25/08/2023
Didier "Gol" Dambrin, a software developer from Belgium, created FL Studio in his early 20s.
Gol was being drawn into the music scene by applications such as Hammerhead and Rebirth 338. He had the idea of merging both into a step sequencer, so he started developing FruityLoops. When he dropped it on our machines it was a simple, MIDI-only step sequencer that we were having trouble placing in our existing product range, leaving us scratching our heads how to market it.
(info from Image Line website about their company history)
This turned out not to be a problem as people went WILD about it and sucked our servers dry (downloading the demo) a few days after launch. It was also around this time we came up with the idea of Lifetime Free Updates for the program, that existing customers should get the latest version of the software for free.
After producing FruityLoops for about four years we changed the name to FL Studio, here's why:
Kelloggs decided to challenge us when we applied for the FruityLoops trademark in the US. We had a very strong case AND we received the trademark in Europe as the two markets are obviously separated. But later they claimed to have released software CDs and games in their cereal boxes, and so were already in the 'Software' industry. As we didn't want to fight them in court for 5 years ...
Since we changed the name we started to be taken more seriously and customers are happy to tell people what application they are using to make music.