Recently, Moog Music, the classic synthesizer manufacture located in North Carolina was acquired by inMusic, a Rhode Island–based company that owns Akai, Alesis, and other music-making brands.
I've been a fan of all things Moog for a few years now and I'm hopeful that the company keeps its craftsman ethos and continues to crank out top quality synthesizers with their character charm and aesthetic. That said, as a business and organization they have had some pretty bad fumbles in recent years (see this article on Pitchfork)... hopefully, new leadership will be a good thing.
But, as a result of the acquisition, the company is no longer employee-owned. At least the employees are receiving some payout from this sale (Asheville Citizen Times), and luckily, the manufacturing and HQ will stay in Asheville... I really enjoy visiting their factory.
Currently, I'm a bit worried, but I'm eager to see what becomes of Moog. Will the inMusic acquisition see a decline or increase in quality for Moog? Will we see Akai/Moog cross-over instruments? Will Moog become more financially stable and start holding Moogfest again? Only time will tell...
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Hmmm... so I saw a video over lunch that made me realize Moog's "employee-owned" claim is more complicated than their marketing would lead on... go figure!
Just last summer, Moog Music employees tried to launch a union drive because of grievances over pay and mistreatment... some of that footage is in the video above.
At the event, one of the employees explains that every single Moog product has packaging that contains a label saying it's built at Asheville NC at Moog Music which is an employee-owned company, but that that's not entirely true, it's an employee stock ownership program where the workers have 49% of the stock ownership and CEO Mike Adams has 51%. So, the employees don't actually have any real controlling power to enact the change they're looking for even though Moog marketing would lead you to believe that they do. It's a mess.
Unfortunately, inMusic doesn't sound like they're going to be any better than the current management... possibly worse actually. I've watched a few different videos talking about the inMusic conglomerate and it sounds like they are more worried abut profits than they are in making quality products or treating their employees fairly. As noted in the video above, the CEO of inMusic, Jack O'Donnell, previously purchased Akai instruments and cut off royalties to Roger Linn, creator of the legendary LinnDrum, then bullied him with lawyers to scare him out of taking action. So yeah, if that's the new leadership at Moog, things aren't looking too good.
What the hell is up with giant conglomerates buying up all these music production companies? And what's going on in the music production business world right now? If you're asking yourself these question, boy oh boy do I have the video for you: