Wind-up Entertainment was an American independent record label founded by Alan and Diana Meltzer in 1997. It was based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

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

History

Wind-up Records was formed in 1997 by Alan Meltzer, former owner of CD One Stop, and his wife Diana Meltzer, 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

, Creed, Seether and

Finger Eleven Finger Eleven is a Canadian Rock music, 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 th ...

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

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 of The Faint, Ben Armstrong of Head of Femur and Robb Nansel, executive producer of the i ...

. 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 il ...

, Jillette Johnson,

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, 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 recen ...

, The Revivalists,

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 No ...

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 and Orthodox traditions. Her feast is on 3 January. Genevieve was born in Nanterre a ...

and Aranda. In September 2009, the label reached an agreement with EMI Music 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 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 corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

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 Seether. These artists will be distributed by Concord Music Group, 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, Concord's reissue label.

Artist roster

Final roster

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

* Jillette Johnson * The Revivalists - transferred to Razor & Tie * 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 Billbo ...

* Young Guns * The Virginmarys

Previous artists

* 12 Stones *

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 ba ...

* American Pearl *

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 ...

* 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 first season of '' The Bachelorette'' and later, appeared a ...

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 * Brainiac * 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 * Creed * The Darkness * Ditch Witch * The Drowners * Drowning Pool * 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 Olse ...

* 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 ( ...

* It's Alive * James Durbin *

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. * Papercut Massacre * People in Planes *

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 * Push Play * 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 D ...

* Seether * Seven Wiser * 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 * Strata * 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'' (video game) * '' Daredevil: The Album'' * '' Elektra: The Album'' * '' Fantastic 4: The Album'' * '' John Tucker Must Die'' * '' 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