David Benveniste
David "Beno" Benveniste | |
|---|---|
_Benveniste.jpeg) David "Beno" Benveniste, 2014 | |
| Born | |
| Alma mater | USC, (BA, Communications) |
| Occupation | CEO & owner of Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group |
| Website | velvethammer |
David "Beno" Benveniste is an American entrepreneur from Beverly Hills, California. He is CEO of Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group, which represents Grammy Award-winning musicians, including AFI, Alice in Chains, Deftones, System of a Down, and Code Orange; and which also includes a publishing branch and record label, to which OneRepublic is signed. Beno has also amassed a prolific collection of street art and pop art, and is an avid luxury real estate investor.
Early life and education
Beno attended Beverly Hills High School and graduated from Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.
Early career
In 1996, after seeing System of a Down (SOAD) perform at a rehearsal in Los Angeles, Beno took on managerial duties for the band. Through his use of new online marketing techniques and free online distribution, System of a Down realized worldwide online success.[1]
After working with System of a Down for a year, Beno founded Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group.[2] Velvet Hammer went on to include a publishing branch and record label, to which OneRepublic is signed.
StreetWise
Around the same time that Velvet Hammer was founded, Beno also founded digital marketing agency, StreetWise Concepts & Culture, which utilized Social media marketing, Interactive Marketing and Word-of-mouth marketing to connect brands with emerging trends in youth culture.[3] As the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) began filing hundreds of subpoenas for file sharing violations, Beno continued to share free music with fans both through physical mail and via the internet. "The first 100,000 albums are always the hardest to sell, and that's the expertise Beno provides," Rick Rubin was quoted as telling Time Magazine.[4]
Clients included ABC, Activision, Coca-Cola, Cold Stone Creamery, Electronic Arts, Fuel TV, Live Nation, Nielsen Entertainment, Nokia, Paramount Pictures, Subway, Ubisoft, Urban+Decay Cosmetics, Walt Disney Pictures, and Warner Brothers.
Awards
"Beno"
- RIAA Commemorative Award for certified Platinum Sales of the Capitol Records compact disk and cassette "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" by Radiohead. [5]
- RIAA Commemorative Award for certified Gold® Sales of more than 500,000 copies of the Virgin Records release of "Black Gives Way to Blue" by Alice in Chains.[6]
Velvet Hammer
- RIAA Commemorative Award for sales of more than 1,000,000 copies of the Maverick Records album "Around the Fur" by Deftones. [7]
- Sony/ATV and Velvet Hammer Music collaborated to publish the ASCAP award winning song "Apologize" by OneRepublic.
- RIAA Commemorative Award for the certified combined worldwide sales of more than 5,000,000 of the American Recordings/Columbia Records release of "Toxicity" by System of a Down.[8]
- RIAA Commemorative Award for the certified sales of more than 1,000,000 copies of the American Recordings/Columbia Records release of "Steal This Album!”[9]
Streetwise
- RIAA Commemorative Award for the certified sales of more than 10,000,000 copies of the La Face/Arista release of "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" by Outkast.
- 2010 Communication Arts: Pick of the Day for Tony Hawk™: Ride® Website.[10]
- 2009 American Design Awards: Monthly Design Contest Winner for Tony Hawk™: Ride® Website.[11]
- 2009 Interactive Media Awards: Best in Class – Gaming for Guitar Hero®: Aerosmith Website, as well as Best in Class – Gaming for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa the Video Game Website.[12]
- 2008 Davey Awards: Gold Award Winner for Guitar Hero®: Aerosmith® Website.[13]
- 2008 Webby Awards: Official honoree for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Online Community.[14]
- 2008 MI6 Awards: Most Clickable Website for a Product and Most Effective Attention Getters for Call of Duty 4.[15]
- 2008 American Business Awards: Stevie Award Finalist for I Am Legend Movie Website.[16]
- 2007 Interactive Media Awards: Best in Class – Movie/Film for I Am Legend Movie Website.[17]
- 2007 Summit International Awards: Leader in Emerging Media for CharlieOscarDelta.com (Call of Duty Website).[18]
- 2007 Interactive Media Awards: Outstanding Achievement – Marketing for CharlieOscarDelta.com (Call of Duty Website).[19]
- 2006 DFWIMA – EIMA Awards: Most Effective Marketing Program for Nokia Xpress™ Audio Messaging.[20]
References
- ^ Newman, Melinda (January 29, 2005). "'You are Never Going to See System of a Down On 'MTV Cribs'". Billboard. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
- ^ Houser, Kristin. "Interview with David "Beno" Benveniste". LA Music Blog. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
- ^ Newman, Melinda (January 29, 2005). "'You are Never Going to See System of a Down On 'MTV Cribs'". Billboard. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
- ^ Ressner, Jeffrey (July 23, 2001). "Search for a Perfect Pitch". Time. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
- ^ https://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?content_selector=gold-platinum-searchable-database#
- ^ https://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?content_selector=gold-platinum-searchable-database#
- ^ http://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?&artist=deftones
- ^ http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH#
- ^ http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH#
- ^ http://www.streetwise.com/Awards
- ^ http://www.streetwise.com/Awards
- ^ http://www.streetwise.com/Awards
- ^ https://www.daveyawards.com/winners/list/?l=S&event=4&category=4&award=G
- ^ http://www.streetwise.com/Awards
- ^ http://www.streetwise.com/Awards
- ^ http://www.streetwise.com/Awards
- ^ http://www.streetwise.com/Awards
- ^ http://www.streetwise.com/Awards
- ^ http://www.streetwise.com/Awards
- ^ http://www.streetwise.com/Awards