This is unexpected
Battle lines drawn?
Dear all and @mufasa,
this is amazing news. Is it checked and true?
If true it will be a challenge for DENON to improve their products permantly, to develop tools and features, others donāt have and listen to their customers carefully and act accordingly 
.
Embrace the future and brgds BeatMaster
A desperate move of a company that is lacking of a future proof technology?
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Yikes.
Iām not sure how I feel about this.
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Probably an easy purchase.
Serato arenāt as ābig sliceā of the industry as they once were. Plus some of their key knowledge staff left Serato in what some described as a mass exodus about 4 years ago.
I wonder if alpha-theta just bought it to kill it, to make it one less player in the DVS market or whether theyāre actually going to do something with it.
Posted in here instead.
āWhile the partnership will capitalize on the combined expertise of both companies, AlphaTheta and Serato will continue to operate as standalone brands. This includes the continuation of their longstanding partnerships with key players in the DJ hardware and software industry.ā
I expect it will mean little in real world terms.
Id like to say that hopefully it means Serato can stop ripping people off with their pricing but given who it is that has purchased them, the exact opposite is likely the case.
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InMusic should acquire Nativeās Traktor DJ division as a response, it would be a much better investment than serato because traktorās algorithm is so precise.
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Which algorithm?
Traktor almost seems to have become the āfading fast and forgottenā DJ software of the main DJ offerings since their hay day times of 10 years ago.
iām talking about traktorās BPM & Grid detection algorithm
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So we know ATC has acquired serato so In Music who are you buying? Algorithm Pro, Atomix, Tracktor?
Come on In Music a power play has been made.
Well as consumers this is a win win and I am here for the fireworks because the speculations as to what pioneer and serato will come up with is interesting (I am predicting a serato standalone within 5 years).
As a Denon user I want to see how In Music responds the stems game needs to be on point as basically RB will just adapt serato stems into it and take it up a few notches.
Going forward anyone wanting to use and or continue using serato will be paying for the privilege to the competition. I will not moving over to Serato unless Pioneer can tempt me with some new gear but at present that is a stretch.
Are In Music shook? Or are In Music on the cusp of a Power Play of their own? Given how many companies fall under the In Music banner does In Music need to acquire any other brands, Algorithm DJ being a smaller company may see themselves being pushed out of the market so I could see why they may want to join up with a larger company, however if In Music acquired Atomix this would send a clear message and the battle lines are drawn sorry for the long post but the it is hard not to be pleased with what has taken place.
Tbh, I think āsomeā FTEās moved across the street before this news, so weāre good. 
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Iāve always preferred the ergonomics of traktor to those of serato. I find seratoās user interface really messy, untidy and austere. The first time I used traktor I knew instantly how to navigate my folders with the explorer, and how to create playlists intuitively.
The first time I launched serato it took me 30 minutes just to figure out how to display the explorer and how to upload files to a playlist. And Iām not even talking about the aesthetics of seratoās user interface, which looks like it came straight out of the 90s and was drawn on paint. Iāve never understood the serato craze.
I think Virtual DJ weighs far too much money to be acquired by InMusic. On the other hand, Traktor could be an easy and very profitable acquisition, especially as NI has a real mastery of hardware quality.
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On the contrary i find Seratoās method of adding new music to be easily the best of the lot. Namely because it can be done all inside the app without any other involvement. The file tab should be implemented across the board, its also much easier to update existing playlists as you just drop the folder into the crate and it only adds new music, with no other popups or prompts.
As far as the GUI goes, i donāt think its any better or worse than the others, everything that is needed is generally visible.
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This brings 3rd party hardware integration into question. How long are the licensing agreements locked in for between companies like Rane and Serato? Will pioneer continue supporting screen output for non-pioneer mixers and controllers in Serato after this term? Weāve already seen Serato as a company drop support for half of the legacy devices after 2.5.5/2.6.3.
After the licensing agreements come to end of term, Will Serato dvs merge with rekordbox dvs? Will rekordbox dvs and performance mode, instead, be replaced by Serato? Will there be an integration between rekordbox and Serato DJ?
What I find most worrying is that InMusic has supplied their SDK to serato for compatibility and integration with the prime range. If AlphaTheta buys serato, then AlphaTheta will have access to the Denon SDK, will be able to deconstruct it, do reverse engineering and copy the functioning of EngineOS on a linux base. I hope InMusic has protected its patents well.
There is a good chance that, in order to encourage the use of Pioneer equipment, Alphatheta will no longer support third-party equipment that is currently compatible with serato once the licensing agreements have expired.
InMusic will clearly have to react and anticipate, either by buying Traktor or another DJ software company, or by transforming Engine Desktop into performance DJ software to support previously serato-compatible controllers, as pioneer did with rekordbox.
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The SDK provided for integration does not contain the engine os codebase.
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Truth. I am curious how InMusic feels about paying licensing fees to its direct competitor as well.
It seems unlikely to me
I imagine there are all sorts of laws and NDAās in place to stop anything like that being allowed to happen. Contracts agreed with Serato will have strict rules in place to account for any takeovers etc. It wouldnāt be worth doing as the consequences of getting caught would be the end of the company if legal action was taken.
Do you not think this desktop integration that has already been released was the first stage of that being put in place anyway? It was my first thoughts when it was released that its just a phase one for turning Engine desktop into DJ software.