Resale of software licences is unusual among music software publishers, and Native Instruments is one of the vendors whose EULA states it directly. Section 3.6 allows a licensee to resell or permanently transfer software to a third party under defined conditions, and the support organisation operates a self-service process built around a License Transfer ID.[1][2] This article is about Native Instruments licence transfer and resale, which matters to studios and schools that retire hardware, close accounts or consolidate registrations held under personal email addresses.
What the EULA permits
The EULA says that, except where otherwise stated, the licensee may resell the software to a third party or transfer it permanently, provided the third party agrees in writing to the EULA and the licensee ceases all use of the software, completely removes all installed copies from its computer and, if the software was not purchased by download, deletes or transfers the original data storage to the third party (Permanent resale or transfer is permitted with conditions).[1] The licensee must also de-register the software with Native Instruments. On request from the licensee’s registered email address, Native Instruments transfers the serial number to the third party and deletes the licensee’s registration, and the EULA says Native Instruments reserves the right to charge a fee for this account modification (The seller must de-register and a fee may apply).[1] The support pages describe the process without mentioning a fee.[2]
Renting or lending the software to a third party is forbidden, so a transfer must be permanent.[1] The EULA also requires that copies are removed by the seller, which makes the process relevant when a studio decommissions machines: a seller who retains a working installation after transferring the serial is outside the licence.
The License Transfer ID process
The support article states that a seller can sell a Native Instruments product by unregistering its licence from the user account, which produces a License Transfer ID for the buyer, and the buyer imports the product into their own account with that ID (Licences are transferred with a License Transfer ID).[2] The buyer’s steps are in the account profile: Products and licenses, Manage my licenses, Import a license, enter the Transfer ID, and import. The same procedure applies to a person moving licences between two of their own accounts.[5] The support article about serials registered to another account tells users with products spread across several email addresses to consolidate them by transferring licences between their accounts.[6] For an organisation this is the route for moving products bought on staff personal accounts into a company account, subject to the limits below.
Products that cannot be transferred
The support article lists five reasons a product is shown as not transferable.[4]
| Reason | What the support article says |
|---|---|
| Third-party product | Transfers are handled by the manufacturer; if referred to Native Instruments, written approval from the manufacturer as a PDF is required |
| Registered within 60 days | For technical reasons serial numbers are automatically excluded from transfer for 60 days after registration; support can be contacted to resell earlier |
| Outdated supplement | A new supplement such as Komplete Select replaces the former one; only the current version is transferable, and free Komplete Start titles are not transferable |
| NFR version | Not-for-resale products cannot be resold or transferred |
| EDU version | Educational licences cannot be resold or transferred and Native Instruments cannot delete an EDU serial from an account |
These correspond to rules in the EULA. NFR products are for demonstration, testing and evaluation only and must not be resold or transferred, and they are exempt from update, upgrade and crossgrade offers (NFR products are for evaluation only).[1] EDU products are restricted to students and educational staff, must not be used commercially and must not be resold or transferred (EDU products are restricted to education and not transferable).[1] Demo versions must not be resold or transferred either.[1] The 60-day block is a technical rule stated by support and is not in the EULA (Serials are locked from transfer for 60 days).[4]
Bundles, upgrades and hardware
Bundles can be resold or transferred only as a whole, and the individual components must not be sold separately (Bundles are transferred as a whole).[1] For hardware and software bundles, the support article says that the seller unregisters the hardware in the account, receives a License Transfer ID, and the buyer receives the same software bundle after importing it. It adds that the seller keeps the software that came with the hardware while the new owner receives it as well, so upgrade paths based on that software stay intact, with a few older products requiring Account Support to complete the transfer (Hardware bundle sale gives the buyer the same software).[3] That statement is a support description and not an EULA term; a licence manager who relies on it should reconcile it with the EULA requirement that the seller ceases all use and removes installed copies.
Upgrade licences depend on their base. If a product is removed from an account, all upgrades based on it become invalid, and Native Instruments registration support contacts the user before removing a product that supports an upgrade; the example given is that Komplete 13 cannot be removed without invalidating Komplete 13 Ultimate (Removing a base product invalidates upgrades).[3] A buyer of second-hand hardware who has no Transfer ID can still use the hardware without registering it, and can obtain software such as Maschine 3, Traktor Pro 4 or Komplete Start separately.[2]
Third-party and OEM products
Licence transfers of third-party OEM products are carried out by the manufacturer, and the support article asks users to contact the library manufacturer, requesting written authorisation if the manufacturer refers them to Native Instruments.[3] This applies to Kontakt libraries registered in Native Access with a manufacturer’s serial number (Third-party products are transferred by the manufacturer).
Subscriptions and other publishers
Subscriptions cannot be resold. The Subscription Terms grant a non-exclusive, limited, revocable, non-sublicensable and non-transferable right for the duration of the subscription and state that nothing authorises the subscriber to sublicense, loan, rent, resell or transfer the services to a third party.[7] Plugin Alliance has its own policy: its EULA states that software may be transferred only under its transfer policy from within the account, that subscription licences cannot be transferred, that the transferee must hold an active account and will incur a transfer fee, and that the transferor’s licence terminates on transfer.[8]
Practical consequences
For an asset register, the fields that matter are the registering Native ID, the serial, the registration date (for the 60-day block), the licence type (retail, upgrade, NFR, EDU, demo, subscription or third-party) and whether the product is part of a bundle. A decommissioning checklist would remove the software from every device, de-register in the account, and pass the Transfer ID to the buyer, since the EULA requires cessation of all use and removal of installed copies.[1]
Out of scope
This article does not cover sales of hardware, resale on marketplaces, the tax or consumer-law treatment of used digital goods, the fee that Native Instruments may charge (no amount is published in the documents retrieved), or third-party manufacturers’ own transfer rules.