Pioneer DJ sold to photographic machine company, Noritsu

Pioneer DJ has been sold to Japanese photographic processing machine manufacturers, Noristu, for just shy of USD $325 Million.

In 2015 Pioneer DJ was sold to a company called KKR, while they had a good run and invested a huge amount of capital into the branding and marketing of Pioneer DJ, they ended up selling it for less than they acquired it for.

Noritsu, on the other hand, is a hardware manufacturing giant. They own several companies across several sectors, and it’s certain that we will see a huge push in the product development side of things – something that has been a little bit slower than usual with Pioneer in the past few years.

“We are proud to have worked with the management team and employees of Pioneer DJ, now AlphaTheta, to assist the business’ growth in key global markets and to accelerate the company’s migration towards a software-subscription model to align with emerging industry trends – all as a standalone company,” said Hiro Hirano, co-head of KKR.

What changes are on the way?

The most obvious changes that are on the way seem to be with Pioneer DJ’s software platform, Rekordbox. Users of the platform have probably noticed the recent popup message stating this –

“Thank you for using our services. Due to upcoming changes to the service system, sales of the current version of rekordbox will soon end. Please consider delaying your purchase until the new service system is available.
* rekordbox ver. 5 will still be usable after the new system becomes available”

Are they hinting at changing over to a subscription service model for the next Rekordbox update?

Does that mean anyone who wants to prepare a set for Pioneer CDJs will have to be subscribed? I absolutely hope that is not the case.

Pioneer DJ sold to photographic machine company, Noritsu