Crunch – a corporate profile

Founded in March 1999 by leading figures in the UK dance and new media industries, Crunch is a premier source for exclusive digital downloads from the UK's leading independent record labels. Crunch Music also offers news, features and interactive community devoted to the UK alternative music scene. Based in London, UK, the home of the music industry, and with over 50% of its sales coming from outside the UK, Crunch provides global access to the best of this continually evolving music and lifestyle genre.

Crunch boasts a management team that includes its three original founders as well as other well-respected figures within the Internet and dance/alternative music industries. Recognising that business partnerships are key to long term success, Crunch's excellent heritage and extensive connections have enabled the company to forge a number of strategic partnerships with companies such as AOL Europe, Emusic.com, Netscape Online, Diamond Multimedia and Aloud.com.

Format and platform independent, Crunch currently hosts MP3 files of known artists, and DJs on a largely exclusive basis, enabling music fans to download individual tracks over the Internet. Crunch is also exploring partnerships that will enable music distribution in other format and through other media, offering record labels and artists access to even wider distribution at low costs. Crunch pays royalties to all parties from its music sales.

Crunch has agreements with 30 record labels including Pussyfoot Records, Nuphonic and Ultimate Dilemma, and exclusive rights to over 3000 tracks available for download in MP3. These tracks, available for purchase at 99p each, can be played back on the PC via a free, downloadable software player or on a portable hardware device. Hosted artists include high profile names such as Groove Armada, Les Rythmes Digitales, Howie B, and Bentley Rhythm Ace.

In addition to its growing catalogue of music content, Crunch is constantly expanding its content to include community and lifestyle material that will appeal to its global youth audience. Recently this has included streaming of live events such as the Notting Hill Carnival, music and artist reviews, sponsorship of the Howard Marks tour.

http://www.crunch.co.uk/