Blue Microphones (legally Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics, LLC) is an American audio production company owned by

Logitech Logitech International S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software. Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, the company has offices throughout Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. It is a component of ...

that designs and produces

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic (), or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publi ...

headphones Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an ...

, recording tools, signal processors, and music accessories for audio professionals, musicians and consumers.

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 A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...

for ''Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics''. The company was founded in Latvia. The company is headquartered in

Westlake Village Westlake Village is a city in Los Angeles County, California, on its western border with Ventura County. Upon its incorporation in 1981, Westlake Village became the 82nd municipality of Los Angeles County.Baker, Pam (2002). ''Thousand Oaks We ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, 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 GarageBand is a software application by Apple Inc., Apple for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or Podcast, podcasts. It is a lighter, amateur-oriented offshoot of Logic Pro. GarageBand was originally released for ...

in the late 2000s. The size, shape, and weight of the Snowball was created to that of a regulation

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

. 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,

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 Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

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

External links

*
BLUE Designs Website
BLUE Website
Skipper Wise Interview
at NAMM Oral History Library (2011)
Martin Saulespurens Interview
at NAMM Oral History Library {{Logitech Companies based in Westlake Village, California Manufacturing companies based in Greater Los Angeles Microphone manufacturers Electronics companies established in 1995 American companies established in 1995 2018 mergers and acquisitions Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States American subsidiaries of foreign companies Logitech

History

Awards

See also

References

External links