Native Instruments has been running the music production software game in a major way for quite some time. Along with some of its more recent hardware offerings like the Kontrol series keyboards and, even more so, the Komplete software bundles, its products have become mainstays for amateur and seasoned producers. Needless to say, the German-based company has been producing some of the best virtual instruments and effects for years and it is now ready to take its content management and library system to the next level.
Today, NI is launching Sounds.com. The new platform is a subscription based service where creators can access thousands of new samples, loops, sound packs and more for a monthly subscription…
Essentially you’re looking at a monthly fee for unlimited access to the sounds and samples found on the site. NI claims it has more than 500,000 sounds from over 200 partners. So we aren’t just talking about NI’s in house options here.
Partners include Looploft, MVP Loops and Symphonic Distribution, among others, as well as established artists such as Jamie Lidell and Hank Shocklee. Having said that, NI makes some fantastic sounds itself and you can expect to see some of its own “loops and sample content” as well as former Maschine Expansions and “all upcoming Native Expansions.” Everything is royalty free and ready for your commercial products.
The project has been spearheaded by Chief Digital Officer, Matthew Adell, known for his leadership roles at Beatport, Napster, and Amazon. SOUNDS has been developed from Native Instruments’ Los Angeles office and marks the company’s entrance into the loops and samples domain, completing the music production sound portfolio alongside the instruments and FX offerings already available through MASCHINE and KOMPLETE.
At launch, there will be a U.S. only $9.99 per month plan as well as a global free mode. The plan will net you unlimited downloads for the $10 fee (these kind of services usually cap your monthly download privileges) and “global users can preview all loops and samples without the need for sign-up.” More details on that below:
Free Tier
- Preview unlimited sounds from the industry’s top publishers
- Download royalty-free loops and samples from our free collections
- Weekly free sounds and collection updates
- Available globally
Pro Tier (introductory price of $9.99 p/m)
All features from Free plus:
- Save and download royalty-free loops and samples from the Sounds.com library
- Manage your personal sound library online
- Download any sound at no extra cost
- Exclusive premium content added weekly
While certainly not the most novel concept, if anyone is going to do the online content subscription thing right, it will likely be Native Instruments. It is easy to see how everyone from home music producers to professional video editors and directors could make use of a high-quality service of this nature. It will be interesting to see how the company treats its flagship software from here on out. There is a chance we might have to become Sounds.com members in order to access those. We are reaching out to NI regarding this in particular and will update this post when we hear back.
We also expect to see some kind of system that allows users to access Sounds.com content from directly inside their DAW of choice, but that won’t be available for launch.
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