inMusic and Moog Layoffs – The Official Word
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Rumours abound that Moog Music is laying off its staff and moving production to Taiwan as a result of its purchase by inMusic. Is this actually true?
Moog Layoffs
On September 22, rumours began circulating online that inMusic, the owners of Moog Music as of June 2023, had laid off Moog staff at the venerable company’s Asheville, North Carolina headquarters, and that manufacturing would be moved overseas. There was even a report in a local publication, the Citizen Times. This sent shockwaves throughout the synth community.
You may also have noticed that we did not run a news story on this. We wanted to make sure that what we were reporting was the official word and not just rumours. Now, we can finally do that.
Moog headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina · Source: Wikipedia
Moog Music Responds
We reached out to Moog Music for their response to the controversy. Here is what they said.
Regarding their headquarters staying in Asheville, they responded: “First, our headquarters will remain in Asheville where we will continue to design, innovate, and manufacture instruments of the highest standard, such as Moog One, Minimoog Model D, legacy modular, and our newest innovative products,” also adding that we would start to see new products from them early next year.
As for the rumours surrounding overseas manufacturing, they had this to say: “We are also asking some of our overseas partners who we’ve worked with for years to help finish assembly on some products. This hybrid approach will allow us to get on strong financial footing and continue designing, building, and delivering quality musical instruments for years to come.”
Minimoog Model D · Source: Moog Music
Moog Layoffs
With assembly heading out of the country, there were indeed layoffs in Asheville.
“Last week we made the difficult decision to adjust the size of our assembly team to better match our new approach,” Moog Music continued. “While this transition was challenging for everyone, substantial support, benefits, and healthcare was provided to those affected, easing their journey to new opportunities.”
Moog Layoffs Fallout
How this will all play out is yet to be understood. Asheville is a small city. Hopefully, the affected workers will be able to find employment quickly. Maybe this will even spur some of them to start their own synthesizer companies.
As for overseas manufacturing, this will be complex. Moog has made its reputation as a premium musical instrument company with products hand-built in America. Moving some assembly overseas changes that. From the statement, it looks like Moog will continue to manufacture their top-tier items like the One and Minimoog Model D in Asheville, while others, likely lower-priced products like the Mother-32, DFAM and Mavis, will move overseas. Will this result in a lowering of the price of these items, perhaps to counter intense competition and cloning? That remains to be seen.
As for where overseas assembly will happen, that is also unclear. Taiwan has been mentioned often in connection with this but Moog Music has not addressed this, saying only “overseas.”
We will continue to update this story as new information arrives.
More Information
- Moog Music’s website
- All about Moog
- All about synthesizers
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13 responses to “inMusic and Moog Layoffs – The Official Word”
‘Hand built in America’…
Er, not quite..
All the chips, SMD components and the vast majority of the hardware has been made in Asia (almost entirely in China) for a very long time.
The final clipping together of a PCB or two and the tightening of a few screws is a more accurate description of the American stage of the production of Moog instruments for many years.
This is not true. Moog soldered, assembled and tested all products in the US. The chips were made over seas yeah, like everyones.
InMusic will ruin Moog similar to how they ruined Akai buy downgrading the build quality and sound of the gear, all for profits. RIP Moog.
Umm.. I’m confused by this. What did Akai make differently before their bankruptcy?
It’s worth noting that none other than ASM (Hydrasynth) CEO Glen Darcy was the one who designed all of the inMusic AKAI products when the company was resurrected and saved from closure, including the MPK’s, MPD’s, APC’s, etc.
I’m sad about Moog too, but at least be accurate- these are American designed products.
Hardly a drop in quality.
You must’ve never owned a vintage MPC designed by Roger Linn or any of the old good-quality products made by the Japanese company, Akai. Try using a vintage MPC and compare it to InMusic’s cheap, buggy, plastic toy MPCs that sound like crap. In Music is obviously going to cheapen the quality of the keyboards and roll out cheap plastic prosumer toy Moog keyboards with rainbow-glowing buttons. If anyone thinks InMusic taking over Moog is a good thing, get your head examined.
Right- the ones that needed a third party OS to get some decent features. (JJOS)
Fair enough chief, you’re a purist and AKAI should have folded when they declared bankruptcy in the early 2000’s. I guess same thing for Moog? You’d have been happier if they’d just closed and laid everyone off?
Again, not happy that it’s inMusic- but the alternative is EVERYONE is fired and the brand is dead (again).
Such a horrible corporate way of making it sound positive for the ‘layed of’…
“ substantial support, benefits, and healthcare was provided to those affected, easing their journey to new opportunities.”
These statements were very likely made by InMusic, and not anyone at Moog. Sounds like corporate bs. Moog quality is dead. Get ready for cheap sounding. Moog will probably come out with a line of interfaces, midi controllers, mics, and headphones, similar to what they did with Marantz Pro and Alesis
No one likes this news. I was very glad that I saw the link to GearNews article from 2018 about the 25% import tax increase, which gives much needed context.
They just told retailers last week that they were discontinuing the Moog One ( 8 voice and 16) and we better buy stock now because the semi modular items and many others are moving to Taiwan.
Modal is also dying. I think this is the end of the second hardware synth boom… Who will survive?
What did Akai make differently before their bankruptcy?
Are these words true?
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