Gibson Brands, the parent company of Gibson, Cakewalk, TASCAM, TEAC, KRK and other music gear companies – has acquired music news and forum site Harmony Central.
“Harmony Central will not be a ‘Gibson site’; we already have that,” says Gibson CEO and Chairman Henry Juszkiewicz, “Think of it as Gibson providing a place to throw a party, and everyone—musicians, the industry, competitors, educators, anyone involved in music and sound—is invited and welcome.”
Harmony Central has operated continuously since 1995. In 2005 it was purchased by Musician’s Friend.
The current editorial team of Dendy Jarrett, Phil O’Keefe, and Chris Loeffler will remain onboard. Gibson’s Craig Anderton will serve as Editorial Director.
“This is a dream come true for all of us who love Harmony Central,” says Anderton. “Having seen the environment Gibson has provided for recent acquisitions like TASCAM, Cakewalk, Neat Microphones, and Philips, we have no doubt Harmony Central will enjoy the same kind of rejuvenation.”
What do you think about Harmony Central being purchased by the Gibson Brands, which describes itself as the ‘fastest growing company in music and sound’? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!
Tomorrow: Roland buys Synthopia 😉
More like “Roland Buys MySpace”.
In the downward direction Roland is going, Synthtopia will buy Roland!
Lol. That site still exists?! I kinda remember musicians friend buying it, and then i stopped using it.
Corporate conglomerates buying news and forum sites is not good news for anyone. All to control and influence opinion on products.
Harmony Central used to be pretty useful back in the late 90’s… I practically lived on the gear review section. Also, the keyboard and synth forum was way more entertaining than it is now. Have trouble sleeping? Go take a look… zzzz-fest for days.
Yeah. I want to congratulate Gibson on the first succesfull test of their new time machine. aparantly they manages to go back in time to the late 90′
With Craig Anderton at the helm it is not impossible that there could be some worthwhile resources up there. It is just unlikely, IMHO.
OTOH, they could let it kind of go organic. As long as people think it is worth visiting, then Gibson, Inc. could have eyeballs. And even if the contributions aren’t 100% company-positive, folks would view the site as at least semi-open.
I’m still fuming about what Gibson did to Opcode’s Studio Vision Pro…..
In case you’re all too young to remember, Gibson also bought: Steinberger guitars & basses, Kramer guitars, and Oberheim. How much have to heard from those companies lately? (Other than Tom Oberheim striking out on his own recently)
They used to run that awesome site musicyo.com but shut it down since they couldn’t keep it financially viable.
Just sayin’. I hope they do well.
Harmony Central was my internet hangout back in the 90s, along with synthzone.com.
Craig Anderton used to be the editor of Harmony Central, as well as Electronic Musician magazine. I’m sure he and Gibson have have big plans for HC.