Available in English Website wolfgangsvault.com Founded 2002 | Headquarters United States Commercial Yes | |
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Owner Norton LLC, William Sagan Registration Free, premium membership avail | ||
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Wolfgang's Vault is a private music-focused company established in 2003 dedicated to the restoration and archiving of live concert recordings in audio and video format and the sale of music memorabilia. It began with the collection of the late promoter Bill Graham, and added multiple other music and memorabilia archives. It was called "the most important collection of rock memorabilia and recordings ever assembled in one business," by The Wall Street Journal, Dec 13, 2005.
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History
Wolfgang's Vault was started by William E. Sagan, who purchased a warehouse filled with Bill Graham Productions memoribilia in 2003, including taped concert recordings, for about $6 million. These materials had various owners after the death of Bill Graham, the concert promoter, in 1991. The name Wolfgang's Vault is inspired by Bill Graham's original name, Wolodia "Wolfgang" Grajonca.
The company launched its website in November 2003. Later that year, Wolfgang’s Vault released the BG Archive photography collection, and subsequently added collections called "vaults" for: vintage poster art, rock clothing, vintage audio concert recordings. The Video Vault was added in 2011. On August 7, 2012, Wolfgang's Vault announced to its free streaming service users, via email, that later converted to a subscription based model on August 8, 2012.
Music
Beginning in the late ‘60s, Graham recorded thousands of performances, which he stored on tapes in the basement of the Bill Graham Presents headquarters. Bill Sagan acquired these archives in 2003, and had the tapes restored and digitized for presentation on the Concert Vault of audio recordings. In February 2006, Wolfgang’s Vault launched Vault Radio to allow fans of the music to hear some of these recordings. In an article about Vault Radio, the Washington Times noted “lovers of classic rock will not find a better historical source for their favorite music anywhere on the Internet.”
In August 2012, the music archive became its own site, Concert Vault, hosting thousands of video and audio recordings and boasting the largest online archive of live music recordings. The membership based site includes a free trial period and provides paid members 2 free downloads hand-picked by the editors every week.
Radio France's "Un Jour Sur La Toile" named Wolfgang's Vault their #1 website of the year 2008.
PC Magazine named it one of the best five undiscovered music sites of the year in 2008.
MacWorld named the free iPhone app the world's best iPhone app of 2009.
Other properties
Legal issues
In 2006, some bands whose materials were being sold or streamed sued Sagan for infringement of rights, saying that the rights in the materials being brokered by Wolfgang's Vault belong to the artists themselves. Among the groups represented were Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Grateful Dead and Carlos Santana. In 2008, works by artists Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix that were owned by Wolfgang's Vault became available through an agreement between the company and Universal Music Group.