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| Type | Public KK (TYO:7860) |
|---|---|
| Genre | Music Record Label |
| Founded | April 11, 1988: registered June 1, 1973 and originally located in Machida, Tokyo[1] |
| Founder(s) | Masato "Max" Matsuura Tom Yoda Ken Suzuki (now on S2S Pte Ltd) |
| Headquarters | Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan |
| Area served | Asia |
| Key people | Masato "Max" Matsuura- CEO Ryuhei Chiba- Co-CEO |
| Industry | Music and Entertainment |
| Products | CDs, DVDs |
| Revenue | 4,229.6 million yen |
| Owner(s) | 1-The Master Trust Bank of Japan-6.39% 2-Max Matsuura-4.85% 3-Toshio Kobayashi-4.85% [1] |
| Employees | 1,344 (Correct at end of March,2009, according to their official site) |
| Subsidiaries | Avex Entertainment, Avex Mode, Avex Trance, Avex Tune, Avex Globe, Cutting Edge, Rhythm Republic, Rhythm Zone, Espionage Records, Disc Du Soleil, Mad Pray Records, Motorod Records, Love Life Records, Sonic Groove, Tearbridge Records, True Song Music, J-more |
| Website | Avex Group Official Website |
Avex Group Holdings Inc. (エイベックス・グループ・ホールディングス株式会社 Eibekkusu Gurūpu Hōrudingusu Kabushiki-gaisha) TYO: 7860 is the holding company for a group of entertainment-related subsidiaries based in Japan. The origin of the word Avex comes from the English words Audio Visual Expert.
Avex was Japan's leading dance record company during the nineties, and continues producing and recording some of Japan's most famous J-pop singers. Avex Trax also provides theme music soundtracks to many anime and a few video games.
Contents |
History
The company was established in 1988 as "Avex D.D., Inc", a CD wholesaler based in Machida, Tokyo. They opened a recording studio and created Avex Trax as a music label in September 1990. In the same year, they created "Musique Folio Inc.", a music publishing company, which later became "Prime Direction Inc." In 1993, they transferred to Aoyama, Tokyo and created a U.S. branch, called "AV Experience America Inc." The year also marked the first of Avex's yearly events. It was held in Tokyo Dome under the name "avex rave '93" and attracted 50,000 attendees. In 1994, they formed two UK subsidiaries, "Rhythm Republic Limited" and "Avex U.K. Limited". Later that year, they opened a disco, claimed on their website to be "the world's largest scale disco", named as Velfarre.[2]
In 1997, they opened a series of concert halls called "Zepp" along with Sony Music Entertainment Japan and created another label, Cutting Edge. In early 1999, they signed an agreement with Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records to handle both companies' Japanese CD releases. Later that year "Avex Mode", an animation company, was established. In December, still of the same year, the company was listed on the 1st section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 7860.[3]
In 2001, Avex opened "avex artists academy", a music school.[4] In 2002, they released the "CCCD", a type of copy-protected CD, and built their building in Aoyama {Sumitomo Life answered the expenses, worth 205 billion yen.}. In 2003, they opened a classical music business (named as Avex Classics).[5] In 2004, they began selling Japanese music CDs in South Korea.
In 2004, Avex President Max Matsuura "spotted" former-idol Ami Suzuki performing live at the annual festival of their school, Nihon University. He subsequently signed her to the Avex label.[6] But a feud between him {Matsuura} and co-founder Tom Yoda almost ruined the group. It came to an end on Yoda's resignation and his replacement by Toshio Kobayashi.[1]
In 2005, Avex acquired distribution rights for Aozora Records' catalogue including all future Hitomi Yaida releases.[7]
As part of the Avex Group's 20th anniversary celebration, the big project is occurring with avex trax's ever "produced by avex trax" artists, the band Girl Next Door formed and debuted in September 2008.
A-Nation
Each year since 2002, Avex has hosted a summer concert tour around Japan, "a-nation", featuring the company's most successful acts. Top Avex acts like Hitomi, Kumi Koda, Ai Otsuka, BoA, Tohoshinki, TRF, Every Little Thing and Ayumi Hamasaki have performed to major crowds each year. In 2008, Namie Amuro made her first appearance at a-nation and performed on all dates that year.[8]
Artists
Sub-labels and Subsidiaries
- Avex Broadcasting and Communications (Founded with NTT Docomo at the company's 21st anniversary)
- Avex Entertainment (Producer of Red Cliff, Tsuki ni Shizumu and other movies shown in Japan)
- Avex Trance
- Avex Mode (Label for anime, tokusatsu, and drama soundtracks and theme music, also an animation company)
- Avex Tune (Da Pump, move's label.Founded in 1997.)
- Avex Globe (Globe's label.Founded in 1995.)
- Cutting Edge (Fantastic Plastic Machine, Back-On, Oblivion Dust, Yuko Ando and Olivia Lufkin's label.Founded in December 1993 and formerly distributed by Toshiba-EMI.)
- Rhythm Republic
- Rhythm Zone (M-Flo, Exile, Kumi Koda, TRAX, TVXQ, The Grace, Maki Goto's label.Founded in 1999.)
- Riddim Zone (Ryo the Skywalker, Akane's label.Founded in 2006 as a Rhythm Zone spin-off.) [9]
- Espionage Records (Heartsdales's label)[10]
- Disc Du Soleil
- Mad Pray Records (Anna Tsuchiya's label)
- Motorod Records (Nanase Aikawa, Janne Da Arc's label.Distributed by Cutting Edge.)
- Love Life Records (hitomi's label.Founded in 2005.)
- Sonic Groove (SPEED, Hiroko Shimabukuro, Imai Eriko, Takako Uehara, Hitoe Arakaki's label. Founded in 2000.)
- Tearbridge Records (Camino, Triplane's label)
- True Song Music (Dai Nagao's label)
- J-More (Noriyuki Makihara's label.Founded in June 2004.)
- Avex International (For International acts like Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus) [11] * Avex Classics (label for classical music.Founded in 2003.)
- Avex Trax (Ayumi Hamasaki, BoA, Ai Otsuka and Misono's label.Founded in September 1990, it is the 'flagship label' of the Group.Formerly distributed by Nippon Crown.)
- Binyl Records (Monkey Majik's label)
- Commmons (joint venture with Ryuichi Sakamoto)
- Blowgrow (Kirito's label.Founded in June 2, 2005.)
- Oorong Records (My Little Lover, Remioromen's label.Founded in May 2005.)
- Avex Management (Official management subsidiary founded in January 5, 2009)
- Avex Planning and Development (Operator of the avex artists academy, founded in April 1, 2005)
- Avex and East (TV programs producer, founded with East Co.)
See also
References
- ^ a b c [1] Avex Group's article on the Japanese Wikipedia.
- ^ [2] Avex Group's Company Developments, according to its official site.
- ^ [3] Avex Group Holdings Inc.'s Official Quote, courtesy of Bloomberg L.P..
- ^ [4] Avex Artist Academy's Official Site.
- ^ [5] Avex Classics's Official Site.
- ^ Microsoft Word - PooleMT.doc
- ^ [6] Start of Commission Sales of the Aozora Records Catalogue, an Avex Group Holdings Inc. press release (September 15, 2005)
- ^ [7] A-Nation's Official Site.
- ^ [8] Riddim Zone's Official Site.
- ^ [9] Espionage Records' Official Site.
- ^ [10] Avex International's Official Site.
External links
- Avex Group Holdings
- Avex Group Holdings (Japanese)
- Avex Network (Japanese)
- Avex Group Asia (Chinese) (English) (Japanese) (Korean)
- Avex Network channel at YouTube (requires Adobe Flash)
- Avex Group Holdings (Chinese)
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