ARTISTdirect is an American online
digital media
Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ...
entertainment company.
Overview
Founded in 1994, it owns several websites, including artistdirect.com and artistdirectinterviews.com. These websites are a group of affiliate websites offering multimedia content, music news and information, communities organized around shared music interests, music-related specialty commerce and digital music services.
Artistdirect began as an online music retailer and distribution company. It hosted the Ultimate Band List (UBL), a database with information on over 600,000 artists, concerts, record labels, and other music-related resources.
[ In 1997, it partnered with the band ]Blink-182
Blink-182 (stylized as blink-182) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California in 1992. Their current lineup consists of bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has ...
to create Loserkids.com, an online store and community site for fans of the music and fashion of cutting-edge Alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...
, punk, metal, and hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest ha ...
artists.[About Us - Free Music Download, MP3 Music, Music Chat, Music Video, Music CD, ARTISTdirect Network]
/ref> It featured merchandise from various brands including Hurley, Dickies
Williamson-Dickie Mfg. Co. is an apparel manufacturing company primarily known for its largest brand, Dickies. The company was founded in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1922 by C. N. Williamson and E. E. "Colonel" Dickie, who began a denim bib overall ...
, and Ben Sherman. In the early 2000s Artistdirect combined the database of the Ultimate Band List and online store with free audio and video streams, music news, album reviews, and movie trailers.
In 2006, Artistdirect re-launched the UBL.com site to focus on independent and unsigned bands, and helping them to be "discovered". According to Media Metrix, the Artistdirect Network averages 12.4 million unique hits.
In 2005 Artistdirect acquired MediaDefender
MediaDefender, Inc. (now Peer Media Technologies) was a company that fought copyright infringement that offered services designed to prevent alleged copyright infringement using peer-to-peer distribution. They used unusual tactics such as floodin ...
, a company with a 90% share of the market for protecting against online copyright infringement.
In 2009, Artistdirect acquired MediaSentry
MediaSentry was a United States company that provided services to the music recording, motion picture, television, and software industries for locating and identifying IP addresses that are engaged in the use of online networks to share material i ...
, another company that focuses on battling online copyright infringement. The company will operate with two divisions, one for its copyright protection products, and another for its music-related web sites.
In August 2009, the company filed a "Form 15" with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, under which it will "go dark" and cease to make public its financial information. The company shares will also cease trading on the major stock exchanges.
In March 2015, the business of ARTISTdirect was acquired by PSI Capital, Inc.
iMUSIC
In August 2002, Marc Geiger
Marc Geiger is an American music executive and entrepreneur. The founder of SAVELIVE, an initiative to help live music venues recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Geiger co-founded Lollapalooza and ARTISTdirect. He was the global he ...
launched his own iMUSIC label as a separate entity to ARTISTdirect Records but still under the Artistdirect umbrella.Ted Field
Frederick Woodruff "Ted" Field (born June 1, 1953) is an American media mogul, record executive, entrepreneur and film producer.
He co-founded Interscope Records with Jimmy Iovine and founded Interscope Communications to develop and produce fi ...
's ADR marketing and promotion staff.
The basic idea of iMUSIC was to enter into label and distribution partnerships with long established artists (with sizable fan-bases) who no longer had major label deals.
See also
* List of record labels
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File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg
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Lists of record labels cover record labels, brands or trademarks associated with marketing of music recordings and music videos. The lists are organized alphabetically, b ...
* Peer Media Technologies
Peer Media Technologies, Inc. is an Artistdirect subsidiary created in 2009 as a merger of MediaDefender and MediaSentry, after the reputations of the predecessor companies were sullied by the exposure of internal emails and the use of investigat ...
References
External links
Artistdirect.com
{{Authority control
1994 establishments in California
American record labels
Netlabels
Record labels established in 1994
Online music stores of the United States