Native Instruments Insolvency: What Now For Traktor DJs?

Native Instruments has entered preliminary insolvency proceedings in Germany – but before you panic, this does not mean the company is shutting down. Not yet, anyway. But as many of our students here at Digital DJ Tips are Traktor users, we’ve done some digging and in this article, we’ll share all we’ve told them, and all you need to know as a Traktor user (or user of any of NI’s products, of course).

The Berlin-based company filed at the Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg on 27 January 2026. The court has appointed Prof. Dr Torsten Martini of GÖRG law firm as preliminary insolvency administrator. Martini is a restructuring specialist with over 20 years of experience saving companies – his track record includes successful sales of distressed businesses as going concerns, which suggests the court believes NI may be salvageable.

During this preliminary phase, management remains in place but cannot make significant financial decisions without the administrator’s approval. Creditors are temporarily blocked from enforcement actions. The process typically takes six to 12 weeks, during which the administrator evaluates whether restructuring, refinancing, or sale as a going concern is viable.

Multiple media outlets – CDM, Production Expert, MusicTech, and us, of course – have reached out to Native Instruments for comment. None have received a response. This silence is notable but not unusual during the legally sensitive preliminary phase.

Update: Native Instruments has now responded. In a statement published on the company blog, CEO Nick Williams says business continues as usual across Native Instruments, iZotope, Plugin Alliance and Brainworx. Products remain on sale and available for download and activation, and the company says its teams are supporting customers as normal while continuing to develop new products. Williams confirms that Native Instruments GmbH and three German holding companies have filed for pre-insolvency proceedings, and says the company is working to secure a “healthy, financially sustainable future”. It’s the corporate reassurance you’d expect, but it does at least confirm that Traktor isn’t about to disappear overnight.

So what actually happened?

The short version: private equity happened. Native Instruments was acquired by Francisco Partners in 2021, who then went on an acquisition spree – buying iZotope, Plugin Alliance, and Brainworx. The combined entity was briefly rebranded “Soundwide” before that was abandoned in 2023. An attempted sale to Bridgepoint and Bain Capital received EU approval in December 2025, but appears to have collapsed just weeks later – triggering the insolvency filing.

What happens to your Traktor licence?

This is the question that matters most. Right now, everything works. Activation servers are online. Native Access functions normally. Existing installations will continue operating even if you never connect to the internet again – once activated, Traktor runs offline.

The problem is reinstallation. Native Instruments eliminated offline activation in September 2017. Every new installation or reinstallation after a hardware change requires contacting NI’s servers through Native Access. If those servers go dark, you cannot activate Traktor on a new computer or reinstall it after replacing your laptop. This isn’t theoretical. When NI declared legacy products “End of Life” previously, they eventually turned off activation servers for older software. Users documented being unable to reactivate products they had paid for.

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German insolvency law provides no explicit protection for software licensees. Under Section 103 of the Insolvency Code, the administrator has the right to either affirm or terminate licence agreements. If terminated, licensees lose usage rights with no recourse. Some users have pointed to NI’s September 2016 EULA, which states the company will provide a key ensuring continued use if they can no longer deliver activation. Whether this clause would be honoured – or could be enforced – during insolvency proceedings remains unclear.

What the community is saying

Reaction across Reddit, KVR Audio, and DJ forums has been a mix of sadness, vindication from longtime critics, and genuine concern. Long-time users are mourning what NI represented. Peter Kirn (founder of Create Digital Music) wrote about the memories he has with NI staff past and present. Many users expressed grief about potentially losing tools that shaped their creative journeys.

Tim Exile, a long-time Reaktor developer, offered a more optimistic perspective: the chances of the lights going out are very slim, he says, and entering this phase of insolvency actually makes a good outcome for customers more likely. It’ll come down to what price will be paid for the assets.

On Reddit’s r/traktorpro, the top comment reminds users that roughly 30-50% of German companies in preliminary insolvency successfully reorganise rather than end in liquidation.

What usually happens in these situations?

This is a mixed bag. Cakewalk provides the most encouraging parallel. When Gibson ceased all development and support in November 2017, the situation looked dire. But in February 2018, BandLab Technologies acquired the intellectual property and relaunched SONAR as Cakewalk by BandLab – completely free. Existing owners didn’t have to pay to cross-grade. Key technical staff were retained. Users actually ended up better off.

Reason Studios was acquired just this month by LANDR, with user licences, pricing, and access remaining unchanged. Serato was acquired in April 2025 by Canadian holding company Tiny Ltd. for $66 million after an earlier merger attempt with AlphaTheta was blocked. Operations continued without disruption.

InMusic already has a relationship with NI – current Akai MPK keyboards ship with Kontakt vouchers. They’re being discussed as a potential buyer, alongside AlphaTheta, Allen & Heath (who already support Traktor with their Xone:96, PX5, and K-series controllers), and Yamaha/Steinberg.

Next Steps For Traktor DJs

Firstly, don’t panic! Back up your Traktor collection, settings, controller mappings, and any custom Midi mappings. Ensure your current installation is working and activated. Monitor news for announcements over the next six to 12 weeks. Don’t buy new NI hardware right now, but equally, don’t panic – your software works today and will continue working.

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The era of taking NI’s perpetual existence for granted is over, it seems, but the next few weeks will determine whether this is a bump in the road or something more serious.