The Orchard Expands to Video

Filed in archive Companies on January 20, 2006

The Orchard is one of the largest distributors of independent music. Founded in 1997, the company counts over 700,000 songs in its catalog and sells through 125 digital music stores and 200 mobile phone carriers globally.

The trend of digital music stores and distributors expanding to video was popularized by Apple and will only grow. It's a natural extension of the digital environment where it's just another kind of file to list.

From the press release: "In addition to a treasure trove of music videos sourced from the thousands of independent labels which The Orchard represents, The Orchard's additional video content partners at launch include C3 ("Three Stooges" TV episodes), Troma Entertainment, ("The Toxic Avenger" films, "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "Cannibal the Musical", and a number of other B-Movie classics), the largest and best catalogue of karaoke videos from Sound Choice, and Acrobat's catalogue of new British indie bands, early live jazz videos, classic sports footage and cartoons. Similar to what The Orchard has accomplished in the digital music space, it will aggressively market and merchandise video content wherever it's sold digitally-including new and emerging video stores from iTunes, Google, MusicNet and Yahoo! as well as video-for-mobile-devices including 3 and MobileStreams."