Scion Audio/Visual, also known as Scion AV, Scion A/V or SA/V, was an in-house

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

and "lifestyle marketing" division of the Scion

marque A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

produced by

Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

for the North American market. Along with the rest of the Scion brand, Scion A/V was absorbed into Toyota in August 2016.

Marketing

Scion Audio/Visual sought to market the Scion automotive brand to younger customers by promoting various music, art, and film projects. From 2003, Scion paid for dozens of artists to make recordings and videos that were distributed digitally through the Scion AV website, and they also put on hundreds of music and art events around the United States. Scion did not make a profit from Scion AV projects, and the artists involved retained all ownership of the creative content. Scion covered all production, licensing and distribution costs for the projects with any proceeds going directly back to the artist.

Music

Scion AV produced records, music videos, and events in several genres of music including

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

, and

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

. As of February 6, 2013, Scion AV had released 143 records that include EP's, full-length albums, and singles. They worked with over 1,500 artists, including

ASAP Rocky Rakim Athelaston Mayers (born October 3, 1988), known professionally as ASAP Rocky ( ; stylized as A$AP Rocky), is an American rapper. Born and raised in Harlem, he embarked on his musical career as a member of the hip hop music, hip hop coll ...

Chromeo Chromeo is a Canadian electro-funk duo from Montreal, formed in 2002 by musicians David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel. Their sound draws from soul music, dance music, rock, synth-pop, disco and funk. As of 2024, the band h ...

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

, Pro Era,

Dâm-Funk Damon Garrett Riddick (born June 15, 1971), better known by his stage name Dam-Funk (stylized as DāM-FunK; pronounced "Dame Funk"), is an American funk musician, vocalist and producer from Pasadena, California. In 2007, Riddick signed with the ...

Melvins Melvins (sometimes the Melvins) are an American rock band formed in 1983 in Montesano, Washington. Their early work was key to the development of both grunge and sludge metal. Primarily a trio, they have also performed as a quartet, with eith ...

A-Trak Alain Macklovitch (born March 30, 1982), known professionally as A-Trak, is a Canadian DJ, record producer, and record executive. He came to prominence in the late 2000s as an international club DJ and remix artist, known for incorporating highl ...

Meshuggah Meshuggah () is a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Umeå in 1987. Since 2004, the band's lineup consists of founding members Jens Kidman (lead vocals) and Fredrik Thordendal (lead guitar), alongside rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström, drumm ...

, Immolation,

Danny Brown Daniel Dewan Sewell (born March 16, 1981), better known as Danny Brown, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. He was described by MTV in 2011 as "one of rap's most unique figures in recent memory". After amassing ...

, Harry Fraud, Red Fang,

Revocation Revocation is the act of wikt:recall, recall or annulment. It is the cancelling of an act, the recalling of a grant or privilege, or the making void (law), void of some deed previously existing. A temporary revocation of a grant or privilege is c ...

, and the Black Lips. Scion AV Streaming Radio (formerly Scion Radio 17) was a collection of 17

internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

channels that streamed from the company's website,

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

, Live365, and various

mobile apps A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

. Each channel was updated monthly and featured three hours of music on a loop that streamed 24 hours a day. Notable DJs and musicians, such as 45 King, Roy Davis Jr., and

Rob Swift Rob Swift (born Robert Aguilar; May 14, 1972) is an American hip hop DJ and turntablist. He was an original member of the turntablist group The X-Ecutioners until 2004. Over his career, he has released numerous solo albums and collaborated w ...

, hosted each channel and curated the musical content. Beginning in 2009, Scion AV produced an annual heavy metal music festival called

Scion Rock Fest Scion Rock Fest was an annual heavy metal music festival held in various cities throughout the United States. The festival lineups included bands from several genres of metal, such as death metal, grindcore, doom metal, metalcore, and experimen ...

that took place in different U.S. cities each year. Festival locations included

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, Columbus, Pomona, and

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

. Scion AV also formerly produced a garage rock festival called Scion Garage Fest that occurred in 2009 in Portland, OR and 2010 in Lawrence, KS. Scion AV also produced an annual conference in Los Angeles called the Scion Music(less) Music Conference with panels that discussed issues facing the

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

Film

Scion AV produced several films and web series. Notable film projects include a

documentary produced in 2010 in collaboration with

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

titled ''New Garage Explosion: In Love With These Times'' and an eight-part

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

released in December 2012 titled ''Young Americans'' directed by Lance Bangs. Past projects also include the Scion Route project, which gathered 10 independent filmmakers to produce short films screened in Los Angeles in November 2007, and the Scion Easy 10 project—another curation of 10 short films screened in New York and Los Angeles in January and February 2009.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scion Audio Visual Scion (automobile) Toyota