InMusic Brands

Last updated
inMusic Brands, Inc
Type Private
Founded2012;11 years ago (2012)
FounderJack O'Donnell
Headquarters
Cumberland, Rhode Island
,
United States
Number of locations
12
ProductsMusic production equipment
OwnerJack O'Donnell [1]
Website www.inmusicbrands.com

inMusic is an American enterprise that is the parent company for a family of brands of varying audio products used in the DJ, music production, live sound, musical instrument, pro audio, software, stage lighting, and consumer electronics industries. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Cumberland, Rhode Island, with additional offices in Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, and Bulgaria.

Contents

History

Numark

In 1992, future inMusic founder and CEO Jack O’Donnell was working as Vice President of Sales at Stanton Magnetics when he learned the assets of Numark Electronics were available for purchase. Founded in Edison, New Jersey in 1971, Numark was among the earliest DJ equipment manufacturers, and responsible for innovations like the first DJ mixer with a built-in sampler (the DM1775) [2] and the first dual-well CD player (the CD-5020). [3] [4] [5] O’Donnell proposed to Stanton management that they should acquire Numark's assets, but they chose not to, and O’Donnell decided to resign from his position at Stanton and purchase Numark himself. [6]

Alesis and more acquisitions

Under O’Donnell's management, Numark recovered and grew, and he found himself looking for new opportunities. In 2001 O’Donnell acquired Alesis, [7] a company that had established itself in the recording market with affordable effects and later the revolutionary ADAT digital tape recorder, as well as drum machines and synthesizers. The following year he introduced the ION Audio brand, focused on entry-level and consumer electronics products. [8]

In 2005, O’Donnell purchased the Akai Professional Musical Instrument division (previously spun off from Akai Electronics). Musical instrument designer Roger Linn has accused that immediately following the acquisition, Akai ceased all royalty payments owed to him, and that O'Donnell sent legal threats warning him away from attempting to collect further royalties. [9] His company additionally acquired DJ software brand Mixmeister in 2007 and Alto Professional in 2010. [10] Despite continuing to sell the product through Numark, development of MixMeister was subsequently abandoned with the last update being v7.7.1 in 2015. [11] [12]

M-Audio

In February 2012 O’Donnell acquired software synthesizer company Sonivox, [13] and in July of the same year, he acquired M-Audio and the AIR Software Group from Avid Technology, Inc. for $17 million. [14] [15]

Further growth

In April 2014, inMusic acquired Denon DJ, Denon Professional and Marantz Professional from D&M Holdings, who retained the non-professional consumer divisions of those brands. [16]

In August 2015, the company launched a new brand of lighting products, MARQ. [17]

In July 2016, inMusic acquired Rane Corporation. [18]

In 2017, leveraging the legacy of the Akai pedal of the same name, inMusic launched a new line of guitar effects processing products branded HeadRush. [19]

In May 2018, the inMusic company Denon DJ acquired SoundSwitch. [20]

In April 2020, inMusic acquired ROLI's subsidiary FXpansion's drum software instrument BFD. [21] In May of the same year, inMusic acquired Stanton from Gibson Brands. [22] [23]

In June 2023, inMusic acquired Moog. [24]

Brands

Related Research Articles

Akai is a Hong Kong manufacturer of consumer electronics. It was founded as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo, Japan, in 1946.

Acid Pro is a professional digital audio workstation (DAW) software program currently developed by Magix Software. It was originally called Acid pH1 and published by Sonic Foundry, later by Sony Creative Software as Acid Pro, and since spring 2018 by Magix as both Acid Pro and a simplified version, Acid Music Studio. Acid Pro 8 supports 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, and has MIDI, ASIO, VST, VST3, DirectX Audio, and 5.1 surround sound support.

Sequential is an American synthesizer company founded in 1974 as Sequential Circuits by Dave Smith. In 1978, Sequential released the Prophet-5, the first programmable polyphonic synthesizer, which was widely used in the music industry. In the 1980s, Sequential was important in the development of MIDI, a technical standard for synchronizing electronic instruments.

Marantz is a company that develops and sells high-end audio products. The company was founded in New York, but is now based in California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akai MPC</span> Music workstation

The Akai MPC is a series of music workstations produced by Akai from 1988 onwards. MPCs combine sampling and sequencing functions, allowing users to record portions of sound, modify them and play them back as sequences.

Avid Audio is an American digital audio technology company. It was founded in 1984 by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. The company began as a project to raise money for the founders' band, selling EPROM chips for drum machines. It is a subsidiary of Avid Technology, and during 2010 the Digidesign brand was phased out. Avid Audio products will continue to be produced and will now carry the Avid brand name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moog Music</span> American synthesizer manufacturer

Moog Music Inc. 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, followed by the Minimoog in 1970, two of the most influential electronic instruments of all time.

Alesis is an American electronic music company that designs and markets electronic musical instruments, digital audio processors, audio mixers, drum amplifiers, amplifiers, digital audio interfaces, recording equipment, drum machines, professional audio, and electronic percussion products. Based in Cumberland, Rhode Island, Alesis is currently held by the inMusic Brands company, owned by businessman Jack O'Donnell. Alesis products are designed in the United States and manufactured in China.

Native Instruments is a German company that develops, manufactures, and supplies music software and hardware for music production, sound design, performance, and DJing. The company's corporate headquarters and main development facilities are located in Berlin, with additional offices in Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, Paris, and Shenzhen.

Denon is a Japanese electronics company started in 1910 by Frederick Whitney Horn, an American entrepreneur. Denon produced the first cylinder audio media in Japan and players to play them. Decades later, Denon was involved in the early stages of development of digital audio technology, while specializing in the manufacture of high-fidelity professional and consumer audio equipment. Denon made Japan's first professional disc recorder and used it to record the Hirohito surrender broadcast. For many decades, Denon was a brand name of Nippon-Columbia, including the Nippon Columbia record label. The Denon brand came from a merger of Denki Onkyo and others in 1939. In 2001, Denon was spun off as a separate company with 98% held by Ripplewood Holdings and 2% by Hitachi. In 2002, Denon merged with Marantz to form D&M Holdings. On March 1, 2017, Sound United LLC completed the acquisition of D+M Holdings.

D+M Group, formerly known as DMGlobal and D&M Holdings, was a Japanese corporation that owned several audio and video brands. It was formed in 2002 from the merger of Denon and Marantz. It had acquired several other companies since that time. Prior to 2008, it was owned by RHJ International, which is associated with Ripplewood Holdings. In 2008, it was acquired by K. K. BCJ-2, a Tokyo corporation owned by investment funds advised by Bain Capital. In August, 2010, Jim Caudill, a former Stanley Black & Decker executive, was named CEO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vestax</span>

Vestax Corporation was a Japanese musical instrument, turntable and audio equipment firm founded by Hidesato Shiino in 1977. The company started by designing and manufacturing electronic guitars. In the 1980s, Vestax produced multitrack recorders and later moved to making DJ mixers, professional turntables, compact disc players and signal processors. Debt troubles led to the company's bankruptcy at the end of 2014.

M-Audio is a business unit of inMusic Brands that designs and markets audio and MIDI interfaces, keyboards and MIDI controllers, synthesizers, loudspeakers, studio monitors, digital DJ systems, microphones, and music software. The company has independent offices in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France and Japan.

Stanton Magnetics, doing business as Stanton, is a business unit of inMusic Brands that designs and markets turntables, cartridges, DJ mixers, DJ media players, and DJ controllers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alesis Ion</span> Synthesizer made by Alesis between 2003 and 2007

The Alesis Ion is an analog modeling synthesizer. It was presented to the public on the Summer NAMM of 2002. Unlike the Alesis Andromeda, Alesis's analog synthesizer, its sounds are synthesized using DSP chips to mimic the sound of analog audio circuitry and components.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DJ controller</span> Type of music controller

DJ controllers are devices used to help DJs mix music with DJ software using knobs, encoders, jog wheels, faders, backlit buttons, touch strips, and other components.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Controllerism</span> Art of using musical software controllers

Controllerism is the art and practice of using musical software controllers, e.g. MIDI, Open Sound Control (OSC), joystick, etc., to build upon, mix, scratch, remix, effect, modify, or otherwise create music, usually by a Digital DJ or Live PA performer, often called a controllerist. Controllerism is also a nod to traditional musicianship and instrumental-ism paired with modern computer sequencing software such as Ableton Live and Native Instruments Traktor. However a working knowledge of scales and chords is not necessarily required as the performers typically focus their efforts more on sequencing events, software effect and instrument manipulations using buttons, knobs, faders, keys, foot switches and pedals than on instrumental notes played in real time. With recent developments in music technology, particularly in software instruments, a USB MIDI controller enables musicians almost unlimited possibilities to control a wide variety of sound types.

ION Audio is a privately held consumer electronics manufacturer based in Cumberland, Rhode Island, United States. It is part of inMusic Brands. The company was founded in 2002 with the stated aim of providing easy-to-use audio products at an affordable price.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross/CrossDJ</span> DJ software

Cross/CrossDJ is a digital vinyl and DJ mixing software developed by the French company Mixvibes. This software provides DJs with a digital platform with which they can mix and perform their music. Since its release in 2008, it has become Mixvibes primary focus.

References

  1. ↑ "About inMusic". inMusic. inMusic Brands. 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  2. ↑ "A Brief History of the DJ Mixer". Medium.com. 11 April 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  3. ↑ Eisenberg, Anne (2008-01-20). "For Disc Jockeys as Well as Desk Jockeys". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-02-19.
  4. ↑ "At home and a DJ without the vinyl". The New York Times. 2007-08-23. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-02-19.
  5. ↑ "Numark Industries LP - Company Profile and News". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Interview: Jack O'Donnell, Numark - English Version". Amazona.de. April 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  7. ↑ "Jack O'Donnell - owner of Alesis and Numark". pro-music-news.com. 2001. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Interview, Jack O'Donnell, Owner of U.S. Audio Specialists Numark & Alesis". GaryCooper.biz. MI Professional. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  9. ↑ "Roger Linn Interview Jacks a Bastard". YouTube .
  10. ↑ "Alto Professional Names Jay Schlabs To The Position Of Executive Director". Pro Sound Web. EH Publishing. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  11. ↑ "Numark sales page". numark.com. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  12. ↑ "last MixMeister update announcement". Twitter. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  13. ↑ "Jack O'Donnell Acquires Sonivox". Electronic Musician. Future plc. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  14. ↑ "inMusic's O'Donnell on how technology is "democratizing" music making". The Music Trades. The Music Trades Corporation. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  15. ↑ "Avid sells M-Audio and AIR lines to Numark/Akai parent". Pro Sound News Europe. Pro Sound News. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  16. ↑ "inMusic targets installation after D&M Professional deal". Pro Sound News Europe. Pro Sound News. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  17. ↑ "Marq Lighting Unveils Initial Product Lineup at DJ Expo". DJ Times. Testa Communications. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  18. ↑ "Rane set to join Numark and Denon DJ in the inMusic Stable". MusicRadar.com. Future plc. 6 July 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  19. ↑ "New HeadRush brand launches pedalboard with touchscreen". Sound On Sound. SOS Publications Group. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  20. ↑ "Denon DJ Acquires New Zealand-Based Tech Company, SoundSwitch". DJ Times. Testa Communications. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  21. ↑ "inMusic - Home of the world's premier music industry brands". www.inmusicbrands.com. Retrieved 2020-04-21.
  22. ↑ "inMusic Announces Acquisition of Stanton From Gibson Brands". DJ Times. 2020-05-21. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  23. ↑ "Gibson sells turntable, audio gear unit". NashvillePost. 2020-06-03. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  24. ↑ "Moog Music joins Akai Pro, Alesis and M-Audio in the inMusic family in a bid to "overcome long-standing challenges and strengthen the company"". MusicRadar.com. Future plc. 2023-06-13. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
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