Behringer's Music Tribe Buys British Brand Aston Microphones

Music Tribe, the expat manufacturing and distribution organization created by Uli Behringer in China to assemble all the brands that have resulted from his multiple past acquisitions, has now confirmed the addition of Aston Microphones, a studio microphone brand founded in the United Kingdom. The partnership with Music Tribe (former Music Group) adds Aston studio microphones to Behringer's pro audio portfolio, which was never particularly strong in that product segment. Since the 2015 acquisition of TC Electronic and the TC Group, the parent company of Behringer has been almost "missing in action" if it wasn't for the fact that a few new products appear promoted in the Sweetwater, Amazon, Thomann and Alibaba online retail websites. The company is now 100% based in China, and the last known products from Behringer are music synthesizers and dance-music grooveboxes, while notable brands like TC Electronic, Midas, Klark Teknik, Lab Gruppen, Lake, or Tannoy have completely vanished. Yes, there are still products branded with those names being sold, but anyone could be excused to think that those were simply knock-off products from some obscure Asian-factory and not at all related with the famous original brands. All the original company founders and engineering teams that once designed those products are now working for other companies or retired.

The news of another acquisition is, in this respect, surprising just for the fact that it actually shows some signs of activity from the organization that is now called Music Tribe - and that Behringer actually still exists and has plans for the future. The founder and CEO is still Uli Behringer, which says that, "The addition of Aston Microphones now allows Music Tribe to round out our professional install and touring sound offerings alongside Midas, Klark Teknik, Lab Gruppen, Lake, Turbosound, Tannoy and many other leading brands under the Music Tribe umbrella."

"Music Tribe’s Vision is solely based on Customer and Digital Obsession, which means to offer end-to-end Customer solutions. Since the acquisition of Midas, Klark Teknik, Lab Gruppen, Lake, Tannoy and Turbosound, we have been continuously pursuing a microphone brand that complements the mixing console, processing, amplification and loudspeaker excellence offered by these historic brands," Behringer adds.

The announcement also confirms that Behringer intends to invest heavily in Aston Microphones, with "full access to Music Tribe’s extensive resources and advanced automated system platforms in such areas as product engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and finance."
 
Confirming the acquisition, Aston Microphones’ CEO, James Young says that, "The synergy with Music Tribe’s existing brand portfolio is exceptional, and the huge resource in R&D, manufacturing and engineering excellence we now have at our disposal, will allow us, together, to set a bar to which other brands can only aspire. We are honored to now share our journey with Music Tribe and such talented people."

For now, the Aston marketing, product development and sales team will continue to operate from their Hertfordshire headquarters in the UK. Originally, Aston had envisaged to build their microphones in the UK "and make them affordable for everyone too." At least the second part will now be possible if all goes well.
www.astonmics.com
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