Wind-up Records and YouTube Enter Into Strategic Marketing Partnership

NEW YORK, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Wind-up Records announced today a marketing partnership with YouTube making many of its music videos available for streaming on the popular site. In addition, the label will enable fans to use pre-cleared tracks in their own video creations. YouTube and Wind-up will share revenue from advertising to be sold around Wind-up content.

Wind-up Records President Ed Vetri commented, "YouTube stands for user empowerment and what better way to engage fans of our music than to embrace their own creativity. When a user selects our artists' music as the soundtrack to their personal creation, it only builds a deeper and more meaningful relationship between artist and fan."

"We are thrilled to work with Wind-up because they're a cutting-edge label with a fantastic roster of musicians," said Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-Founder of YouTube. "Wind-up sees value in uniting its artists with their video creator fans and we're pleased to be the platform that allows these audiences to come together."

Wind-up Records is able to execute this initiative through the support of the five publishing arms of its parent company Wind-up Entertainment. COO Jim Cooperman stated, "Our companies see the validity in supporting the changing landscape of how individuals are introduced to music, and we are pleased to be in a position to be among the first independent labels to formally allow users to choose our songs as the soundtrack to their lives."

This move validates YouTube's commitment to the independent sector of the record business to ensure its platform can continue to offer the breadth and quality of content that its users have come to expect.

Wind-up Records is home to a diverse group of artists which includes Evanescence, Seether, Finger Eleven as well as buzz bands such as People in Planes, Pilot Speed, Stars of Track and Field, Strata, and many others.

ABOUT WIND-UP RECORDS

Wind-up Records, a division of Wind-up Entertainment, is a privately owned company that was founded in March 1997. The label is currently the largest independently owned and operated label in the United States and is distributed by Sony / BMG Entertainment worldwide, excluding Canada where the company operates Wind-up Canada. The roster features Evanescence, whose worldwide sales have surpassed fifteen million copies; Seether, who have released three consecutive gold-certified albums; Finger Eleven, Scott Stapp and the entire Creed repertoire and approximately a dozen developing artists as well as hit soundtracks to feature films. Wind-up Entertainment also houses the publishing concerns Dwight Frye Music, Renfield Music Publishing, Wallachi Music Publishing, Jessop Music Publishing and Viovodes Music Publishing, in addition to Pronto, a full-scale retail, online and touring merchandising company. Recently, Wind-up Artist Development was launched with many of the developing artists signing on with four-tiered partnerships encompassing recording, publishing, merchandising and touring.