If you were to search tech review sites for a USB microphone recommendation, you’ll almost certainly see a blue product listed. It was founded in 1995 and has garnered consumer recognition with distinctive designs, such as the snow globe and Yeti, the Blue Microphones brand has become well known, from audiophiles to newcomers looking to launch their first podcast. But in the future, the Blue Microphones brand will not exist.
Logitech announced its acquisition of Blue Microphones in 2018, 23 years after jazz guitarist Skipper Wise and audio engineer Martins Saulespurens founded the company. Initially, Blue Microphones repaired microphones from the 1950s and 1960s, but eventually began creating equipment for the recording industry, because Los Angeles Times Reported in 2009.
Blue’s co-founders told the Los Angeles Times that Apple encouraged Blue to enter the computer microphone space. The global purchasing manager at the time is said to have encouraged Blue to make an affordable microphone for music recording software. Apple was, at the time, preparing its GarageBand software. The result was the Blue Snowball USB Microphone, and as soon as it became available in Apple Stores, it really took off. A more accessible and affordable option than paying for a studio session, the microphone is becoming popular among growing musicians.
“Compared to other budget condenser microphones, the sound quality is a bit lackluster and ground noise seems a bit loud, but it’s definitely a step up from the cheap microphones that come with most computers,” Ars Technica analyzes in a 2007 review for the Snowball microphone. bed.
Blue will go on to release more USB mics and catch the eye of enthusiasts, reviewers, streamers, podcasters…and Logitech. Bought Logitech Blue for $117 million.
Five years later, Logitech dropped the Blue Microphones name in favor of Yeti, the name of one of its most popular Blue microphone series. The Yeti microphones will live on under Logitech G’s larger umbrella of PC peripherals and accessories that were aimed at gamers and streamers.
Logitech said via reddit Thursday, spotted by the edge.
Astro Gaming, which was acquired by Logitech in 2017 for $85 millionLogitech for Creator products will also run under Logitech G. However, unlike Blue and Logitech for Creators, the Astro brand and Its website is not Logitech It is still active at the time of this writing.
The move appears to be an attempt to unify Logitech’s broad portfolio of hardware products for creators and gamers, whose technology needs can sometimes overlap.
It also means that upcoming products from these brands will all work in Logitech’s G Hub app, which would be relatively convenient if the G Hub is actually a pleasure to use and people assume they have products from those brands. However, Logitech does not retroactively add G Hub support for products that do not have it.
As of this writing, all microphones formerly known as Blue are listed on Logitech website It is named Yeti (Yeti X instead of Blue Yeti X, for example). Of course, they still have a physical blue metal badge, because Logitech can’t do anything about that until they release new badges. blue Logitech G Yeti pickups.
what’s in a name?
Logitech microphones yeti
(Ars Technica may receive compensation for sales from links in this post through affiliate programs.)
The good news for Blue mic fans is that Logitech says they don’t mute any of the mics. They will still be available but with less of an indication that they came from a company called Blue. But does the name really matter? For Latvian co-founder Saulespurens, it is.
According to a 2009 LA Times report, Blue was an acronym for Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics.
“I just wanted a Latvian somewhere,” Solisborns told the Los Angeles Times at the time. “[Blue co-founder] Skipper said the name should be easy to remember, so he said, “Blue, let’s just call it Blue.”
Pick-up names will no longer bear this homage to one of their founders, which is the risk when selling a business. Some may have thought the blue name would stick because it’s popular and because Logitech hasn’t removed the names of other brands it’s bought, like Ultimate Ears and Saitek, as The Verge points out.
However, Logitech instead retains the Yeti branding for its pickup heritage. But with microphones with the defunct blue logo still on sale and sitting on people’s desks, the name will more or less live on.
