Launch began as a music magazine you put in your computer's CD-ROM drive. A former Capitol Records executive and a securities lawyer started it in 1994, and by 1999 it had moved onto the web at launch.com, with music videos, artist interviews and personal home pages for about a million registered users. Its pitch was Generation Y. When Launch went public in April 1999, it sold advertisers like Coca-Cola a direct line to teenagers.

From Capitol Records to the Web

David Goldberg left Capitol Records and cofounded Launch in February 1994 with Robert Roback, who had been practicing securities law in Chicago. The first Launch on CD-ROM shipped in May 1995. As connections got faster, the company moved its videos and features online. The bet was that young fans would spend hours with music on their computers, and that record labels and big brands would pay to reach them there.

Ninety Two Cents

Launch sold 3.4 million shares at $22 in April 1999 and listed on Nasdaq as LAUN. Then the dot-com market collapsed, ad budgets dried up, and record labels fought online music in court. In 2001 Yahoo bought Launch in a cash tender offer at 92 cents a share, and its streaming radio became part of Yahoo Music. Goldberg later became chief executive of SurveyMonkey.

Cover: Women and Children Viewing the Fireworks, Katsushika Hokusai. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for fireworks over a crowd (a launch).