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David Benveniste
2014
Born	Beverly Hills, California
Alma mater	USC, (BA, Communications)
Occupations	CEO & owner of Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group
Website	velvethammer.net

DavidBenveniste is an American entrepreneur from Beverly Hills, California. He is CEO and founder of Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group. Benveniste is also the co-creator of Sick New World Festival.

Contents

• Early life and education
• Career
• StreetWise
• Awards
• References
• External links

Early life and education

Benveniste attended Beverly Hills High School and graduated from Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.

Career

In 1996, after seeing System of a Down (SOAD) perform at a rehearsal in North Hollywood, Benveniste gradually took over managerial duties for the band. ^[1]

In 1997, Benveniste founded Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group. ^[2] Velvet Hammer also went on to include a publishing branch and record label, to which OneRepublic was signed.

Awards

• RIAA Commemorative Award for certified Platinum Sales of the Capitol Records compact disk and cassette "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" by Radiohead. ^[3]
• 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. ^[3]

Velvet Hammer

• RIAA Commemorative Award for sales of more than 1,000,000 copies of the Maverick Records album "Around the Fur" by Deftones. ^[4]
• 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. ^[3]
• 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!" ^[3]
• 6x Multi-Platinum Award, 5x Multi-Platinum Award, 2 3x Multi-Platinum Awards, 3 2x Multi-Platinum Awards, and 3 RIAA Gold Awards for System of a Down. ^[3]
• 5x RIAA Multi-Platinum Award, 4x RIAA Multi-Platinum Award, 2 3x RIAA Multi-Platinum Awards, 4 2x RIAA Multi-Platinum Award, and 9 RIAA Gold Awards for Alice in Chains. ^[3]
• 1 RIAA Gold Award and 3 RIAA Multi-Platinum Awards for Deftones. ^[3]
• 2 2x RIAA Multi-Platinum Awards, 9 RIAA Platinum Awards, and 1 RIAA Gold Award for Avenged Sevenfold. ^[3]
• 5x RIAA Multi-Platinum Award, 3x RIAA Multi-Platinum Award, 2x RIAA Multi-Platinum Award, 5 RIAA Multi-Platinum Awards, and 3 RIAA Gold Award for Korn. ^[3]
• 2 RIAA Multi-Platinum Awards for AFI. ^[3]

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. ^[5]
• 2009 American Design Awards: Monthly Design Contest Winner for Tony Hawk: Ride® Website. ^[5]
• 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. ^[5]
• 2008 Davey Awards: Gold Award Winner for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Website. ^[6]
• 2008 Webby Awards: Official honoree for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Online Community. ^[5]
• 2008 MI6 Awards: Most Clickable Website for a Product and Most Effective Attention Getters for Call of Duty 4. ^[5]
• 2008 American Business Awards: Stevie Award Finalist for I Am Legend Movie Website. ^[5]
• 2007 Interactive Media Awards: Best in Class – Movie/Film for I Am Legend Movie Website. ^[5]
• 2007 Summit International Awards: Leader in Emerging Media for CharlieOscarDelta.com (Call of Duty Website). ^[5]
• 2007 Interactive Media Awards: Outstanding Achievement – Marketing for CharlieOscarDelta.com (Call of Duty Website). ^[5]
• 2006 DFWIMA – EIMA Awards: Most Effective Marketing Program for Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging. ^[5]

References

External links

• Velvet Hammer official site