inMusic Moog has today published an official statement about last week’s layoffs, saying “these changes are necessary for the future of Moog”
Last week the news caused a huge wave that inMusic had laid off a large number of Moog factory employees. The newspaper Citizen-times reports that 42 people have left the company since the takeover of inMusic. The news spread like purgatory throughout the synth community and caused a majority of negative sentiment towards the decision. A former Moog instructor says: “Moog just fired most everybody, it was a good run. Game over”.
What was missing so far was an official statement from Moog or inMusic, who now own the company. Early this morning (EU), inMusic published a statement on the Moog Facebook page.
In this, they thank their ex-employees for their work. They also mention that those who were laid off were compensated and got benefits. One sentence, in particular, stands out from the entire press release: “these changes are necessary for the future of Moog“.
If inMusic hadn’t done that then Moog would probably have gone bankrupt, or what does this sentence tell us?
They further confirmed that the Moog headquarters with development etc., will remain in Asheville. A small selection of instruments will also continue to be produced in Asheville. They don’t say which ones they are, but I think all the high-priced ones like the Minimoog.
Official Statement
We want to thank everyone who has reached out over the last several days to check in on us. We also want to share some important information from the Moog factory.
Last Friday, we parted ways with a number of our skilled production team members. For those of us still with Moog, these employees represent friends, siblings, spouses. This hasn’t been easy for anyone. Please know that these folks were provided continued compensation and benefits as they plan their next career steps.It has always been our mission to manufacture Moog instruments in our local community.Moog Music headquarters will remain in Asheville, NC. We will continue to design, engineer, service, and manufacture instruments here. We will also manufacture a selection of our instruments with trusted partners who are dedicated to maintaining the quality and sound of Moog products. Some of these partners have already been helping us for years to create instruments you know and love.These changes are necessary for the future of Moog as we continue to face the ongoing challenges of manufacturing electronic instruments in America.
We have a talented group of employees in Asheville who are committed to bringing you the best-sounding electronic instruments in the world.We’re here because we love these instruments, and we will continue to stay focused on developing inspiring musical tools for our creative community.We’re grateful for the passion and care you have shown us. We ask that you please continue to show consideration to our employees and keep an open mind as we put the finishing touches on some of our most innovative instruments yet.
Let me translate this canned corp statement: “We have gotten enough backlash to have to make a statement and appease customers. It was so bad we had to give more money to the people we fired. We will manufacture the cheap Moog stuff in Asia and the expensive ones in NC or until “we have a talented group of employees” in Asia. You should thank us because we saved Moog!”
Iirc, Moog has had revenue issues in the past and InMusic is a vertically integrated company, all they need is the branding and the patents, the rest they already have. It is also possible they fly past Moog manufacturing engineers to Asia so they train workers there. I think first batches of Moogs will be of similar quality but over time quality will fall while this issue is fogotten and dies out. Look for sales of Moogs on ebay/reverb/elsewhere with “AMERICAN MADE” right in the title.
InMusic is terrible, but also…
Your sentence, “The news spread like purgatory throughout the synth community…” doesn’t make any sense. Purgatory is a noun that describes a place of suffering inhabited by souls that are shedding their sins before going to heaven.
I’m not a native writer sorry
Cambridge dictionary:
Pergatory = ‘an extremely unpleasant experience that causes suffering’
His use of the word was perfectly acceptable, and made sense.
It’s “purgatory” and no it didn’t make any sense. News doesn’t spread like “an extremely unpleasant experience that causes suffering”. The phrase is “spread like wildfire”.
That said the poster said they’re not a native English speaker/writer but the correction was correct and necessary.
“I’m excited to see what happens next and how inMusic Moog continues.”
Have you not seen what they have done to Akai, Alesis, NuMark, Denon, etc? There’s nothing to be excited about, InMuisc will destroy Moog.
I have a feeling they will go the route of Behringer.Thet will produce competitively priced equipment while sacrificing build quality.
Translation: we have to dispense with these US based synth building workers so we can afford to pay all of the new inmusic senior management.
Actual synth building (manufacturing) will be farmed out to Asia to make the savings necessary to accommodate the new inmusic management.
You know too much 🤣
Exactly. Those same workers who reportedly made about 17 an hour, to wire up already soldered in Asia boards, had tried to unionize. That wouldn’t fly for a “vertically integrated” company who’s bottom line is paying CEOs and stock value for shareholders. Paying workers goes against the giant pyramid scheme which is Capitalism. Verticle, because all the money goes straight to the top? You betcha
I’d say finding ways to reduce costs while maintaining quality is the prime goal here so that they can stay competitive in a crowded market
and time marches on.
I always thought purgatory was that place between heaven and hell.
As to the job losses, that’s capitalism. Who amongst us knows the financial situation of the company? Do they publish accounts? Without knowing those numbers there’s not a lot can be said.
InMusic have already announced a fully plastic Moog ’boutique’ monophonic desktop groove box.
It will provide the head-nodding crowd all the lovely Moog bass they love so much for only $700, the Eurorack mounting kit is $300 extra.
There will be a ‘signature’ version with a slightly different color scheme for only $1000.
(note: sound engine is the new InMusic Moog VA software).