Chaos.com

Chaos.com is an online retailer now based in Melbourne, Australia that offers CDs,^[1] DVDs,^[2] Games,^[3] Books^[4] and Music Downloads. Similar to Amazon.com it ships to all countries including Australia, USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Spain and Singapore.^[5] Founded in Sydney, Australia by its CEO Rob Appel ^[6] it was the first Australian retailer of music over the Internet.^[7]

History

Established in 1995 by Rob Appel under the name Chaos Music Market^[8] it was one of the pioneers of Australian e-commerce and was able to grow quickly in its early years through an association with Australia's largest ISP at the time, OzEmail. Initially the service was located at the URL www.cmm.com.au, then moved to www.chaosmusic.com in 1998 and finally to www.chaos.com in 2003. The Chaos.com domain was previously registered to Professor Tony Rutkowski and used as a Chaos Theory discussion area before it was sold to Chaos Group Limited in 2003.

During the dot com boom Chaos attracted the attention of Sydney entrepreneurs Malcolm Turnbull and David Coe who provided seed capital before the Company was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in December 1999 raising A$15M as set out in the Chaos Music Limited Prospectus.^[9] The Chaos Board at the time included David Coe (Chairman), Rob Appel (CEO), David Spence (OzEmail), Lucy Turnbull (FTR) and Victoria Doidge (Chaos Marketing Executive). Shortly after the listing the dot com crash hit the market the Chaos share price declined substantially over the next 3 years. Chaos continued to grow strongly through this period and was ranked as the fastest growing company in Australia by Deloitte in the Fast 50 Awards for 2002^[10] due to revenue growth of 5,143% over 3 years. The Chaos website won the Onya Award for Most Popular Australian Online E-Tailer^[11] for three years running between 1999 and 2001.

In 2003 the Chaos business was privatized in a management buyout headed by Rob Appel who continued as CEO of the new holding company known as Chaos Entertainment Pty Ltd. The public entity went on to transform itself into a successful energy retailer known as Australian Power and Gas (ASX: APK).^[12]

In 2006, Chaos partnered with Stomp Entertainment for site management, distribution and fulfillment.^[13]

Now

Chaos.com continues to offer retail services through its website and by 2010 had a member base of over 350,000. It now offers CDs and music downloads, DVDs, books, games and merchandise, ships globally and provides payment facilities for most major currencies. It also continues to operate The CAN (Chaos Artist Network) which was first launched in 2000 and provides digital and physical distribution services to independent artists. The CAN is often referred to as 'Australia's CDBaby'.

In 2010, Chaos.com partnered with Elan Media Partners for site management, distribution and fulfillment^[14]

In 2012, Élan Media Partners became the majority owner of Chaos.com and relaunched Chaos with a new modern look, cheaper prices and a wider range of products.

References

External links

• Chaos.com
• The CAN
• Article by Chaos CEO Rob Appel, published by the Music Council of Australia, "Digital distribution for unsigned musicians"