Blue Microphones

History

Blue Microphones was founded in 1995 by American session musician Skipper Wise and Latvian recording engineer Mārtiņš Saulespurēns. The company's name is a backronym for Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics. The company was founded in Latvia. The company is headquartered in Westlake Village, California, United States.

Blue Microphones' first creation was the Baby Bottle, a professional XLR microphone used by musicians for recording. In the early 2000s, Blue's perspective pivoted to manufacturing microphones for collaborating with other creatives online, synonymous with the needs of the developing consumer world of technology in the 1990s. The Westlake Village company created a low-cost condenser microphone called the Snowball for use with music recording software GarageBand in the late 2000s. The size, shape, and weight of the Snowball was created to that of a regulation softball. The Snowball microphone became popular with aspiring professional musicians and hobbyists as an alternative to renting time in a recording studio.

Soon, Blue Microphones continued to manufacture USB microphones. Their top-selling microphone to date, the Blue Yeti, launched in 2009. The Blue Yeti has had many special iterations, including the Yeti X and Yeti Pro.

From 1995 to 2004, Blue microphones were manufactured in Latvia. In 2005, production moved to China, with some microphones being built in the United States.

In 2008, Wise and Saulespurēns sold the company to Transom Capital, a private equity firm in California.

In 2013, The Riverside Company acquired Blue Microphones from Transom Capital. Intrepid Investment Bankers advised Blue Microphones in the transaction.

In July 2018, Logitech announced plans to acquire Blue Microphones for $117 million USD. In June 2023, Logitech announced they would relegate the Blue brand to audio processing technologies, and use the Logitech G and Yeti branding for future microphone releases.

File:Blue Yeti Blackout.jpg|Yeti Blackout File:Blue Microphones Snowball.jpg|Snowball File:Blue Microphones Dragonfly.jpg|Dragonfly File:BLUE bottle microphones (setting for grand piano).jpg|Two Blue Bottle microphones set up to record a grand piano

Awards

• Electronic Musician 2000 Editor's Choice Microphone of the Year - Blueberry condenser microphone
• RetailVision 2009 Best Hardware peripheral – Mikey and Eyeball 2.0
• BeatWeek (formerly iProng) Best in Show 2009, 2010
• Blue Yeti X was awarded for Innovation in 2020 by CES (Consumer Technology Association)

References

References

1. (2022-02-18). "10 Best Cheap Microphone For Streaming And Gaming".
2. (July 21, 2009). "Blue Microphones turns up the volume". Los Angeles Times.
3. (October 20, 2009). "Transom Capital Acquires Blue Microphones". Music Inc Magazine.
4. "Transom Capital Group Completes Sale of Blue Microphones".
5. Lawler, Richard. (July 30, 2018). "Blue Microphones sells to Logitech for $117 million". [[Oath Inc.]].
6. Hollister, Sean. (June 8, 2023). "Despite promises to leave Blue's product line unchanged, Logitech is killing off the Blue mic brand, will sell Yeti and Astro under Logitech G". [[Vox Media]].
7. (May 26, 2009). "RetailVision Europe 2009". RetailVision.
8. (January 9, 2009). "Best of Show CES: Blue Mikey 2". BeatWeek.
9. "Innovation Award Honorees - CES 2022".
10. Nathan Olivarez-Giles. (July 21, 2009). "Blue Microphones turns up the volume". Los Angeles Times.