David Benveniste

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 artists such as System of a Down, Korn, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Deftones, along with AFI, Alice in Chains, Code Orange, and more. VHMGMT also includes a publishing branch and record label, to which OneRepublic is signed. Beno has amassed a prolific collection of street art and pop art, and is a luxury real estate investor.[1]

David "Beno" Benveniste
David "Beno" Benveniste, 2014
Born
Beverly Hills, California
Alma materUSC, (BA, Communications)
OccupationCEO & owner of Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group
Websitevelvethammer.net

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.

As alma mater, Beno continues to give back to USC by speaking to students and challenging them to think beyond the current music industry business models. “When it comes to guest speakers at USC Thornton’s Music Industry program, Beno is definitely a headliner,” offers chairman of the Music Industry Program, Michael K. Garcia.

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.[2]

After working with System of a Down for a year, Beno founded Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group.[3] 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.[2] 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"

Velvet Hammer

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.[7]
  • 2009 American Design Awards: Monthly Design Contest Winner for Tony Hawk: Ride® Website.[7]
  • 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.[7]
  • 2008 Davey Awards: Gold Award Winner for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Website.[8]
  • 2008 Webby Awards: Official honoree for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Online Community.[7]
  • 2008 MI6 Awards: Most Clickable Website for a Product and Most Effective Attention Getters for Call of Duty 4.[7]
  • 2008 American Business Awards: Stevie Award Finalist for I Am Legend Movie Website.[7]
  • 2007 Interactive Media Awards: Best in Class – Movie/Film for I Am Legend Movie Website.[7]
  • 2007 Summit International Awards: Leader in Emerging Media for CharlieOscarDelta.com (Call of Duty Website).[7]
  • 2007 Interactive Media Awards: Outstanding Achievement – Marketing for CharlieOscarDelta.com (Call of Duty Website).[7]
  • 2006 DFWIMA – EIMA Awards: Most Effective Marketing Program for Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging.[7]

References
  1. Abkowitz, Alyssa (July 25, 2013). "Everything and the Kitchen Sink". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  2. Newman, Melinda (January 29, 2005). "'You are Never Going to See System of a Down On 'MTV Cribs'". Billboard. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
  3. Houser, Kristin. "Interview with David "Beno" Benveniste". LA Music Blog. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
  4. Ressner, Jeffrey (July 23, 2001). "Search for a Perfect Pitch". Time. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  5. "Gold & Platinum". RIAA.
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 17, 2012. Retrieved September 1, 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 2, 2016. Retrieved October 30, 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "Davey Awards - Winners List". daveyawards.com.
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