Is Allen & Heath poised to buy Traktor from Native Instruments?
Is Allen and Heath buying Traktor from Native Instruments? · Source: Allen&Heath, Native Instruments
We’re hearing rumours Allen & Heath is about to do a deal with Native Instruments for their Traktor DJ package. Why would a manufacturer of mixing desks buy a DJ software package? If our hunch is correct, domination of the DJ market could be A&H’s endgame…
Traktor Take-Over
If you’ve played out as a digital DJ in the last decade or more, chances are you’ve used Native Instruments’ Traktor. Traktor was one of the first digital DJ solutions for laptop DJ’s and was revolutionary when released. Indeed you could say the same for a lot of NI’s products: revolutionary when released and amazing for the times. The problem is NI has been in turmoil for years now and their products have fallen behind the times.
In fact, Native Instruments is in poor health: staff layoffs, allegations of company racism…. And just last week the company founders Daniel Haver and Mate Galic stepped down. Amidst this turmoil, rumours abound that Allen & Heath are looking to purchase Traktor from the ailing Native Instruments. So what’s a manufacturer of mixing desks doing buying a range of DJ software and controllers then?
Is Allen & Heath eyeing DJ domination?
Allen & Heath has had a very well respected foot in the door of the DJ market for some time. If you glance in the DJ booth at many high-end clubs, you may well spot one of their Xone series of DJ mixers. On the other hand, you may well spot a Pioneer mixer along with the same company’s Nexus series decks. That’s because Pioneer’s Rekordbox software has come to dominate in recent years, something Allen & Heath may wish to challenge.
Rekordbox is a cutting edge DJ software package which integrates cloud playback and hardware integration with Pioneer’s mixers, decks and controllers. It’s an integrated “top-down” solution with no real competitors…for now. If Allen & Heath purchased Traktor, they’d be in an ideal position to challenge Rekordbox and Pioneer’s current dominance of the DJ market.
We think this could be great news for fans of Traktor; the software has been suffocated in NI’s ownership and fallen by the kerb. If our hunch is correct we could see a whole new range of Traktor integrated hardware mixers from Allen & Heath. There’s certainly the DSP knowledge within the company, just take a look at the SQ Series of digital mixing desks. Add in their distribution links to DJ retailers and installers and it could be a match made in heaven…
NB: Gracious acknowledgement to Dan at DJ Techtools for originally breaking the story
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2 responses to “Is Allen & Heath poised to buy Traktor from Native Instruments?”
Hi Bob! Thanks for reading my article on DJTT. Any chance you could include a link as it’s the original source, and I worked hard on this piece? Cheers!
Hey Dan! In our rush to get the story “to press” we overlooked linking to your piece.
Sorry about that oversight! I’ve put a well deserved credit and link in the article footer.
Cheers – Bob.