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Native Instruments lays off 20% of staff ahead of 'fully integrated platform' launch

The Berlin-based music tech company has let go around 100 employees across a range of departments

Ahead of the 2020 launch of a "new, unified and fully integrated platform", Berlin-based music tech company Native Instruments have reportedly laid off around 20% of their staff. The redundancies will impact the teams across the sales, marketing, administration and engineering departments. 

Founded in 1996 by Daniel Haver, Stephan Schmitt and Volker Hinz, Native Instruments is a leading manufacturer of software and hardware for computer-based audio production and DJing. The official statement from the company to Create Digital Music (CDM) claims that the move to lose around 100 employees is not financially motivated. 

On the operational shift and lay-offs, Native Instruments said to CDM: 

"Our new organisation aims to break down functional and brand silos that have developed over time through the continuous expansion of our portfolio. Given our broad spectrum of products and the overlap between roles, it means that certain areas of product developement are affected more than others by the redundancies. In the past, we have simply been doing too much at the same time and this strategic change as well as internal remapping of talent will allow us to move forward in a more effective and collaborative way." 

Though there isn't a huge amount revealed in the statement about what the new platform will consist of, a representative from Native Instruments has confirmed that Traktor hardware and products will remain. 

The end of iTunes means that DJ Apps such as Traktor will lose the ability to communicate with Music, Apple's iTunes alternative. 

Earlier this summer, Native Instruments launched their new synth, Massive X