Aegean Records

Aegean Records
Parent company	Nobby's Hobbies Holdings
Founded	1996
Founder	George Michael and Andros Georgiou
Status	Active Independent
Distributor(s)	Pinnacle Entertainment[1]
Genre	Pop R&B soul
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Official website	aegean.net

George Michael

Aegean Records was an independent record label founded by George Michael and Andros Georgiou in 1996.^[2] The label was set up after Michael broke from Sony Music after his court case, which he eventually lost.^[3] Andros Georgiou became the managing director of the label.^[4]

The artists either signed or previously signed to Aegean Records include:

• George Michael;^[5]
• Trigger;^[5]
• Primitiva;^[5]
• Joanna Bryant;^[1]
• Toby Bourke.^[5]

Georgiou and Michael founded Aegean Net Ltd on 15 November 1996,^[6] which was the internet business of Aegean Records. Michael and Georgiou were directors of the business, although Georgiou resigned as a director on 25 January 2000, he then became managing director of mezzmusic.com.^[7] In May 1997, Aegean became the first European record label to adopt the Liquid Audio secure electronic music-delivery system via www.aegean.net, which was launched one year before BowieNet,^[8] and 11 years before Spotify.

Aegean.net was the first artist-owned website to allow fans to:

• Chat with music artists (including Michael);
• Purchase merchandise;
• Purchase and download music (via Liquid Audio);
• Audio/video streaming (via RealVideo);
• Join the first online-only fan club;
• Receive news and updates from Michael and other Aegean Records artists.

See also

• List of record labels

References

1. Lorenz, Christian (22 February 1997). "Michael's Aegean Links with Pinnacle for U.K. Distribution". Billboard. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
2. "Hello! – Interview with Andreas Georgiou". Archived from the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
3. Smith, Giles (21 June 1994). "'Pop slave' George Michael to fight on". The Independent. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
4. Weigle, Lauren (14 December 2015). "James Kennedy's Parents Jacqueline & Andros Georgiou". Heavy. Archived from the original on 19 December 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
5. Frieser, Mark (31 December 2016). "A Tribute to George Michael, Dot-Com Visionary". SyncSummit. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
6. "Aegean Net Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
7. Poaletta, Michael (15 April 2000). "Web Co Mezzmusic Jumps Into Inferno With Joint Venture". Billboard. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
8. Stuart, Keith (11 January 2016). "BowieNet: how David Bowie's ISP foresaw the future of the internet". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 October 2017.

External links

• Archived website of aegean.net