Sales wise, who is the biggest synth company?

Is it Roland? Korg? Behringer? Maybe no one knows, but I’ve always been curious. As someone who is very ignorant on this front, I kind of assumed Roland is. They’ve been around so long with so many damn products. Maybe Yamaha? I dunno, just curious.

This isn’t the complete answer, because Yamaha has lots of products other than synths, but they are very large. Here’s a comparison of competitors to Korg.

https://www.owler.com/company/korg

Scroll down to the chart that compares Korg, Moog, Sequential, Yamaha, and Roland. Sequential is now a part of a larger company Focusrite that also includes Novation and more.

Note: This link works very poorly on a small format device like a phone.

ADDED:
Relevant data extracted from the website.

Company — Number of Employees — Revenue

Korg — 466 — $112.4M
Moog — 200 — $22M
Sequential — 212 — $26.9M
Yamaha — 20,203 — $3.5B
Roland — 3,000 — $579.9M

6 Likes

Roland has an affiliate company called Roland DG, which makes printers. Started as AMDEK, a subsidiary of Roland Corporation, then later renamed to Roland DG

https://www.rolanddg.com/en/about-us/history

We know that Yamaha is huge as hell. Still, I thought it was interesting to discovery Yamaha Guitar Group, which owns Line 6 and Ampeg.

https://yamahaguitargroup.com/

1 Like

Amdek did some cool kits, a drum machine (RMK-100 iirc) a couple of drum synths, some fx pedals, maybe more. Also computer peripherals.

1 Like

And Moog makes jet aircraft parts.

No wait – They do, but they don’t.

right - different company, homeboy! the way to tell the difference is that one pronounces it “Moog” and the other pronounces it “Moog” :laughing:

3 Likes

As for Music Tribe … see i didn’t use the B-word so no trolls please … many divisions, 3000 or more working in manufacture alone, and while i couldn’t find a revenue figure, we all know that number is changing rapidly, particularly in regards to synths. What’s the sales projections for ten years out ?

probably casio.

2 Likes

Behringer had multiple synths in the top 10 most sold synths of 2020 from Thomann, so probably them.

if you’re doing ‘all time’ sales then it changes… i think there were 50,000 roland SH-101s sold and those sales figures were nothing compared to yamaha DX-7.

200,000 dx7s were sold according to wiki
Yamaha DX7 - Wikipedia.

The FM synth designed by Dave Smith is embedded in sixty trillionty PC boards and devices

1 Like

If the Wiki is accurate, Casio’s revenue is second only to Yamaha - about $2.56 billion.

1 Like

…to make it count, the company should call a mono focus on sonic gear their own…

casio and yamaha…well…that’s naked numbers only…
including washing machines and motorbikes…can’t see them as synth companies…
even if yamaha once was pretty ambitious and worldleading in sonic concepts…
and casio built my first ever music instrument, the vlt one, which was also a stretched out pocket calculator…

and hey…we’re livin’ in the sonic world of boutique…
so let’s call out the biggest names in truu sonic business…

then, i guess, it’s behringer…then a huuuge gap…and moog might be next…
both not boutique that much, though…

hypes come and go…i had a big crush on elektron a decade ago…lasted quite a while…
had a short fling thing with dread box…
always adored nord/clavia…timeless…
actually i flirt a lot with the russians…soma…u’ll do the trick for me next…

2 Likes

Moog also sells non-synth gear.

Therefore Moog also cannot be counted as a synth company because they are not “pure”

For what it’s worth, I only meant in regards to synths and drum machines. Not other instruments like electronic drums or woodwinds or guitars etc.

Based on synths and drum machines alone I figured it had to be Roland.

It’s a teeny tiny market, invisible from a global scale. Which is good news :sunglasses:

Yamaha breaks down their revenue sources a little in their 2020 report - Musical Instruments 269.4 billion yen, Audio Equipment 114.4 billion yen, etc.

I don’t see a further breakdown than that - like which of those billions came from synth sales.

you could try Google for company annual reports and see if you have better luck finding a report that isolates synth sales.

…i’m not awre of any company that is in synth exclussively ONLY…

all SONIC TOOLS of some kind can only work as THE main parameter here…i’d think…

and whoever it might be, not big in japan anymore, i’m afraid…
and if so, no roland i’d say…my bet would be korg…then…

roland still makes a living from ripping off their own classics…which all got discontinued long before their creations became the classics they are today…best example…303…not much of a success in first place…discontinued…years later somebody started to abused it hardly…and the rest became history…same with 808/909…their fame and well deserved place in sonic history showed way later…

while yamaha made a fortune in organs abck in the days and then smashed all ceilings with their dx7…that was realtime success…

not to forget…akai also had a huuuuge run in the 90ies…

and korg, well…they’re still innovating a lot, from my humble perspective…
been present since the 80ies and ever since…

while sweden slowly took the ball to steal the show, two decades ago…
pretty small country on the map…but a huuuuuge impact on international music…
in copyrights and production as in tech innovation…
big brands in sonic business…
soft as hard…
tc electronics, even on eyelevel with lexicon and eventide…
clavia, elektron, reason, toontrack…