Moog Music

Moog Music Inc. (/moʊɡ/ mohg) is an American synthesizer company based in Asheville, North Carolina. It was founded in 1953 as R. A. Moog Co. by Robert Moog and his father and was renamed Moog Music in 1972. Its early instruments included the Moog synthesizer (the first commercial synthesizer), followed by the Minimoog in 1970, both of which were highly influential electronic instruments.

In 1973, following a recession, Robert Moog sold Moog Music to Norlin Musical Instruments, where he remained employed as a designer until 1977. In 1978, he founded a new company, Big Briar. Moog Music filed for bankruptcy in 1987 and the Moog Music trademark was returned to Robert Moog in 2002, when Big Briar resumed operations under the name Moog Music. In June 2023, Moog Music was acquired by inMusic.

Moog Music also managed Moogfest, a pioneering electronic music and music technology festival in Durham, North Carolina.

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.

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.