Wind-up Records, LLC (legally known as Wind-up Entertainment Inc. until 2004) was an American record label founded by

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Kurdish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' * ...

and Diana Meltzer in 1997. It was based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and was distributed by BMG Distribution. Wind-up's best-selling artists worldwide were

Creed A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) which summarizes its core tenets. Many Christian denominations use three creeds ...

and

Evanescence Evanescence is an American Rock music, rock band founded in 1994 by singer and keyboardist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody in Little Rock, Arkansas. After releasing independent extended play, EPs and a Origin (Evanescence demo album), demo ...

History

Wind-up Records was formed in 1997 by Alan Meltzer, former owner of CD One Stop, and his wife Diana Meltzer, following their 1996 purchase of Grass Records. The parent company Wind-up Entertainment also runs numerous publishing companies as well as a full-scale retail, online and tour merchandising company. The company's slogan was "Developing Career Artists". Some of the successful acts on the label included

Seether Seether are a South African Rock music, rock band founded in 1999 in Pretoria, Gauteng. The band originally performed under the name Saron Gas until 2002, when they moved to the United States and changed it to Seether to avoid confusion with ...

and

Finger Eleven Finger Eleven is a Canadian Rock music, rock band from Burlington, Ontario, formed in 1990. They have released seven studio albums (six as Finger Eleven and one as Rainbow Butt Monkeys), with their album ''The Greyest of Blue Skies'' bringing th ...

. The label has also re-released albums from bands previously associated with Grass Records, such as

Toadies Toadies are an American rock band formed in 1989 in Fort Worth, Texas, best known for the song " Possum Kingdom". The band's classic lineup consisted of Vaden Todd Lewis (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Lisa Umbarger (bass guitar), Darrel Herbert ...

the Wrens The Wrens were an American indie rock band from New Jersey. The group consisted of Charles Bissell (guitar/vocals), brothers Greg Whelan (guitar/vocals) and Kevin Whelan (bass/vocals), and Jerry MacDonald (drums). They released three albums; a f ...

and

Commander Venus Commander Venus was an American emo band from Omaha, Nebraska. Fronted by Conor Oberst and Tim Kasher, the band also included Todd Fink and Matt Bowen of The Faint, Ben Armstrong of Head of Femur and Robb Nansel, executive producer of the i ...

. The label's current roster includes

Civil Twilight Twilight is daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surfac ...

, Jillette Johnson,

The Griswolds The Griswolds were an Australian two-piece indie rock band from Sydney, Australia. The band have cited influences such as Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Kanye West, Devendra Banhart, Of Montreal, and the Beach Boys. The Griswolds signed with Wind-up R ...

The Virginmarys The Virginmarys are an English rock duo from Macclesfield, England. The band formed in 2006 as a trio and self-released a limited series of sold-out EPs before releasing their debut album, '' King of Conflict,'' on DoubleCross/Cooking Vinyl an ...

, Young Guns,

Strange Talk Strange Talk is an Australian synthpop duo from Melbourne, Victoria, consisting of Gerard Sidhu and Stephen Docker. Formed in 2010, their sound has been likened to that of Cut Copy, Passion Pit, Phoenix and Yeasayer. Strange Talk's most recen ...

The Revivalists The Revivalists are an American rock band formed in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2007. The eight-piece band consists of Ed Williams (pedal steel guitar, guitar), David Shaw (lead vocals), Zack Feinberg (guitar), Rob Ingraham (saxophone), George Gek ...

Five for Fighting Vladimir John Ondrasik III (born January 7, 1965), also known by his stage name Five for Fighting, is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. He is best known for his piano-based soft rock, such as the top 40 hits " Superman (It's Not Easy)" ...

Crobot Crobot is an American hard rock band from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, composed of Brandon Yeagley, Chris Bishop, Dan Ryan and Pat Seals. Formed in 2011, the band has released five studio albums. History Beginnings In mid-2011, Brandon Yeagle ...

Filter Filtration is a physical process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture. Filter, filtering, filters or filtration may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Fil ...

, SPEAK,

Genevieve Genevieve (; ; also called ''Genovefa'' and ''Genofeva''; 419/422 AD – 502/512 AD) was a consecrated virgin, and is one of the two patron saints of Paris in the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. Her feast day is on 3 January. Rec ...

and

Aranda Aranda may refer to: Places * Aranda, Village in Goh Block, Aurangabad, Bihar * Aranda, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in Canberra, Australia, named after the Arrernte or Aranda Indigenous people * Aranda (comarca), a ''comarca'' (county) ...

. In September 2009, the label reached an agreement with

EMI Music EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), c ...

Germany and in February 2011 with EMI Music Canada. The partnership has seen EMI Music take over the marketing and distribution of artists such as Creed, Evanescence, Seether and Finger Eleven throughout the world outside of the US. In Canada, distribution was initially with

Sony Music Canada Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

as was the distribution in the United States. However, in October 2004, distribution in Canada switched over to

Warner Music Canada Warner Music Canada is the Canadian division of Warner Music Group. The label previously operated as WEA Music of Canada, Ltd. (French: ''WEA Musique du Canada, Ltée''), often shortened to WEA Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of WEA Internationa ...

with the creation of Wind-up Entertainment Canada. Distribution in Canada moved again, for a third time in February 2011, this time to EMI Music Canada. On October 31, 2011, the label's founder, Alan Meltzer, died at the age of 67. In 2012,

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

acquired the

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

music operations, making the distribution in Canada solely distributed by Universal Music Group. In October 2013, the Bicycle Music Company bought the rights to much of Wind-Up's back catalog, including the contracts to acts such as

. These artists will be distributed by

Concord Music Group Concord Music Group was an American independent music company based in Beverly Hills, California, with worldwide (including the U.S.) distribution through Universal Music Group. The company specialized in recordings and music publishing. On Apri ...

, which later merged with Bicycle. In May 2015, Concord bought the rest of the Wind-Up label. In 2016, Concord retired Wind-Up as a frontline label, and transferred most of Wind-Up's artists to other labels. Wind-Up's reissues are released under

Craft Recordings Craft Recordings is a record label owned by Concord. Like UMe, Legacy Recordings and Rhino Entertainment, Craft specialized in reissues of Concord's back catalog. The imprint was founded in 2017, along with an online store by the same name offe ...

, Concord's reissue label.

Artist roster

Final roster

Accurate according to Wind-up's website as of October 9, 2016. *

Allday Tomas Henry Gaynor (born 21 February 1991), known professionally as Allday, is an Australian rapper, singer and songwriter from Adelaide. Gaynor became active in 2011, when he began uploading his music for free online. Following his works becom ...

* Citizen Zero *

Feenixpawl Feenixpawl is an Australian house music duo composed of Aden Forté and Josh Soon, formed in 2003. Their fifth single, " In My Mind", peaked at No. 29 on the ARIA Singles Chart, it also spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the component c ...

* Jillette Johnson *

- transferred to

Razor & Tie Razor & Tie was an American entertainment company that consisted of a record label and a music publishing company. It was established in 1990 by Craig Balsam and Cliff Chenfeld. Based in New York City (with additional offices in Los Angeles and ...

* Speak *

Ryan Star Ryan Stahr Kulchinsky (born January 7, 1978), known professionally as Ryan Star, is an American rock singer-songwriter from Long Island, New York, currently signed on Island Records. His first major label record ''11:59 (album), 11:59'', releas ...

* Young Guns *

All My Scars All or ALL may refer to: عرص Biology and medicine * Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer * Anterolateral ligament, a ligament in the knee * ''All.'', taxonomic author abbreviation for Carlo Allioni (1728–1804), Italian physician and profe ...

Previous artists

12 Stones 12 Stones is an American hard rock band, formed in 2000 in Mandeville, Louisiana, consisting of Paul McCoy, Richard Labranche, Sean Dunaway, David Troia and Jon Rodriguez. History The band members met in Mandeville, Louisiana, a small city no ...

Alter Bridge Alter Bridge is an American Rock music, rock band from Orlando, Florida. The band was formed in 2004 by vocalist and guitarist Myles Kennedy, lead guitarist Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips (musician), Scott Phill ...

American Pearl American Pearl was a hard rock band from Los Angeles, California. They released one studio album through Wind-up Records in 2000 and toured internationally before disbanding two years later. History Formed in 1997, American Pearl started with ...

Atomship Atomship (formerly known as Watership Down and AtomshipDown) is an American alternative metal band that was most recently composed of Joey Culver, Chad Kent, Roy Williams, and Jared Slade (brother of Nathan Slade). They are best known for their ...

Baboon Baboons are primates comprising the biology, genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys, in the family Cercopithecidae. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow ba ...

* Bayside *

Ben Moody Benjamin Moody (born January 22, 1981) is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is known as co-founder of rock band Evanescence, which he departed in 2003 after the release of their debut album '' Fallen'' (2003). After leav ...

Big Dismal Big Dismal is a Florida-based Christian rock band, which released three albums. Their first, ''Believe'', was released by Wind-up Records in May 2003. The band was active until 2005, and then reformed in 2023. History The band formed in Tallah ...

Bob Guiney Robert Guiney (born May 8, 1971) is an American television personality and insurance carrier consultant for Lincoln Financial. He was a contestant on the first season of ''The Bachelorette'' and later, appeared as the bachelor in the fourth s ...

Boy Hits Car Boy Hits Car is an American alternative rock/Alternative metal, metal band from Los Angeles, formed in 1993. History The band was formed in 1993. After releasing their first album, ''My Animal (album), My Animal'', independently in 1998, they ...

Boysetsfire BoySetsFire is an American post-hardcore band from Newark, Delaware. Formed in October 1994, BoySetsFire is composed of guitarists Chad Istvan and Josh Latshaw, vocalist Nat Gray, drummer Jared Shavelson, and bassists Chris Rakus and Robert Ehre ...

* Brainiac * Breaking Point *

Cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...

CFO$ CFO$ () were an American songwriting and production duo consisting of John Paul Alicastro and Michael Conrad Lauri. They were primarily known for creating entrance music and program themes for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Career CFO$ ...

* Company of Thieves * The Crash Motive *

* The Darkness *

The Drowners "The Drowners" is the debut single of English rock band Suede, released on 11 May 1992 on Nude Records. It was later included on the band's debut album, ''Suede'' (1993). "The Drowners" charted at number 49 on the UK Singles Chart. Background ...

Drowning Pool Drowning Pool is an American rock band formed in Dallas, Texas, in 1996. The band was named after the 1975 film '' The Drowning Pool''. Since its formation, the band has consisted of guitarist C.J. Pierce, drummer Mike Luce and bassist Stevie ...

* Dust for Life * Edgewater *

Emily Osment Emily Jordan Osment (born March 10, 1992) is an American actress, singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Osment began her career as a child actress, appearing in numerous television shows and films, before co-starring as Gerti Gi ...

The Exit The Exit was a New York City-based band indie/post-punk/reggae group, formed in 2000. The band's music blended 1980s dub and reggae with 1990s punk and indie rock. The band's members included Ben Brewer on lead guitar and vocals, and Gunnar Ol ...

Hawthorne Heights Hawthorne Heights is an American rock band formed in Dayton, Ohio in 2001. Originally called A Day in the Life, their lineup currently consists of JT Woodruff (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Matt Ridenour (bass, backing vocals) and Mark McMillon ...

James Durbin __NOTOC__ James Durbin FBA (30 June 1923 – 23 June 2012) was a British statistician and econometrician, known particularly for his work on time series analysis and serial correlation. Education The son of a greengrocer, Durbin was born in W ...

* Jeremy Fisher * New Radiant Storm King *

O.A.R. O.A.R. (short for Of A Revolution) is an American rock band, founded in 1996 in Rockville, Maryland. The band consists of lead vocalist/guitarist Marc Roberge, drummer Chris Culos, guitarist Richard On, bassist Benj Gershman, and saxophonist/g ...

People in Planes People in Planes were a Welsh alternative rock band from Porthcawl, active from 1998 to 2013. They were signed to Wind-up Records. Prior to 2003, they were known as Tetra Splendour (during which time they moved to Cardiff), and before that, th ...

Pilot Speed Pilot Speed (formerly known as Pilate) was a Canadian rock band, who were active in the early 2000s.Gerry Krochak, "Pilate strives for sincerity". ''Regina Leader-Post'', October 23, 2003. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the band consisted of vocali ...

Pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

* Push Play *

Scott Stapp Scott Stapp (born Anthony Scott Flippen; August 8, 1973) is an American singer and the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Creed. He has also fronted the band Art of Anarchy and has released four solo albums. Stapp has received severa ...

Seven Wiser Fallzone (formerly Seven Wiser) is a four-piece American alternative rock band from Jersey City, New Jersey. History As Seven Wiser Seven Wiser was founded in 2002 by producer/songwriter Sandy Thomas, Andrew Sbarra, and frontman Jon Santo ...

Stars of Track and Field Stars of Track and Field was a three-piece indie rock band from Portland, Oregon that was active from 2003 to 2011. They were named after the song "The Stars of Track and Field" by Belle and Sebastian, from the 1996 album '' If You're Feeling Sin ...

Stefy Stefy (styled as STEFY) was an American electro-nu music pop band from Orange County, California, United States. The group, initially known as "The Lovely", consisted of Jason Gaviati (keyboard), Stefy Rae (vocals), Sean Meyer (guitar) and Jo ...

Stereo Fuse Stereo Fuse is a post-grunge band from Dallas, Texas. Stereo Fuse was formed in 2000 after guitarist Jeff Quay and drummer Chad Jenkins were forced to disband their previous group. The two left their former lead singer after a show in Atlanta i ...

Strata In geology and related fields, a stratum (: strata) is a layer of Rock (geology), rock or sediment characterized by certain Lithology, lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by v ...

* Stretch Princess *

Submersed Submersed (sometimes typeset as SubmerseD) is an American rock band from Stephenville, Texas. They first disbanded in 2008, reuniting in late 2021, early 2022. History Submersed was signed to Wind-up Records, and worked with Alter Bridge ...

Tickle Me Pink Tickle Me Pink was an American rock music, rock band from Fort Collins, Colorado, signed to Wind-Up Records. The band was made up of Sean Kennedy (lead vocals, bass guitar), Stefan Runstrom (drums), Joey Barba (guitar) and Steven Beck (guitar, v ...

Thriving Ivory Thriving Ivory was an American rock band based in the San Francisco Bay area. They released their self-titled Wind-up Records debut album on June 24, 2008. The debut album reached number 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart on the strength of t ...

Trickside Trickside was an American pop duo from New York City. History Trickside was composed of brothers Jeff Mendelsohn and Dave Mendelsohn of New York City. The name "Trickside" came from a childhood playing card game. The band's single "Under You" wa ...

The Wrens The Wrens were an American indie rock band from New Jersey. The group consisted of Charles Bissell (guitar/vocals), brothers Greg Whelan (guitar/vocals) and Kevin Whelan (bass/vocals), and Jerry MacDonald (drums). They released three albums; a f ...

Soundtracks

* ''

1080° Avalanche ''1080° Avalanche'' is a snowboarding video game developed by Nintendo Software Technology and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It was released on November 28, 2003, in Europe, on December 1, 2003, in North America, and on January 22, 2 ...

'' (video game) * '' Daredevil: The Album'' * '' Elektra: The Album'' * '' Fantastic 4: The Album'' * ''

John Tucker Must Die ''John Tucker Must Die'' is a 2006 teen comedy film directed by Betty Thomas. The film stars Jesse Metcalfe, Brittany Snow, Ashanti, Sophia Bush, Arielle Kebbel, and Jenny McCarthy. The plot centers around a trio of teenage girls who plan to bre ...

'' * '' The Punisher: The Album'' * '' Scream 3: The Album'' * '' Walk the Line: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack''

References

External links

Official site

{{Authority control American record labels Defunct record labels of the United States Record labels established in 1997 Record labels disestablished in 2016 Sony Music