Native Instruments has unveiled an online platform that may well become a staple among audiophiles in the coming months. The German software and hardware company has launched Sounds.com, an online marketplace of loops and samples geared towards music producers.
The Sounds.com developers apparently took cues from download stores like Beatport when laying out the general structure of the website. Every collection of sounds on the website is categorized by genre, subgenre and style/instrument. The marketplace utilizes a “freemium” business model similar to that of Spotify; some of the audio clips are available for free download while others require a paid membership for access.
An additional draw for Sounds.com is the celebrity of select curators. For instance, respected producer BT has put together The Granular Collection Sampler which consists of 24 sounds geared towards producers of the ambient genre – all of which are available for free download.
Sound Business Logic
Sounds.com is the brainchild of Matthew Adell, the previous CEO of Beatport. Last year he began working as the chief digital officer of Native Instruments when the company acquired remix monetization platform Metapop.
Native Instruments closely partnered with Beatport during the latter company’s early years, and their alliance proved valuable as the German techno boom of the early 2000s arguably established Berlin as the electronic music capital of the world. Beatport was purchased by the electronic music conglomerate SFX Entertainment in 2013, which itself rebranded as LiveStyle before the end of 2016.
The present version of Sounds.com is a public beta version only available in the U.S..
Source: Resident Advisor
