Avex Trax

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Avex Trax or Avex Entertainment Corporation
Type International Private company
Genre Music Record Label
Founded 1988
Headquarters Flag of JapanAoyama, 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)
Parent Avex Group Holdings Inc.
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 Trax Official Website

Avex Trax or Avex Group Holdings Entertainment Corporation (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 a music record label originally from Japan. The label is also known sometimes as Avex Entertainment Inc.. The origin of the word Avex comes from the English words Audio Visual Expert. Avex is one of the largest independent record labels in the world, since they are not associated with any of the "Big Four".[citation needed]

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

[edit] 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" [1].

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]

[edit] 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.

[edit] Artists

See List of Avex Trax artists.

[edit] Sub-labels

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Microsoft Word - PooleMT.doc
  2. ^ Start of Commission Sales of the Aozora Records Catalogue Avex Group Holdings Inc. press release September 15, 2005

[edit] External links