The story
Founded by Robert Moog in 1953, in Trumansburg.1
1953–1971: R. A. Moog, theremins, and Moog synthesizer
Robert Moog founded R. A. Moog Co. with his father in 1953 at the age of 19, building and selling theremin kits and theremins by mail order first from his parents' home in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City and, after he married, in his own home in Ithaca, before establishing the company's first commercial space at 41 East Main Street in Trumansburg, New York in 1963.
In 1963, Moog met experimental composer Herbert Deutsch at a music education conference in Rochester, New York, after Deutsch had built a theremin following Moog's design. With assistance and suggestions from Deutsch and other musicians, Moog built the Moog synthesizer, the first voltage-controlled synthesizer utilizing a keyboard.
By 1967, R. A. Moog, Co. had become a larger enterprise, continuing to sell theremin kits but with sales mainly focused on sales of the large modular Moog synthesizer systems. Though the sound of the Moog synthesizer had rapidly become iconic with the success of Wendy Carlos's Switched-On Bach, the instrument's market was limited by its size, impracticality, and price. The company ran deep into debt, turning a profit only one year of its existence – 1969, following the 'Switched-On' sensation ignited by Carlos.
1971–1977: Moog Musonics, Moog Music, Inc., changes of management, and financial duress
In November 1971, rival company muSonics bought R. A. Moog, Inc. and relocated the company to Williamsville, New York. An old factory at the north end of Academy Street was purchased. The company was renamed Moog Musonics, then Moog Music, Inc.
In 1972, former televangelist and successful salesman David VanKouvering joined the company as VP of Marketing, creating a network of retail stores throughout the United States and then the entire world. Despite the increased commercial success the company saw with the introduction of the Minimoog, competition with ARP Instruments, Oberheim Electronics, and Electronic Music Studios drove the company steadily deeper into debt. and Moog Music, Inc. was sold to Norlin Industries in 1973. At this point, rival companies such as the aforementioned ARP Instruments were producing both monophonic and polyphonic synthesizers that rapidly outpaced the Moog in popularity. By 1975, ARP owned 40% of the synthesizer market share, effectively boxing out Moog Music, Inc.
In 1976, Norlin moved the company to a facility on Walden Avenue in Cheektowaga. In 1977, once his contract with Norlin expired, Robert Moog officially left the company to pursue his own ventures, founding the firm Big Briar.
1978–1987: Contract manufacturing, digital synthesis, and bankruptcy
By 1978, Moog Music, Inc. had released a number of products after the success of the Minimoog, including the Vocoder, the Micromoog, Multimoog, the Polymoog, and a series of Taurus bass pedals. Despite numerous artists taking up these products, none of these synthesizers ever achieved the same success. That same year, Sequential Circuits released its groundbreaking Prophet-5 which became a new industry standard, and further eroded Moog's market share. The company's problems were compounded by competition from Japanese manufacturers such as Roland, Korg and Yamaha, who by the late 1970s and early 1980s, were producing analog synthesizers of comparable ability but at a lower price point.
The company began contract manufacturing in 1981 in various other industries, including subway system repairs and air conditioning systems.
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Around the same time, digital synthesis was becoming a viable alternative to analog synthesizers. The Fairlight CMI, released 1979, was an expensive though fully formed digital synthesizer and sampler; in 1983, the introduction of the MIDI interface allowed rival Yamaha to release the world's first commercially successful digital synthesizer, the DX7. Moog Music attempted to pivot to produce digital synthesizers, but declared bankruptcy in 1987.
2000–2005: Legal battle, return to Robert Moog and analog revival
As digital synthesizers rapidly became ubiquitous, the 1990s saw a rise in nostalgia for the iconic analog sound of Moog and Minimoog synthesizers, with musicians like David Foster continuing to use them. Minimoogs began fetching high prices as collector's items. In 1994, the Moog Music trademark expired and was purchased by Don Martin; a legal battle ensued in 2000 over ownership of the name, and it was returned to Robert Moog in 2002.
Moog Music moved to Asheville, North Carolina, and continued its development of products created under Robert Moog's former company Big Briar, such as the Moogerfooger pedals and theremins, as well as introducing numerous new products such as the Minimoog Voyager, Little Phatty, Sub 37, and Mother 32 some of which continue to be produced and sold today. The company has seen fiscal growth and increased interest due in part to the analog revival, evidenced by the introduction of so many new analog synthesizers being released by companies such as Moog, Korg, Arturia, and Dave Smith Instruments, that has continued climbing to reach a high point in the 2010s.
2005–present: Death of Robert Moog and transition to employee ownership
After Robert Moog died in 2005 due to complications arising from brain cancer, his collaborator Michael Adams took over the company as president. The company moved into a former Buick dealership on Broadway Street in 2010. The company shifted to being partially employee owned, with its 62 employees owning 49% of the company's shares in 2015. The company has in recent years seen the results of a strong incentive to introduce new products to meet the demands generated by today's market and have also produced limited edition reissues of historic Moog synthesizers as well as reaching out into the emerging Eurorack synthesizer market with instruments such as semi-modular synthesizers, the Mother 32, DFAM, Grandmother, Matriarch and Subharmonicon.
On 1 June 2022, the employees, as Moog Workers Unite, launched a union drive with IBEW. In June 2023, Moog Music was acquired by inMusic. In September, more than half of the staff at the Asheville headquarters were laid off. Design, development and engineering moved from Broadway Street to the Asheville Citizen-Times building on O. Henry Street.
From 2011 to 2024, Moog sold its synthesizers at the Moog Store. The factory remained in operation and the Moogseum on Broadway Street in Asheville would continue to educate people on the company's history.
From Wikipedia’s article on Moog Music, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4