
The thing you need to ask yourself is this; Is the activity of Facebook collecting marketing data on you unethical? If not, is this any different?”
For me, this explanation puts everything into context and the answer is simply: Data Mining.
Kuvo is not required to use Rekordbox, Rekordbox does not require an internet connection, and pretty much everything you are saying is based on fantasy.
What version of Rekordbox are you using? I ask because a Kuvo account (not the hardware) is required to download and authorize Rekordbox 3. Previous versions of Rekordbox did not require a Kuvo account or any sort of online account signup for authorization/use.
You’re right, everything else is based on fantasy. It’s called speculating: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/speculate
If Google and Facebook are able to make billions of dollars collecting and selling data, why wouldn’t Pioneer or NI want to jump on the bandwagon?
Personally (this is me speculating again), I don’t think there’s anything altruistic about Pioneer giving away free Kuvo boxes and spending a ton of money to startup and maintain an entirely new (and free) social media platform. Data collection is a goldmine these days and this is simply another way to monetize the dance music industry.
Rekordbox 3. However Pioneer has ALWAYS required you to register with an e-mail address to get a Rekordbox license, since day one.
Rekordbox 3 is an all new software. Previous versions were developed by MixVibes for Pioneer. The new version was built almost from the ground up without MixVibes being involved.
Just because Pioneer is requiring people to re-register if they want to use the new Rekordbox (which is not required, you can still use the old Rekordbox), and that new registrations doubles as a Kuvo log on, doesn’t mean you have to use Kuvo to use Rekordbox or that you have to be connected to the internet to use Rekordbox either.
digital PRS using a sort of adwords model?
With the low-latency audio built into Android 5.0, companies like native Instruments and Serato et. al. will be developing DJ and Production apps FINALLY. Expect releases in the spring of 2015.
ie: your Android Tablet will now be useful outside of your couch.
Google is there to ensure that iOS production and DJ apps move over to Android. As a bonus, Google wants insight into what data can be generated by those apps that Google can mine later on.
Yes to both. Once Google captures “what’s hot”, they will package and sell this content to “upcoming DJs”, while also auto-assembling demographically targeted DJ mixes to people in social situations (such as bars). I’m sure we’ve all seen the ads for renting out our DJ sets to establishments with no clue.
Google used to operate by the statement “Do no evil”, I cannot see how data scraping and auto generating playlists avoids that.
I really hope you’re right. I’ve been waiting for this to happen for a very long time but the press has been dead quiet about who is gearing up for low latency android. You sound very confident in your predictions, do you have any confirmed information or are you make some bold assertions?
http://www.android.com/versions/lollipop-5-0/
See All features > Media >
“Lower latency audio input ensuring that music and communication applications that have strict delay requirements provide an amazing realtime experience”
http://mobilesyrup.com/2014/10/15/google-launches-android-5-0-lollipop-here-are-the-7-coolest-features/
Thanks dude, but I’m not questioning the improvement to near real-time processing, just whether any decent music software is confirmed to be coming to Android once Lollipop is released. Have you heard any more news on that front? Would love to have Traktor, Maschine and the Korg Gadget on my Nexus 9. I’e heard nothing but have my fingers, toes and everything else crossed.
Ah i see what you mean. Well, although I don’t have anything concrete, I think it’s only a matter of time, particularly with Google visiting Native Instruments
I really hope some kind of music streaming service teams up with Traktor, ideally Spotify but maybe Google could do something similar down the line. While it might not be good enough for clubs at the moment it would be great for house parties or just mixing tunes at home.
Upload your tracks to Google Music and stream them?
This is good, because people on the dance floor need a breather, as the dj waits five seconds for that “skip ad” button to pop up. Of course, the club owner hopes the dj plays the really popular songs, because people will go to the bar during the minute and a half “can’t skip” ads.
I love how people are giving credit to NI for leading to do away with jog wheels. Last I checked Twich with Serato Itch did that years ago.
C’mon now, you know only the popular kids get credit for anything.
BTW, I own a Twitch
If we’re gonna get pedantic, the X1 came out quite a bit before the Twitch (there are reviews for the X1 in early 2010 and the Twitch in mid-2011. But I was using two Faderfox DX2s with Traktor way back in 2007…
http://www.faderfox.de/dx2.html
Google found another way to advertise to us….Woot more commercials sell my IP#
Sell Sell Sell!
Acknowledging Native Instruments’ track record for innovation, Eric Schmidt stated that the company’s fusion of music and software “has revolutionized an industry”, from which “a whole new genre of music has emerged.”
Shows just how oblivious they are about the history of electronic music. I don’t think it’s a good thing when Big Corporate takes an interest in your scene.
To be fair, if you exclude Traktor from the list, Native Instruments has created some pretty amazing pieces of software with just FM8, Reaktor, Absynth and Battery. I mean, it didn’t “create” electronic music, but those tools definitely assisted the creation of genres within.