Biography
Emily Richards is a passionate singer/songwriter/pianist based in San Diego with 11 self-released albums and over 3 million unique downloads, since her rise to the top of MP3.com’s pop/rock charts in 1999. Richards released her best of album 'One or Ten' in 2009. Featuring her sultry female vocals and the warm acoustics of piano, cello and accordion combined with electric guitars, ambience and beats, Richards will release her 12th album, Open, via ArtisTech Media in spring '10.
Emily’s road schedule has included 4 national tours and many highlights. Among the brightest were opening for Martina McBride during the Olympic Torch Across America celebration in Salt Lake City and being selected from 70,000 independent artists to headline the 50-city Club MP3.com Summer 2000 Tour sponsored by House of Blues. Summer ‘03, Hard Rock Café and RADD supported her west regional tour that included drunk driving presentations to high schools and colleges. For all ‘04, Emily toured with Rock the Vote and AWAKE Community using her music as voice of freedom and education as well as entertainment. In 2005 and 2006, Emily performed for the Congresional Stop DUI Caucus on Capitol Hill.
In late 2006, Richards joined breakbeat/alternative band, 2012AM, who headlined the National Biodiesel Conference '07, EarthDay '07, Burning Man '06, and EarthDance '08, to name a few. In 2009, Richards and guitarist Jason Brock opened for Melissa Etheridge and shared the stage with Rolling Stones keyboard player, Chuck Leavell, in addition to performing a private acoustic concert for the NBB Conference in San Francisco.
More important to Emily than all of her successes is her message. During the final leg of her MP3.com tour, Emily’s 19-year-old sister, Annie, lost her life to an impaired driver near her home in Utah. This tragedy reshaped Emily’s music and led her to form nonprofit AWAKE Community (www.awakecommunity.com) with Brock to focus on educating youth about personal responsibility through music and the arts.
Emily’s songs can be heard on commercial radio stations from her childhood home of Salt Lake City, Utah, to as far away as Dublin, Ireland and Bordeaux, France as well as on College Radio Stations across the US. Her music is available for purchase at Amazon, CDBaby, or iTunes.
Emily is co-founder and CEO of ArtisTech Media. She was a CPA for PricewaterhouseCoopers from 1993 to 2004 and served as the President of MP3tunes from 2004 to 2008.
