- CEO
- Frederick W. Field
- Full Time Employees
- 68
- Sector
- Technology
- Industry
- Media & Entertainment
- Address
- United States of America
- Business
- ARTISTdirect, Inc. (ARTD) operates as an online digital media entertainment company focused on music content and services for fans, artists, labels, and advertisers. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California, the company provides multimedia content including music news, artist profiles, album reviews, video and audio streams, exclusive interviews, and communities organized around shared music interests; music-related specialty commerce such as recorded music sales, merchandise from brands like Hurley, Dickies, and Ben Sherman, and digital music services; and historical databases like the Ultimate Band List covering over 600,000 artists, concerts, and labels, with affiliated sites including artistdirect.com, artistdirectinterviews.com, UBL.com, and Loserkids.com targeting alternative rock, punk, metal, and hard rock audiences. It previously operated iMUSIC as a label for distribution partnerships with established artists and hosted the ARTISTdirect Online Music Awards. Geographically, ARTISTdirect serves a primarily U.S.-based online audience with global reach through its network averaging millions of unique hits. In recent years, the company went private by filing Form 15 in 2009 to cease public financial reporting and major exchange trading, acquired MediaSentry in 2009 to bolster its copyright protection division alongside the earlier 2005 MediaDefender purchase, and had its business acquired by PSI Capital, Inc. in March 2015, marking its shift to private ownership with no reported major changes, partnerships, or operational expansions since.