Wind-up Entertainment was an American

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

founded by

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

and

Diana Meltzer Diana Meltzer is an American music industry executive. She is the owner of Monster Hits Music and was the co-owner of the world largest independent label Wind-up Records with her ex-husband Alan Meltzer. She is primarily known for discovering an ...

in 1997. It was based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and was distributed by BMG Distribution. Wind-up's best-selling artists worldwide were

Creed A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets. The ea ...

and

Evanescence Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer and musician Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording independent EPs as a duo in the late 90's, and a demo CD, Evanescence released their debut s ...

History

Wind-up Records was formed in 1997 by Alan Meltzer, former owner of

CD One Stop CD One Stop was a distributor of pre-recorded music in the late 1980s through the 90s. It was started in 1985 by Alan Meltzer, owner of the Titus Oaks Records music chain in Long Island. Meltzer moved to Connecticut and launched the company, which w ...

, and his wife

, following their 1996 purchase of Grass Records. The parent company Wind-up Entertainment also runs numerous publishing companies as well as a full-scale retail, online and tour merchandising company. The company's slogan was "Developing Career Artists". Some of the successful acts on the label included

Seether Seether are a South African rock band founded in 1999 in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. The band originally performed under the name Saron Gas until 2002, when they moved to the United States and changed it to Seether to avoid confusion wit ...

and

Finger Eleven Finger Eleven is a Canadian rock band from Burlington, Ontario, formed in 1990. They have released seven studio albums (six as Finger Eleven and one as Rainbow Butt Monkeys), with their album '' The Greyest of Blue Skies'' bringing them into th ...

. The label has also re-released albums from bands previously associated with Grass Records, such as

Toadies Toadies are an American rock band formed in 1989 in Fort Worth, Texas, best known for the song " Possum Kingdom". The band's classic lineup consisted of Vaden Todd Lewis (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Lisa Umbarger (bass guitar), Darrel Herb ...

the Wrens The Wrens were an American indie rock band from New Jersey. The group consisted of Charles Bissell (guitar/vocals), brothers Greg Whelan (guitar/vocals) and Kevin Whelan (bass/vocals), and Jerry MacDonald (drums). They released three albums; a fo ...

and

Commander Venus Commander Venus was an American emo band from Omaha, Nebraska. Fronted by Conor Oberst and Tim Kasher, the band also included Todd Fink and Matt Bowen (musician), Matt Bowen of The Faint, Ben Armstrong of Head of Femur (band), Head of Femur and ...

. The label's current roster includes

Civil Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this ...

Jillette Johnson Jillette Johnson (born June 3, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and musician from New York City. History Jillette got an early start in music, learning to play piano by the age of 5, and beginning to write her own music by age 8. By the a ...

The Griswolds The Griswolds are an Australian two-piece indie rock band from Sydney, Australia. The band have cited influences such as Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Kanye West, Devendra Banhart, Of Montreal, and the Beach Boys. The Griswolds signed with Wind-up ...

The Virginmarys The Virginmarys are an English rock duo from Macclesfield, England. The band formed in 2009 as a trio and self-released a limited series of sold out EPs, before releasing their debut album '' King of Conflict'' on DoubleCross/Cooking Vinyl and ...

, Young Guns,

Strange Talk Strange Talk is an Australian synthpop duo from Melbourne, Victoria, consisting of Gerard Sidhu and Stephen Docker. Formed in 2010, their sound has been likened to that of Cut Copy, Passion Pit, Phoenix and Yeasayer. Strange Talk's most recent ...

The Revivalists The Revivalists are an American rock band formed in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2007. The eight-piece band consists of Ed Williams (pedal steel guitar, guitar), David Shaw (lead vocals), Zack Feinberg (guitar), Rob Ingraham (saxophone), George Gek ...

Five for Fighting Vladimir John Ondrasik III (born January 7, 1965), also known by his stage name Five for Fighting, is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. He is best known for his piano-based soft rock ballads, such as the top 40 hits "Superman (It's Not ...

Crobot Crobot is an American hard rock band from Pottsville, Pennsylvania composed of Brandon Yeagley, Chris Bishop, Dan Ryan and Tim Peugh. Beginnings In the mid-2011, Brandon Yeagley and Chris Bishop created Crobot, joined later by brothers Paul an ...

Filter Filter, filtering or filters may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream * Filter (video), a software component tha ...

, SPEAK,

Genevieve Genevieve (french: link=no, Sainte Geneviève; la, Sancta Genovefa, Genoveva; 419/422 AD – 502/512 AD) is the patroness saint of Paris in the Catholic Church, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox traditions. Her Calendar of sain ...

and Aranda. In September 2009, the label reached an agreement with

EMI Music EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

Germany and in February 2011 with EMI Music Canada. The partnership has seen EMI Music take over the marketing and distribution of artists such as Creed, Evanescence, Seether and Finger Eleven throughout the world outside of the US. In Canada, distribution was initially with

Sony Music Canada Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

as was the distribution in the United States. However, in October 2004, distribution in Canada switched over to

Warner Music Canada Warner Music Canada is the Canadian division of Warner Music Group. The label previously operated as WEA Music of Canada, Ltd. (French: ''WEA Musique du Canada, Ltée''), often shortened to WEA Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of WEA Internationa ...

with the creation of Wind-up Entertainment Canada. Distribution in Canada moved again, for a third time in February 2011, this time to EMI Music Canada. On October 31, 2011, the label's founder, Alan Meltzer, died at the age of 67. In 2012,

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

acquired the

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

music operations, making the distribution in Canada solely distributed by Universal Music Group. In October 2013, the Bicycle Music Company bought the rights to much of Wind-Up's back catalog, including the contracts to acts such as

. These artists will be distributed by

Concord Music Group Concord Music Group was an American independent music company based in Beverly Hills, California, with worldwide (including the U.S.) distribution through Universal Music Group. The company specialized in recordings ( Fearless Records, Concord R ...

, which later merged with Bicycle. In May 2015, Concord bought the rest of the Wind-Up label. In 2016, Concord retired Wind-Up as a frontline label, and transferred most of Wind-Up's artists to other labels. Wind-Up's reissues are released under

Craft Recordings Craft Recordings is a record label owned by Concord. Like UMe, Legacy Recordings and Rhino Entertainment, Craft is specialized in reissues of Concord's back catalog. The imprint was founded in 2017, along with an online store by the same name of ...

, Concord's reissue label.

Artist roster

Final roster

Accurate according to Wind-up's website as of October 9, 2016. *

Allday Tomas Henry Gaynor (born 21 February 1991), known professionally as Allday, is an Australian rapper, singer and songwriter from Adelaide, South Australia. Gaynor became active in 2011, when he began uploading his music for free online. Followin ...

* Aranda *

Citizen Zero Citizen Zero is an American hard rock band from Detroit, Michigan. Founded in Rochester Hills in 2010 by siblings Greg (bass), John (drums), and Matt Dudley (guitar) and vocalist Josh LeMay (FMR Mayyle) the band caught the ear of Kid Rock's re ...

* Eclypse Records *

Feenixpawl Feenixpawl is an Australian house music duo composed of Aden Forte and Josh Soon, formed in 2003. Their fifth single, " In My Mind", peaked at No. 29 on the ARIA Singles Chart, it also spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the component ...

- transferred to

Razor & Tie Razor & Tie was an American entertainment company that consisted of a record label and a music publishing company. It was established in 1990 by Craig Balsam and Cliff Chenfeld. Based in New York City (with additional offices in Los Angeles an ...

* SPEAK * Spirit Animal *

Ryan Star Ryan Stahr Kulchinsky (born January 7, 1978) is an American rock singer-songwriter from Long Island, New York, currently signed on Island Records. His first major label record '' 11:59'', released via Atlantic in 2010, reached No. 31 on Billb ...

* Young Guns *

Previous artists

12 Stones 12 Stones is an American hard rock band, formed in 2000 in Mandeville, Louisiana, and currently consisting of Paul McCoy, Eric Weaver and Sean Dunaway. History The band members met in Mandeville, Louisiana, a small city north of New Orleans, ...

Alter Bridge Alter Bridge is an American rock band from Orlando, Florida. The band was formed in 2004 by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Myles Kennedy, lead guitarist Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips. After their former band Cr ...

American Pearl American Pearl was a hard rock band from Los Angeles, California. They released one studio album through Wind-up Records in 2000 and toured internationally before disbanding two years later. History Formed in 1997, American Pearl started with ...

Atomship Atomship (formerly known as Watership Down and AtomshipDown) is a four-piece American alternative metal band that was most recently composed of Joey Culver, Chad Kent, Roy Williams, and Jared Slade (brother of Nathan Slade). They are best known ...

Baboon Baboons are primates comprising the genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow baboon, the Kinda baboon and the chacma ba ...

* Bayside *

Ben Moody Benjamin Robert Moody II (born January 22, 1981) is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as co-founder, former guitarist and co-songwriter of rock band Evanescence from its inception in 1995 to his departure in ...

Big Dismal Big Dismal is a Florida-based Christian rock band featuring vocalist Eric Durrance, guitarist Chuck Shea, bassist Gary Sobel, and drummer Corey Lane. ''Believe'', the official debut, appeared in May 2003. ''Rolling Stone'' named Big Dismal one ...

Bob Guiney Robert Guiney (born May 8, 1971) is an American television personality, singer, and insurance carrier consultant for Lincoln Financial, a Fortune 200 company. He was a contestant on the The Bachelorette (season 1), first season of ''The Bachelore ...

Boy Hits Car Boy Hits Car is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, United States, which was formed in 1993. Biography The band was formed in 1993. After releasing their first album, '' My Animal'', independently in 1998, they went on the S ...

Boysetsfire boysetsfire is an American post-hardcore band from Newark, Delaware. Formed in October 1994, boysetsfire is composed of guitarists Chad Istvan and Josh Latshaw, vocalist Nathan Gray, and bassists Chris Rakus and Robert Ehrenbrand. Lyrical theme ...

Brainiac Brainiac is a colloquial adjective used to describe exceptionally intelligent people. It may also refer to: Culture Fictional entities * Brainiac (character), a fictional supervillain in DC Comics, and an enemy of Superman * Brainiac (story arc), ...

* Breaking Point * Bridget *

Cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...

* Cauterize *

CFO$ CFO$ () was an American songwriting and production duo consisting of John Paul Alicastro and Michael Conrad Lauri. They were primarily known for creating entrance music and program themes for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Career CFO$ ...

* Company of Thieves *

The Crash Motive The Crash Motive was an American Rock music, rock band on the record label Wind-Up Records. The band consisted of five members who met at the University of Delaware. The band was formerly known as Omnisoul. Biography Omnisoul started with singe ...

* The Darkness *

Ditch Witch Ditch Witch, a trade name of Charles Machine Works, is an American brand of underground utility construction equipment, which has been in operation since 1949. It is the leading subsidiary of Charles Machine Works, headquartered in Perry, Okl ...

The Drowners "The Drowners" is the debut single of English rock band Suede, released on 11 May 1992 on Nude Records. It was later included on the band's debut album, ''Suede'' (1993). "The Drowners" charted at number 49 on the UK Singles Chart. Background T ...

Drowning Pool Drowning Pool is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Dallas, Texas, in 1996. The band was named after the 1975 film ''The Drowning Pool (film), The Drowning Pool''. Since its formation, the band has consisted of guitarist C.J. Pierce, ...

* Dust for Life * Edgewater *

Emily Osment Emily Jordan Osment (born March 10, 1992) is an American actress, singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Osment began her career as a child actress, appearing in numerous television shows and films, before co-starring as Gerti ...

The Exit The Exit was a New York City-based band indie/post-punk/reggae group, formed in 2000. The band's music blended 1980s dub and reggae with 1990s punk and indie rock. The band's members included Ben Brewer on lead guitar and vocals, and Gunnar Olsen ...

* Godplow *

Hawthorne Heights Hawthorne Heights, formerly A Day in the Life, is an American rock band from Dayton, Ohio, formed in 2001. Their lineup currently consists of JT Woodruff (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Matt Ridenour (bass guitar, backing vocals), Mark McMillon (l ...

* It's Alive *

James Durbin __NOTOC__ James Durbin FBA (30 June 1923 – 23 June 2012) was a British statistician and econometrician, known particularly for his work on time series analysis and serial correlation. Education The son of a greengrocer, Durbin was born in W ...

Jeremy Fisher Jeremy Fisher (born Jeremy Binns; December 15, 1976) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Fisher is based in Ottawa, Ontario, and was previously based on Vancouver Island, B.C., Montreal, Quebec, and in Seattle, Washington, US. Fisher's work is hea ...

* John's Black Dirt * Julia Darling * Loomis * Megan McCauley * Midnight Cinema * Must * New Radiant Storm King *

O.A.R. O.A.R. (short for Of A Revolution) is an American rock band, founded in 1996 in Rockville, Maryland. The band consists of lead vocalist/guitarist Marc Roberge, drummer Chris Culos, guitarist Richard On, bassist Benj Gershman, saxophonist/guitar ...

* Papercut Massacre *

People in Planes People in Planes were a Welsh alternative rock band from Porthcawl, active from 1998 to 2013. They were signed to Wind-up Records. Prior to 2003, they were known as Tetra Splendour (during which time they moved to Cardiff), and before that, they ...

Pilot Speed Pilot Speed (formerly known as Pilate) was a Canadian rock band, who were active in the early 2000s.Gerry Krochak, "Pilate strives for sincerity". ''Regina Leader-Post'', October 23, 2003. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the band consisted of vocalis ...

Pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

Push Play Push Play was an American pop/rock band formed on Long Island, New York, in 2006. The band consisted of CJ Baran (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards), Steve Scarola (lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Nick DeTurris (bass) and Derek Ri ...

* The Queen Killing Kings *

Scott Stapp Scott Stapp (born Anthony Scott Flippen, August 8, 1973) is an American singer, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Creed. He has also fronted the band Art of Anarchy and has released three solo albums: '' The Great Di ...

Seven Wiser Fallzone (formerly Seven Wiser) is a four-piece American alternative rock band from Jersey City, New Jersey. History As Seven Wiser Seven Wiser was founded in 2002 by producer/songwriter Sandy Thomas, Andrew Sbarra, and frontman Jon Santo ...

* Slowpoke *

Stars of Track and Field Stars of Track and Field was a three-piece indie rock band from Portland, Oregon that was active from 2003 to 2011. They were named after the song "The Stars of Track and Field" by Belle and Sebastian, from the 1996 album ''If You're Feeling Sinis ...

* Stefy *

Stereo Fuse Stereo Fuse is a post-grunge band from Dallas, Texas. Stereo Fuse was formed in 2000 after guitarist Jeff Quay and drummer Chad Jenkins were forced to disband their previous group. The two left their former lead singer after a show in Atlanta in ...

Strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

* Stretch Princess *

Submersed Submersed (sometimes typeset as SubmerseD) is an American rock band from Stephenville, Texas. They first disbanded in 2008, reuniting in late 2021, early 2022. History Submersed was signed to Wind-up Records, and worked with Alter Bridge gu ...

Tickle Me Pink Tickle Me Pink was an American rock band from Fort Collins, Colorado, signed to Wind-Up Records. The band was made up of Sean Kennedy (lead vocals, bass guitar), Stefan Runstrom (drums), Joey Barba (guitar) and Steven Beck (guitar, vocals). Afte ...

Thriving Ivory Thriving Ivory was an American rock band based in the San Francisco Bay area. They released their self-titled Wind-up Records debut album on June 24, 2008. The debut album reached number 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart on the strength of th ...

* Trickside *

The Wrens The Wrens were an American indie rock band from New Jersey. The group consisted of Charles Bissell (guitar/vocals), brothers Greg Whelan (guitar/vocals) and Kevin Whelan (bass/vocals), and Jerry MacDonald (drums). They released three albums; a fo ...

Soundtracks

* ''

1080° Avalanche ''1080° Avalanche'' is a snowboarding video game for the GameCube, developed by Nintendo's in-house development studio, Nintendo Software Technology, and published by Nintendo. It was released in 2003 in Europe and North America, and in Japan o ...

'' (video game) * '' Daredevil: The Album'' * '' Elektra: The Album'' * '' Fantastic 4: The Album'' * ''

John Tucker Must Die ''John Tucker Must Die'' is a 2006 teen comedy film directed by Betty Thomas. The film is about a trio of teenage girls who plot to break the heart of school basketball star John Tucker after they learn he has been secretly dating all three and p ...

'' * '' The Punisher: The Album'' * '' Scream 3: The Album'' * '' Walk the Line: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack''

References

External links

Official site

{{Authority control American record labels Record labels established in 1997 Sony Music