| Type | Public KK conglomerate Industrial keiretsu |
|---|---|
| Traded as | TYO: 7860 FWB: AX8 MUN:AX8 |
| Industry | Music and Entertainment |
| Genre | Music Record Label |
| Founded | April 11, 1988* |
| Founder(s) | Masato "Max" Matsuura Tom Yoda Ken Suzuki (now on S2S Pte Ltd) |
| Headquarters | 1-30 Minami-Aoyama 3-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 107-8525* |
| Area served | Asia |
| Key people | see Current officials |
| Products | CDs, DVDs |
| Revenue | 4,229.6 million yen |
| Operating income | 5,566 million yen |
| Net income | 30,266 million yen |
| Owner(s) | Max Matsuura (4.88%) Toshio Kobayashi (4.88%) The Master Trust Bank of Japan (4.69%)[1] |
| Employees | 1,438 (as of the end of September, 2010) |
| Subsidiaries | see Subsidiaries |
| Website | Avex Group Official Website |
| References: *The company was registered June 1, 1973. When it was founded in 1988, its original name is Avex DD Incorporated (エイベックス・ディー・ディー株式会社 Eibekkusu Di Di Kabushiki Gaisha).[1] * The company's headquarters was originally located in Machida, Tokyo.[1] |
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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), listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange as 7860 and abbreviated as AGHD, is the holding company for a group of entertainment-related subsidiaries based in Japan. The word Avex is actually an acronym of the English words Audio Visual Expert.
With leading producer's Tetsuya Komuro's assistance, Avex became Japan's leading dance record company during the nineties, and continues producing and recording some of Japan's most famous pop singers such as Japan's highest selling solo musician, Ayumi Hamasaki. The company also provides theme music soundtracks to many anime and a few video games through its subsidiary Avex Mode.
Avex Group is mainly known in Japan because of its flagship music imprint, Avex Trax, which was founded in 1990. It is one of the top three record labels in Japan since the Komuro period[2], and is currently the second biggest, behind Sony Music Japan.
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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. This also marked the foundation of the Cutting Edge label.
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.[3]
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 December, still of the same year, the company was listed on the 1st section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 7860.[4]
In 2001, Avex opened "avex artists academy", a music school.[5]
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).[6]
In 2004, they began selling Japanese music CDs in South Korea. At the same date, 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.[7]
In 2005, Avex acquired distribution rights for Aozora Records' catalogue including all future Hitomi Yaida releases.[8]
In early 2008, Avex has partnered with Victor JVC to officially create the label D-topia Entertainment as a business partnership between the two labels and its founder, Terukado Onishi, with the sales promotion handled by Victor while the area promotion handled by Avex. Later that year, 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.
In August 2004, a feud between Max Matsuura and co-founder Tom Yoda almost ruined the group.[9] It started because of Yoda's ambition to expand Avex into other entertainment-related ventures, especially producing movies.[10]In addition, he accused Ryuhei Chiba, the company's executive director and also the president of Axev Inc. (now Avex Planning and Development), of pursuing personal profit from a few big artists.[9]
July 30 - On a board meeting, Yoda introduced a resolution calling on Chiba to resign because of an alleged conflict of interest. A source says the disagreement arose because Chiba had signed to Axev an artist managed by a member of his family. The board backed Yoda's resolution in a 6-1 vote. However, Matsuura—described by insiders as a close ally of Chiba's—then introduced a second resolution demanding that Yoda step down due to "a difference of opinion in management principles." Matsuura's motion was defeated 5-2. He and Chiba resigned the next day.[11]
August 2 - Matsuura and Chiba announced resignation from their respective positions on a meeting with employees of Avex. On the meet, Chiba tearfully denied committing any fault, while Matsuura complained that Avex had lost its love of music and said he wanted to start over.They have the support of many staff who also said they would quit. More significantly, the label's top star, Ayumi Hamasaki, also said she's off with the company.[9] As a result, Avex's stocks in the TSE fell by 16 percent that day.[12]
August 3 - Due to pressure by employees and artists and to save the company from going bankrupt (since the company's stocks plunged),Yoda resigned and was replaced by Toshio Kobayashi.[1][9]
On November 24, 2010, Avex Entertainment, as well as SM Entertainment Japan, released a statement about the renewal of contracts of SM artists BoA, Tohoshinki, J-Min, Super Junior, and SHINee, which are signed to Avex.[13]
AGHD is also currently listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Börse München of Germany under the ticker symbol AX8.[14]
More K-pop artists from other agencies than SM Entertainment continued to signed with Avex such as YG Entertainment's 2NE1 (2010), KeyEast Entertainment's former SS501 member Kim Hyung Jun (2011), Pledis Entertainment's After School (2011), NH Media's U-KISS (2011)[15] and Yejeon Media's Shu-I (2011).[16]
On July 21, 2011, it was announced that Avex paired with Korean management label YG Entertainment to form YGEX Entertainment.[17]
Since its foundation, its corporate name was Avex D.D., Incorporated, and ten years later it was changed to Avex, Incorporated.
The current name, Avex Group Holdings, Incorporated, was adopted in 2004 as part of reconstruction process after Tom Yoda's resignation. Avex Group Holdings, Incorporated was used for the main subsidiaries, while the old name (Avex, Incorporated) was for entertainment components of the Group.
In 2005, Avex, Incorporated became Avex Entertainment, Incorporated, and stayed on as part of the Group.
The Group is a member of the IFPI for Hong Kong and Japan.[18]
Each year since 2002, Avex has hosted a summer concert tour around Japan, "a-nation", featuring the company's most successful acts.
It is held every weekends of August.
Top Avex acts like Ayumi Hamasaki, Kumi Koda, AAA, Ai Otsuka, BoA, Do As Infinity, Hitomi, TRF, Every Little Thing and TVXQ 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.[19][20]
Sponsors include Joe Weider and his Weider fitness products, Seven & I Holdings Co., NTT DoCoMo, Mizuno Corp., Nissay (through its You May Dream! Project), and others.
According to CNN, Sony Music Entertainment Japan ceded the entire tanned skin cultural world to Avex as competition increases.[21]
In April 2010 - the Avex Group corporation was re-structured to establish Avex Music Publishing Inc. as a consolidated subsidiary, in a corporate spin-off of music publishing division of Avex Group Holdings Inc. Thus the Avex Group became a pure holding company, with a corporate structure as follows:[22]
As of June 2010:[56]
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