Rane Sold To InMusic (Numark, Denon, Akai)

We’ve just received a very short press release from Rane Corportation – the company behind famous DJ mixers like the TTM57 and the MP2015 – that discloses a sale of the company to InMusic, the same company that has snatched up many DJ companies in the past, like Denon DJ, Numark, and Akai. Keep reading for the details.

Why Is Rane Selling To InMusic?

First up, most people will be wondering why a successful company like Rane, with years of solid products under their belts, would sell to a company like InMusic at all. Based on the press release, the truth seems relatively simple: the founders wanted to retire:

“Rane Corporation is pleased to announce that cofounders Linda Arink and Dennis Bohn have agreed to sell Rane Corporation to InMusic LLC.

The transaction is set to be completed this summer. After the sale Ms. Arink and Mr. Bohn plan to step down and retire.”

What Will Happen To Rane?

Rane’s headquarters and assembly plant, north of Seattle

There’s not too much in the way of details on how the actual company and their products will change after being brought into the InMusic family. We suspect the changes will be significant. Many of InMusic’s products rely on economies of scale – working with overseas manufacturers to keep the prices relatively affordable on their DJ gear.

Rane prides themselves on building all of their products in the United States, at their headquarters in Mukilteo, Washington. Will that stay a strong part of the business, or will InMusic change the way things work? So far all we know is that “some” of the company will continue operations in the same location:

“Rane is one of the most admired companies within the DJ and commercial sound industry. “Rane will continue some operations out of the Mukilteo, Washington headquarters,” says Ms. Arink.”

We’re also wondering if Rane would have needed more money to continue to grow – similar to Pioneer DJ prior to splitting from the Pioneer Corporation. It’s an idea that’s hinted at in the last line of the press release:

“Ms. Arink feels that with the added resources, engineering talent, and additional IP, InMusic is an ideal buyer for Rane Corporation and will help it grow now and in the future.”

This is an evolving story – we’ve asked Rane and InMusic for additional comments, and will update this article as details unfold. 

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  • Shigura

    One of worst pieces of news I’ve read in a long time.

  • Fuller

    And, sadly the word on the street is that the amazing employees who have made Rane what it is by designing and building top-notch equipment aren’t going to be part of the “new Rane.” Sounds like InMusic likes the brand and the products more than the people who made it what it is. Sadly, I think Rane will just be a nameplate in the future, made by the same child-workers as everything else, and to the same quality. :/

    I can understand that the owners are ready to retire, but it sounds like they’re screwing the people who got them to a point they can retire in the process…

  • Christopher Joyner

    🙁

  • CunTROLLersRfunny

    LOL. Now they will take the same road as all other gear-producers who went this way. Numark/Akai paved the way by releasing gear inferior quality-wise than earlier products. And giving in to the CunTROLLER-Cash-Cow didn’t make gear better quality-wise. Even Rane 62 mixer is inferior quality-wise than the TTM56 which is built like a tank. So imagine them getting chewed up by InMusic won’t make things better (rather the opposite). But this is how capitalism works and it won’t make any exception with DJ-ing and CunTROLLERism. I personally am looking forward to this fiasco as I see myself as an interested observer no longer in need to hop on the newest bandwaggon/trend, that some coporation and wannabee-authority-blogs (à la djworx or this blog) are dictating or making it appear as something dope, even though the ones claiming it, don’t have the Palmares necessary to backup such claims (be it skillwise and/or the tracks they released)…

    • orge

      Don’t hold back dude! It’s best to get these things out in the open. 😉

      • CunTROLLersRfunny

        Yeah sure Calkutta

    • Mark

      Yet another ignorant comment.

  • Shash'U (Fool's Gold)

    It’s too soon to say anything, for now all I can do is wait and see. I’ll still be using my rane products, I know a bunch of people are goin’ to jump the boat & switch to another brand, even if they were fine with rane product in the first place.

  • Aaron Lamb

    InMusic??? Sorry I’m a little out of this loop. Wonder if this company has any relation to InBev which bought Budweiser and is trying to take over the beer world…literally. Sad to see this happen as private companies keep become part of huge corporations!

    • Pete G

      InMusic is a Private company, they are not traded.

      • pass it on

        Someone rich is buying all

  • Raji Rabbit

    Let’s not Forget, this is RANE , not SERATO. SERATO is still going strong , and Serato DJ, if you still haven’t switched yet is dope AF.

    • pass it on

      Been sold soon watch out for In Music

    • dirkdirgler

      I don’t think so…Still trying to make my external drive with over 1TB to not crash with serato DJ.I’m still using Scratch Live which is insanely stable…

      • Raji Rabbit

        Some of your files are probably damaged.. I had a problem once where some of my video files were so corrupt it crashed .. this was long ago, but after I found the bad files and removed them , all the files were imported..

  • here_comes_the_sheik

    Next step: inMusic buys Serato. It’s just such a logical step.

    • Spacecamp

      Heard a rumor like this years ago…. but then why would Denon (InMusic) put such effort into building out Engine?

      • nprev

        They probably didn’t think they were gonna sell their company to InMusic at the time. Maybe they went beyond the red and had to pay off debt?

      • Dubby Labby

        InMusic has some many soft devs (mixmeister, torq…) and there is no new djing software anywhere… Maybe it’s not a healthy business?

      • here_comes_the_sheik

        Serato is f***ed. Their by far biggest hardware partners both kind of dissapeared. Pioneer does their own thing now building up their EDM shiny empire and will kill of all bonds with Serato after the EOL of the S9. Rane as a brand will go down within a few years.

        Either Serato enters the hardware world very soon or they’re soon to be gone. It’s sad, but true.
        InMusic probably pays for thousands of Serato licenses every month. They will just wait a bit and then buy serato…

  • Luke Peter Annett

    Time to sell my SL4 box. Can no longer count on continued driver support.

    • Chris

      There ain’t no support for the sl series. This might mean we get legacy support on older controllers made by denon…..etc

      • Brock Dub C Stallworth

        that is where inmusic comes into play…support etc.

  • Oldboy_GR

    the made in the us models will be be rare from now on.
    stock up and make huge profits on ebay later.

  • deejae snafu

    oh boy, what a shock. the very difference between numark and rane mixers was the entire range of the market in two names, from basic to boss. now to be made by the same company….SMH

    • Brock Dub C Stallworth

      it really wont change……..just corner the market with all under one roof just as pioneer dj did with their equipment……business boss moves! ha ha!!

      • Oddie O'Phyle

        I’d like to see if them incorporate Alesis Fx and Marantz circuit paths for hardware colour.

      • deejae snafu

        rane will likely now be made in china…. if thats not a change i dont know what is.

  • Rolfski

    Horrible news. I’ve never ever run Serato in my life, but I’ve always deeply praised these guys for keeping my Traktor on the ball.

    • Pete

      Rane don’t make Serato.

    • Chuck

      I was horrified when i discovered it this morning. This means toyish entry-level products, wack design, poor quality and inappropriate support!!
      Why don’t we boycott “InMusic era” product because InMusic is an industry killer!!!

      • Mark

        That’s just ridiculous. Rane wanted out. inMusic haven’t killed anything. If nobody bought Rane, they would have just disappeared. Whilst inMusic certainly make their fair share of entry-level products, they have also been making industry-leading products for years. E.g. Akai Pro Advance keyboards, MPK keyboards, APC40; Denon DJ DS1, Denon DJ MCX8000; Numark NS7, NS6, NV, V7, 4TRAK etc.

        • Chuck

          Most of the products you name are obsolete and there’s no up-coming new line or top notch products in the next months. Not so ridiculous…

          • Mark

            No, 7 out of the 10 I have mentioned are current products – but that’s beside the point, they were ALL created by inMusic.
            Out of interest, how do you know what is upcoming from inMusic?

          • Chuck

            No, i don’t really know. If it’s toy-like hardware with plastic feel, i won’t be insterested. I need reliable gear for my future project and there are less and less manufacturers that seem to release products that suit my needs.

    • Kadzi Tadzi

      Serato runs on many different brands of mixers just like Traktor and both are dope software. Can your traktor mix videos?

      • Chuck

        Mixvibes does and contains a feature allowing to mix live videos too.

  • Stevie Ray

    Noooo say it ain’t so. So few quality products on the market, now they are going to destroy the Rane legacy.

  • ?The Other Denzel?

    As someone with an all inMusic setup (ttx’s, dnx-1600) i must say, it’s sad day to be a dj. I aspired to one day buy rane gear strictly on the principle that it was one of the few manufactures that still designed, engineered, and assembled in america.

    On another note… Serato is pretty much Rekord Box for inMusic now. The Dj Wars shall be interesting. Your move NI.

    • jaan

      You have Livid Instruments, made in US, well built… but its also a small company, without good customer support….

      And their product line is also reduced for some time, dont know why. I hope that livid as a small company they do not have any problems…

      • ?The Other Denzel?

        they also don’t make mixers.

      • pixelbreak

        They don’t make mixer but do make great controllers.

        People are fearsome of water-downed quality of products and customer service, both areas in which Rane has always been superb. I have received service from Pioneer, Rane, Akai, Native Instruments, and Ableton. Rane has always been on top with Ableton in close second; Rane goes a little extra. Akai service from InMusic was horrible…lots of ping pong with email and got nowhere…had to buy a replacement from eBay 🙁

    • mikefunk

      NI is masturbating with stem cells and probably working on some another weird gimmick instead on making basic functionality to work in Traktor. Something like sort by relevant key or Maschine integration. Either they will come out with Traktor 3 this year or it’s over for them and they loose No.1 in software. Which they should watching what Rekordbox can do today.

      • Dubby Labby

        Traktor bets another market where Pioneer has to deal with brands like Roland, Korg, elektron… A>B mixing is dead (even Pioneer is copycatting Serato Flip) so don’t blame NI to go further and battle Ableton which is the most grown “djing” music software of the decade…

        • Pete

          A>B mixing is far from dead.
          A>B mixing is what 90% of actual paid dj’s do.

          • Dubby Labby

            A>B mixing is died. All the brands without exception are adding features to make more live act music than classic A>B. From Serato the flip or midi clock demand at forums to Remix decks/stems and even Pioneer clonning Sdj (Flip, sequencing, toRaiz).
            The 90% of actual djs which pay for this are less than the 1% of world people which is going to use pyro or directly spotify for rule their pool parties but anyways it’s not the 90% of the market neither. NI, Ableton, elektron, Airas, Volcas… These are more popular now than never (again look at ToRaiz, RB with video and midi clock… Put the lines to the dots…)

            For these 1% Pioneer is the “standard” sadly and NI the alternative which stems/remix decks and everyday less vinyl. Disagree? Let’s see…

          • Pete

            They can add as many features as they like – you go to a club & 90% of dj’s will play one song to the next.
            The bedroom dj is not what I’m talking about.

          • Dubby Labby

            You can stay with the same argument until no one brand survive or start looking around you. We are here talking about how Rane is transforming from your beloved brand into chinese version of itself… Probably someday it will reborn as Hifi (like technics AEG, like stpVtx…) or definetly die (like M-Audio torq) and it’s not concerned about bedroom vs club djing… It’s the whole market shifting. Are you a big head in the scene? Are you a homie scratching at home? Well the gap is being deeper and deeper and those are market brands. If people purchase and are happy with them why we are talking about how they are going to sell and move?

            There is no worst blind who those don’t want to see…
            Jm2c

          • Pete

            Yes we were talking about Rane being moved to China/where-ever.
            You were the one who said A>B mixing is dying – I just pointed out it’s not.
            I’m not a big name – just a resident at a house club.

          • Dubby Labby

            It was an opinion based in another (yes one more dot pointing a line) brand of ttablism and A>B mixing diying. Meanwhile all the rants for remix decks stems and so (not from you directly) in the usual “future of djing” ads and articles seem uncappable to see the line.

            One could agree or not but evidences is evidence.
            The gap is being bigger and bigger with A>B pioneer proposal (shifting too) and non linear proposals as Ableton, Volcas, Modstep, Remix decks etc etc. People crying for lack of innovation (few weeks ago) but most of them still talk about 90% of djs in the era of spotify and TOUR pioneer (serato face will be Tour face from today).

            It’s a mesh how is going djing but not for the less A>B, it’s for the lack of “remixing” and new proposals but… Then comes the discussion about dj is not a producer and so. Ok but don’t say in the future “who will going to wonder about…?” because the facts are here just right now. Another brand of A>B mixing (Serato still has not midi clock itself in part caused by Rane and HipHop djs against innovation or keep’t real) is being absorved by a bigger brand selling bedroom equipement etcetc.

            Again, let’s see.

          • mikefunk

            Agree. Even I am bored to death with A>B mixing. It’s pisses me off that I cannot use Maschine and Traktor together (PC MIDI sync is garbage). Plus don’t forget about crappy Xone made in China lineup form Allen and Heath (sell outs). I am really thinking about selling everything and buying MP2015 now to own something not form China (besides my T1200’s). A>B is dying. And it’s fucking boring.

          • Dubby Labby

            Lets said it in other words. The moment you put somekind of sampler/groovebox or sequence in line with the original tune you are not doing pure A>B mixing. Period.

            Then you can still put one song rear other but the “real mixing” (sic) isn’t two blended songs anymore. That’s what is dying because Serato has released Pyro instead improve Serato Remote and because even Pioneer is proposing a sampler for the non-linear (Not A>B ok?) session even as “glue” for regular one song rear other sessions.

            It’s more clear now? How do you dj… Only with one song rear other and few fx? Ok, that market touched ceiling and the standard (sic again) Pioneer setup is far from cheap or affordable, the clubs don’t want to get risk with controllers or experiments (where is the soul?) and the major competitor/alternative offers most remixing tools than the standard itself (which is trying to catch the trend with bigger screens and samplers in the booth? Wtf?)

            @Simmo: No sense of course of course…

          • Simmo

            The only thing dying round here is your credibility Dubby. What a lot of nonsense you spout.

          • Dubby Labby

            My credibility is zero. Facts are the important thing and themarket shift and crying purist are two. 😉

      • weslk

        Nah, I don’t see NI losing the DJ-software battle anytime soon. Maschine integration would be nice though. Traktor does analyze the key when analyzing a track. You could see the Key-values in your tracklist by adding it as a category with right mouse-click.

      • ?The Other Denzel?

        A. Key sorting has been a thing for many iterations of traktor
        B. everything you’d like to do with maschine integration is doable with remix decks (except playing vst’s) and NOBODY uses remix decks. Why waste time money and resources on features nobody will use?

        • jm2c

          Remix decks can do what maschine can? cmon man.. how do I eq and layer my sounds with the remix decks? how do I sequence external midi? etc etc etc, even without getting into vst’s, the remix decks are very limited compared to Maschine

          • ?The Other Denzel?

            you use the loop recorder, eq , and master tempo.

        • Dubby Labby

          Nobody no… Few djs! The point is NI is focusing towards live performing where is the market shifting and it is its bet. For those who want to keep playing as 90′ Serato is/was the choice but now these seem doomed to Rb and Pioneer (which IOTH has developed a new sampler inspired in maschine aka ToRaiz…)

          DVS is not trending anymore (sadly) and controllers/remixing (stems too because is somekind of live dubbing ala MadProfessor) are the new/actual trend (drove by Ableton and confirmed by groovebox reborn and newcoming hardware samplers…)

          Look around (outside djing blogs or yt channels) and think it twice…

          • mikefunk

            Problem with NI is that they are reeeeeaaallllyyyy ssslllloooowwww with updates. And they are fuck all updates, killing small bugs. Look what Rekordbox did in 8 months! Just look! I am betting now on Rekordbox and moving form Traktor bloated cow (finally). My patience waiting on T3 is over. Plus Rekordbox seems to understand that track preparation is half of the job for DJ. Plus I could play everywhere as most clubs have Pioneer tech. I have A&H and DVS but once I star using Rekordbox I can take my files and play them on CDJ’s no problem. That’s another dimension for me.
            And almost nobody uses stems and remix decks anyways.

          • Dubby Labby

            Again few djs buts lots of muisician and djs in a band will been using it. It’s a matter of time and rekordbox can’t compite. ToRqiz points the same target…

    • Chuck

      This indicates that it’s time for me to prepare the jump to Traktor Scratch Pro and NI.
      New rigs in the near future will rise…

      • Mark

        why?

        • Chuck

          Because i wanna be versatile and we don’t know if the support gonna remain good. i already got legacy products steppin’ home. I need to keep workin’ with current gear.