Milab Returns from Bankruptcy with New Leadership, Goals

Stockholm, Sweden (March 19, 2026)—Swedish pro-audio microphone manufacturer Milab is back in business, having been brought back to life after filing for bankruptcy last August. The company was acquired in 2025, and now leading the brand are audio entrepreneurs David Stenmark (Epidemic Sound/IMRSV) and Andreas Liffgarden (chairman of Tracklib).

“Reviving Milab is both a responsibility and a privilege,” said Stenmarck. “This is a brand deeply rooted in Swedish audio excellence, and also an important, largely untold part of the Swedish music wonder. To bring it back with the right people, the right values and a long-term vision is a rare opportunity and an honor.”

Production has been resumed in Sweden, overseen by production manager Hans Svensson, who has worked on Milab mics for four decades. Marking the brand’s revival, it is now shipping its first new production batch of microphones—the VIP-series, which has been used over the years by the likes of Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Drake and others.

Milab plans to expand beyond its existing product lineup, however, and the company’s new leaders note product development on “modern studio tools and innovative designs aimed at meeting the evolving demands of today’s producers, artists and broadcast professionals” is underway.

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The company first began as Pearl MiIkrofonlaboratorium, founded in 1941 in Stockholm by Rune Rosander; the startup made a name for itself when it introduced the first rectangular mic capsule in the 1950s. When the company began exploring world markets in the late 1970s/early 80s, it created a second brand, Milab, to bring its mics to international markets. The two brands quickly became separately led companies, however, and Milab microphones caught on overseas with high-profile fans like Jackson and Quincy Jones (Milab garnered a ‘thanks’ in the liner notes of 1991’s Dangerous album). The Grateful Dead also used Milab vocal mics in the 1980s and 90s, and later Dead spinoffs reportedly used LSR-3000 mics live in the mid-2010s. Pearl was later reacquired by Milab in 2017.