1988–1999: The early years Avex was registered June 1, 1973, as , although it did not become established until 1988. They began as a CD wholesaler based in
Machida, Tokyo. In September 1990, they opened a recording studio and created
Avex Trax as a music label. In the same year, they created "Musique Folio Inc.", a music publishing company, which became "Prime Direction Inc." In 1993, they transferred to
Aoyama, Tokyo and created a U.S. branch, called "AV Experience America Inc." The year also marked the first of Avex's yearly events. It was held in
Tokyo Dome under the name "avex rave '93" and attracted 50,000 attendees. This led to the creation of the
Cutting Edge label. In 1994, they formed two UK subsidiaries, "Rhythm Republic Limited" and "Avex U.K. Limited". Later that year, they opened a disco, claimed on their website to be "the world's largest scale disco", named
Velfarre. In 1997, they opened a series of concert halls called "
Zepp" with
Sony Music Entertainment Japan. In early 1999, they signed an agreement with
Walt Disney Records and
Hollywood Records (record labels both owned by
The Walt Disney Company) to handle the companies' Japanese CD releases, after WDC had taken a small stake in Avex the previous year. Later that year "Avex Mode", an animation company, was established. In December, the company was listed on the 1st section of the
Tokyo Stock Exchange under the
ticker symbol 7860.
2000–2009: Times of unity and divisiveness In 2001, Avex opened the "avex artists academy" music school. In 2002, they released the "
CCCD", a type of copy-protected CD, and opened their building in Aoyama, paid for by
Sumitomo Life and worth 205 billion yen. In 2003, they opened a classical music business (named Avex Classics). In January 2004, they began selling Japanese music CDs in South Korea. In December of that same year, President
Max Matsuura "spotted" former
idol Ami Suzuki performing live at the annual festival of their school,
Nihon University. He subsequently signed her to the Avex label. In 2005, Avex acquired distribution rights for
Aozora Records' catalogue including all future
Hitomi Yaida releases. In early 2008, Avex partnered with
Victor JVC to officially create the label
D-topia Entertainment as a business partnership between the labels and its founder, Terukado Onishi, with the
sales promotion handled by Victor while the area promotion handled by Avex. As part of the Avex Group's 20th anniversary celebration, a big project occurred with Avex Trax's "produced by Avex Trax" artists; the band
Girl Next Door, formed and debuted in September 2008. Avex Group launched its own
IPTV service,
BeeTV, May 2009 in partnership with
NTT DoCoMo.
2004: Internal feud: Max Matsuura v. Tom Yoda In August 2004, a feud between Max Matsuura and co-founder Tom Yoda affected the group. It started because of Yoda's ambition to expand Avex into other entertainment-related ventures, especially producing
movies. In addition, he accused
Ryuhei Chiba, the company's executive director and president of Avex Inc. (now Avex Planning and Development), of pursuing personal profit from a few big artists.
August 2: Matsuura and Chiba announced their resignations in a meeting with employees of Avex. Chiba denied any fault, while Matsuura complained that Avex had lost its love of music and said he wanted to start over. They had the support of many staff who also said they would quit. More significantly, the label's top star,
Ayumi Hamasaki, said she would leave.
August 3: Due to pressure by employees and artists and to save the company from bankruptcy, Yoda resigned and was replaced by Toshio Kobayashi.
2010–present AGHD is listed at the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange and
Börse München of Germany under the ticker symbol AX8. More K-pop artists from other agencies continued to sign with Avex such as
SM Entertainment's
TVXQ (2006),
YG Entertainment's
2NE1 (2010), S-plus Entertainment's
SS501 member
Kim Hyung Jun (2011),
Pledis Entertainment's
After School (2011), NH Media's
U-KISS (2011) and Yejeon Media's
Shu-I (2011). On July 21, 2011, it was announced that Avex had paired with Korean management label YG Entertainment to form YGEX. In 2012, the group began offering limited releases for sale, DRM-free for the first time within Japan on
Amazon MP3. Max Matsuura and Toshio Kobayashi, the company's top two individual shareholders, launched their own investment companies to anchor their shares in 2012. As a show of modernization, Avex Group moved to
Izumi Garden Tower in
Roppongi in October 2014. The company was designated to the 36th floor – the former address of
DWANGO. On February 15, 2017, Avex Group discontinued all foreign exports of Blu-rays, DVDs, and CDs published under their Avex Pictures label. A spokesperson said the action was taken due to unspecified rights issues.
North American expansion, Avex Music Group In 2022, Avex made a renewed attempt to expand into North America. Avex USA Inc. opened in a rented five-bedroom
West Hollywood home, headed by Naoki Osada, an Avex employee with experience in the American music business. Avex leadership gave Osada five years to find success in the U.S. The home has been renovated to include four recording studios. The label has partnered with
Sony Music Publishing to administer its catalogue outside Japan. Osada ultimately worked with Avex for more than two decades prior to his departure, sometime in 2025, to start a new venture. In March 2025, Avex acquired S10 Publishing's catalog of songs. The company also made an additional investment in S10 Management. At the same time as the acquisition, Avex USA was consolidated under a new entity, Avex Music Group (AMG), and
Brandon Silverstein was named as its chief executive officer. He became a partner in the company, having been given an equity stake in AMG, and joined its board of directors. ==Subsidiaries==