Avex Group Holdings Inc.
|
|
| Type |
International Private company |
| Genre |
Music Record Label |
| Founded |
1988 |
| Headquarters |
Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan |
| Area served |
Asia |
| Key people |
Masato "Max" Matsuura- CEO
Ryuhei Chiba- Co-CEO
Takashi Araki- COO, Senior ED
Toshio Kobayashi- CFO, Senior MD
Shinji Hayashi- CIO, Senior MD
Hiroshi Inagaki- MD
Hisashiko Iida- MD
Hajime Taniguchi- MD
Katsuro Oshita- MD
Hiroyuki Kishi- MD
Tadasu Ohe- MD
Toru Arakawa- MD
Shin Ushijima- MD
Minoru Onozato- MD
Nobuo Kawakami- MD |
| Industry |
Music industry |
| Products |
CDs, DVDs |
| Revenue |
4,229.6 million yen |
| Employees |
1,189 (Correct at end March,2007) |
| 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?) 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.
History
The company was established in 1988 as "Avex D.D., Inc", a CD wholesaler. They opened a recording studio and created Avex Trax as a music label in 1990. In the same year, they created "Musique Folio Inc.", a music publishing company, which later became "Prime Direction Inc." In 1993, they 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" [2].
In 1997, they opened a series of concert halls called "Zepp" along with Sony Music Entertainment Japan. 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 2001, Avex opened "avex artists academy", a music school. In 2002, they released the "CCCD", a type of copy-protected CD. In 2003, they opened a classical music business. 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.[1]
In 2005, Avex acquired distribution rights for Aozora Records' catalogue including all future Hitomi Yaida releases.[2]
As part of the Avex Group's 20th anniversary celebration, the big project is ocurring with avex trax's ever "produced by avex trax" artists, the band Girl Next Door formed and will debut 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 Ayumi Hamasaki, Koda Kumi, BoA, TRF, Ai Otsuka, Tohoshinki and Every Little Thing, have performed to major crowds each year. In 2008, Namie Amuro was the headliner for most a-nation 2008 dates due to Ayumi Hamasaki's scheduled "Ayumi Hamasaki Asia Tour 2008: 10th Anniversary" tour dates. [3] This was Amuro's first appearance at a-nation.
Artists
- See also: List of Avex Trax artists
Sub-labels
- Avex Entertainment (BeForU, Riyu Kosaka's label)
- Avex Trance
- Avex Mode
- Avex Tune (Da Pump, move's label)
- Avex Globe (Globe's label)
- Cutting Edge (Fantastic Plastic Machine, Back-On, Oblivion Dust and Olivia Lufkin's label)
- Rhythm Republic (Eriko Imai)
- Rhythm Zone (TVXQ, m-flo, Exile, Kumi Koda, Maki Goto's label)
- Riddim Zone (Ryo the Skywalker, Akane's label,)
- Espionage Records (Heartsdales's label)
- Disc Du Soleil
- Mad Pray Records (Anna Tsuchiya's label)
- Motorod Records (Nanase Aikawa, Janne Da Arc's label)
- Love Life Records (hitomi's label)
- Sonic Groove (Hiroko Shimabukuro, Takako Uehara, Hitoe Arakaki)
- Tearbridge Records (Camino, Triplane's label)
- True Song Music (Dai Nagao's label)
- J-More
- Avex International (For International acts like Craig David)
See also
References
External links
|
