Musictoday is an entertainment marketing company located in

Crozet, Virginia Crozet is a census-designated place (CDP) in Albemarle County, Virginia, Albemarle County in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It sits along the Interstate 64 in Virginia, I-64 corridor, about west of Charlot ...

, near

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...

. It was founded and run by

Coran Capshaw Robert Coran Capshaw is an American music industry executive and entrepreneur. He is the manager of Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Lady A, Trey Anastasio and Chris Stapleton among others. Capshaw founded Red Light Management and co-founded ATO Recor ...

, the manager of

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known by the initials DMB) is an American rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991. The band's founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and bac ...

. Musictoday is a pioneer in pre sales of concert tickets, by starting

fan clubs A fans club is an organized group of fans, generally of a celebrity. Most fans clubs are run by fans who devote considerable time and resources to support them. There are also "official" fan clubs that are run by someone associated with the per ...

for hundreds of artists. Musictoday's first fan club was Dave Matthews Band's Warehouse Fan Association.

Business model

Capshaw's business model is that of bands like the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

and

Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band is known for musical improvisation, extended jams, blending of genres, and a dedicated fan base. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon ...

, who ran mail order presales of their concert tickets to their biggest fans. Most mail orders involved fans mailing in forms, money orders, and return postage in the event the order could not be filled. In 2005, Musictoday became the official in-arena merchandise vendor for

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

. On August 1, 2006, it was announced that Musictoday was sold to major concert promoter

Live Nation Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertainme ...

. Musictoday became a division of Live Nation subsidiary

Ticketmaster Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Entert ...

until 2014, when the merchandise e-commerce division was sold to Delivery Agent, a multi-channel e-commerce provider focused on television. In 2017, founder

re-acquired Musictoday following the bankruptcy of Delivery Agent. Musictoday is the sole-source fulfillment contractor tasked with the distribution of products manufactured and marketed by Zappa.com. A company selling CDs, films, and various ephemera related to the late musician and composer

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

, Zappa.com is owned and operated by Zappa's son,

Ahmet Zappa Ahmet Emuukha Rodan Zappa (born May 15, 1974) is an American musician and writer, and trustee of the Zappa Family Trust. Early life Ahmet Zappa was born in Los Angeles, California, the third of four children born to musician Frank Zappa and b ...

. Music Today is also responsible for producing apparel for the group known as

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

as well as the musical collective

Postmodern Jukebox Postmodern Jukebox, also widely known by the initialism PMJ, is a rotating musical collective founded by arranger and pianist Scott Bradlee in 2011. PMJ is known for reworking popular modern music into different vintage genres, especially early ...

References

External links

Musictoday official website
fastcompany.com Companies based in Virginia {{marketing-stub