Name	Billy Ray Cyrus
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	William Ray Cyrus
Born	August 25, 1961Flatwoods, Kentucky, U.S.
Origin	Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano
Genre	Country, country pop
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, actor, producer, philanthropist
Years active	1980–present (singer)1995–present (actor)
Label	Mercury, Monument, Madacy, Word/Curb/Warner Bros., New Door/UMe, Walt Disney, Lyric Street, Buena Vista
Associated acts	Miley Cyrus, Trace Cyrus, Dolly Parton, Adam Gregory, Mark Collie, Jeffrey Steele, Brother Clyde, Noah Cyrus
Website	Official site }}

William "Billy" Ray Cyrus (born August 25, 1961) is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor and philanthropist, who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. Having released twelve studio albums and forty-four singles since 1992, he is best known for his Number One single "Achy Breaky Heart", which became the first single ever to achieve triple Platinum status in Australia. It was also the best-selling single in the same country in 1992. Thanks to the video of this hit, the linedance catapulted into the mainstream, becoming a worldwide craze. Cyrus, a multi-platinum selling recording artist, has scored a total of eight top-ten singles on the Billboard Country Songs chart. His most successful album to date is the debut of ''Some Gave All'', which has been certified 9× Multi-Platinum in the United States and is the longest time spent by a debut artist at Number One on the Billboard 200 (17 consecutive weeks) and most consecutive chart-topping weeks in the SoundScan era. It's the only album (from any genre) in the SoundScan era to log 17 consecutive weeks at Number One and is also the top-ranking debut album by a male country artist. It ranked 43 weeks in the top 10, a total topped by only one country album in history, ''Ropin' The Wind'' by Garth Brooks. ''Some Gave All'' was also the first debut album to enter at the number 1 in the Billboard Country Albums. The album has also sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and is the Best-selling debut album of all time for a solo male artist. ''Some Gave All'' was also the best-selling album of the 1992 in the US with 4,832,000 copies. In his career, he has released 35 charted singles, of which 15 charted in the Top 40.

From 2001 to 2004, Cyrus starred in the television show ''Doc''. The show was about a country doctor who moved from Montana to New York City. In late 2005, he began to co-star in the Disney Channel series ''Hannah Montana'' with his daughter Miley Cyrus.

Early life

William Ray Cyrus was born in Flatwoods, Kentucky to Ron Cyrus, a politician, and his wife, the former Ruth Ann Casto. His grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher. Growing up, he was surrounded by bluegrass and gospel music from his family. His father, a right-handed man, played guitar. Billy Ray, on the other hand, was left-handed. He tried to play his father's guitar, but could never learn. Cyrus attended Georgetown College on a baseball scholarship before switching his focus to music. During the 1980s, Cyrus played in the bar band Sly Dog before getting a record deal with Mercury Nashville Records.

Music career

The Mercury Records years

While trying to get a recording contract in Los Angeles, Cyrus was referred to as "too country" for LA, and "too rock" for Nashville. However, in 1990, he was signed to PolyGram/Mercury. Cyrus began to record and write music for his debut album, released in 1992.

''Some Gave All'' was released in 1992. The album became an instant chart and sales successor. It debuted at #1 on the ''Billboard'' Top Country Albums, ''Billboard'' 200, Canadian Country Albums chart, Canadian Albums Chart, and on the charts of several other foreign countries. The album featured four consecutive Top 40 singles on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart from 1992 to 1993; including an album cut, the title track. The most successful single released was "Achy Breaky Heart". It reached #1 on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and was also a hit on the pop charts, where it reached #4. Although the song was the only number one single, "Could've Been Me" reached #2, "Wher'm I Gonna Live?" reached #23, and "She's Not Cryin' Anymore" reached #6.

''Some Gave All'' was certified 9× Multi-Platinum in the United States in 1996, and has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

In 1993, Cyrus and Mercury Records quickly released Cyrus' second studio album, ''It Won't Be the Last''. The album featured four singles, however, only three made the Top 40. The album debuted at #1 on the Country charts, and #3 on the ''Billboard'' 200. By the end of the year, ''It Won't Be the Last'' was certified Platinum by the RIAA. The highest charting single, the lead-off single, "In the Heart of a Woman", charted to #3, with "Somebody New" charting to #9, "Words By Heart" at #12, and "Talk Some" at #63.

Cyrus' third studio album, ''Storm in the Heartland'', was released in 1994. The album was his final album he recorded for PolyGram, as they closed their doors in 1995. The album was not as successful as its preceders. It only reached #11 on the Country albums chart, and only the title track made the Top 40 of the Country singles chart. "Deja Blue" was the second single released, however, it only managed to chart to #66, and the third and final single, "One Last Thrill", failed to chart at all.

The album only managed to be certified Gold in the U.S. Before Cyrus started on his next album, he was transferred to Mercury Nashville.

Also in 1994, Cyrus contributed the song "Pictures Don’t Lie" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Cyrus' most critically acclaimed album was 1996's, ''Trail of Tears'' on Mercury Records. The album debuted at #20 on the Country chart when released. Only two songs made the cut to radio, although neither one hit the Top 60. The title track and "Three Little Words" were released reaching #69, and #65 respectively. The album failed to reach any certification, and was on and off the charts after only four weeks.

Mercury Nashville released ''Shot Full of Love'' in 1998. The album became his lowest-peaking album, debuting at #32. The first single, "Under the Hood", failed to chart, "Time for Letting Go" hit #70, "Busy Man" charted #3, and "I Give My Heart to You" reached #41. After the single fell from the charts, Cyrus left Mercury's roster and signed with Monument Records in 1999.

His debut album for Monument, ''Southern Rain'', was released in 2000. It debuted at #13 on the Country albums chart and #102 on the ''Billboard'' 200. Five singles were released and all five charted. The lead-off single, "You Won't Be Lonely Now", was the highest peaking single from the album, charting to #17. Other singles include "We the People" (#60), "Burn Down the Trailer Park" (#43), "Crazy 'Bout You Baby" (#58), and the title track (#45).

Move to Christian music

After the singles from ''Southern Rain'' finished their chart runs, Cyrus began to record two Christian albums. Both albums, ''Time Flies'' and ''The Other Side'', were released in 2003. The first album debuted and peaked at a low #56 on the Country album charts. Three singles were released, however, only the final single charted. "Bread Alone", "What Else Is There", and "Back to Memphis" were released, where "Back to Memphis" charted to #60.

The second Christian album, ''The Other Side'', was recorded while Cyrus filmed his PAX series, ''Doc''. It debuted at #5 on the Top Christian Albums chart, #18 Top Country Albums, and #131 on Billboard 200. Two of three singles charted, "Face of God" (#54) and "The Other Side" (#45), while "Always Sixteen" failed to chart at all.

Disney Entertainment

The album ''Wanna Be Your Joe'' was Billy Ray's first country album since 2000s ''Southern Rain''. As with its preceding albums, it too, was recorded on a new record label: New Door/UMe Records. It was released while Cyrus was filming the show ''Hannah Montana''. ''Wanna Be Your Joe'' made it to #24 on the Country charts and #113 on the all-genre charts. The album initially sold well, but no hit-single was released. The title track was released as the first single, and was followed by "I Want My Mullet Back", both of which were ignored by country radio. Although not released as a single, a music video was made for the track "Stand", a duet with daughter Miley Cyrus.

Also in 2006, Billy Ray appeared with metal-rock group Metal Skool (now Steel Panther), and performed several songs including "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol, and the song "I Want My Mullet Back", which appears on ''Wanna Be Your Joe''.

He also sang "The Star Spangled Banner" at Game 5 of the 2006 World Series in St. Louis, Missouri.

Career re-launch

In mid-2007, Cyrus was a celebrity contestant on the 4th season of the show ''Dancing with the Stars''. Cyrus was partnered with Karina Smirnoff. As the show began to air, Cyrus was instantly a fan favorite. Cyrus and Smirnoff made it to the semi-finals where they finished in 5th place.

From his exposure on ''Dancing with the Stars'' and ''Hannah Montana'', his record label pushed up the release date a month in advance of his new album. ''Home at Last'' was released in July 2007 on Walt Disney Records. It debuted at #3 on the country charts, making it Cyrus' first Top 5 entry since ''It Won't Be the Last'' debuted at #1 in 1993. Beginning sales for the album were very strong, however, the album failed to be certified. The single, "Ready, Set, Don't Go", was initially released as a solo single. The solo version made it to #33 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

In October 2007, Cyrus and daughter Miley Cyrus, performed a duet version of the song on ''Dancing with the Stars''. The duet of the song debuted at #27 on the Country charts and eventually peaked at #4 in 2008; giving Billy Ray his first Top 5 single since "Busy Man" in 1999, as well as Miley's first Top 5 on any ''Billboard'' chart.

Cyrus was a part of the Disney collection, ''Country Sings Disney'' in 2008. Two of his songs, "Ready, Set, Don't Go" and the Sheryl Crow penned song, "Real Gone" appeared on the album. Billy Ray's version of "Real Gone" was also made into a music video that is in rotation on both CMT and GAC; the song also appears on ''Back to Tennessee''.

New label and newfound chart success

In late-2008, his website confirmed that a new studio album would be released by the end of the year from Lyric Street Records, entitled ''Back to Tennessee''. The album was originally planned to be released on October 21, 2008, but was pushed back to November 18. When the album was not released, it was announced for a January 13, 2009 release. The first single, "Somebody Said a Prayer", debuted at #53 in August 2008 and reached #33 in November of that year. On March 14, 2009, the albums title track debuted at #59 on the country singles chart and a month later on April 7, ''Back to Tennessee'' was released. The song only charted to #47 after 11 weeks. A third single, "A Good Day", debuted at #60 on the country charts for the chart week of September 5, 2009.

It was less successful in its first week out as ''Home at Last''. It only reached #13 on the charts and only sold approximately 14,000 copies in its opening week. The albums release date coincided with the release of ''Hannah Montana: The Movie''. The song "Back to Tennessee" was included on the movies soundtrack, as well as a duet with Miley Cyrus, entitled "Butterfly Fly Away". The latter song would peak at #56 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #50 and Canadian Hot 100.

On November 12, 2008, Billy Ray and Miley presented the "Song of the Year" award at the 42nd Annual Country Music Association Awards. Prior to the award show, both Billy Ray and Miley performed on ''Good Morning America''. In December 2008, Cyrus made a cameo in Metro Station's video, "Seventeen Forever".

Shortly after the chart debut of ''Back to Tennessee'''s third single, "A Good Day", Cyrus and Lyric Street Records parted ways after only one album.

Cyrus, Phil Vassar, Jeffrey Steele and John Waite then formed a new supergroup together in early 2009 called Brother Clyde. On Twitter, Cyrus confirmed the supergroup, saying they just cut the first single from the new album, ''Lately''.

On June 30, 2010. Cyrus released on his Facebook information about the new alternative rock group, Brother Clyde, with the old members substituted by Samantha Maloney, Jamie Miller, Dan Knight and Dave Henning. He also stated that their single, "Lately", was available on iTunes and that their debut album would be out on August 10, 2010.

Post-Brother Clyde

In late 2010, Cyrus suspended his activities in the band Brother Clyde, and announced the release of his new solo patriotic album, entitled ''I'm American''. Initially scheduled to be released in November 2010, it was pushed back to a May 24, 2011 release with a re-recording of "Some Gave All" that featured guest vocals from Darryl Worley, Jamey Johnson and Craig Morgan being released as the lead-off single. However, in April 2011, the single was changed to "Runway Lights". ''I'm American'' was released on June 28, 2011. A second single, "Nineteen", was released in August 2011. The song entered the Hot Country Songs chart for the week of October 8, 2011, where it debuted at number 58. It is Cyrus' first charted single since "A Good Day" in 2009.

Acting career

Cyrus starred in the 1999 independent film ''Radical Jack''. He also had a small part in David Lynch's 2001 film ''Mulholland Drive'' as Gene, a pool cleaner who had been having an affair with the wife of Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux). In 2001, Cyrus played the lead role on the PAX (now ION Television) comedy-drama ''Doc'', which became the network's highest-rated show. In 2005, Cyrus expanded his acting career in a stage production of ''Annie Get Your Gun'' in Toronto, appearing in the role of Frank Butler.

Cyrus' television credits include ''The Nanny'', ''Diagnosis Murder'', ''Love Boat, The Next Wave'', and TNN’s ''18 Wheels Of Justice''. In 2004, he guest-starred as a limo driver in the episode "The Power of Love" of the Canadian teen drama ''Degrassi: The Next Generation''. Cyrus has also been the subject of many television specials that detail his rise to fame and his career. These include two ABC documentaries, ''Billy Ray Cyrus: Dreams Come True'' and ''Billy Ray Cyrus: A Year on the Road'', a VH1 exclusive, as well as the TNN specials ''I Give My Heart To You'', and ''The Life and Times of Billy Ray Cyrus''. In late 2005, Cyrus and his daughter Miley Cyrus began co-starring in the Disney Channel original television series, ''Hannah Montana,'' which premiered on March 24, 2006.

In March 2007, Cyrus joined several other celebrities to take part in the fourth season of the US version of ''Dancing with the Stars''. He and his partner Karina Smirnoff, were eliminated in the eighth week (May 8, 2007) after having also placed in the "bottom two" the week before.

Cyrus also starred in Jackie Chan's movie ''The Spy Next Door''. It was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico and released in January 2010.

Cyrus sits on the advisory board of the Parents Television Council.

In 2010, it was announced that he and his son Trace Cyrus would take part in a new Syfy reality series called ''UFO: Unbelievably Freakin' Obvious''.

Personal life

From 1986 to 1991, Cyrus was married to Cindy Smith, with whom he co-wrote the songs "Wher'm I Gonna Live?" and "Some Gave All", both of which were featured on his 1992 debut album ''Some Gave All''.

On December 28, 1993, he married Leticia "Tish" Cyrus, née Finley. Together they have three children: daughters Miley Ray (born Destiny Hope in 1992) and Noah Lindsey (born 2000), and son Braison Chance (born 1994). He also has two adopted stepchildren from Finley's previous marriage, Trace (born 1989), now a singer/guitarist for Metro Station, and Brandi (born 1987), as well as a son, Christopher Cody (born 1992), from a previous relationship with Kristin Luckey, who raised him in South Carolina. Cyrus adopted Brandi and Trace when they were young children. In a 2004 interview on ''ABC News: Primetime'', Cyrus stated that daughter Miley (conceived with Finley) and son Christopher (conceived with Luckey) were both born in 1992, at which time Cyrus was unmarried, and that his marriage to Finley the following year when she was pregnant with their son was secret and against his record company's advice.

The family lived on a farm in Thompson's Station, outside of Nashville, Tennessee before moving to Los Angeles for the filming of ''Hannah Montana''. Cyrus' other daughter Brandi had a role in a ''Hannah Montana'' episode "Yet Another Side of Me" as Customer #1 and in the season 4 episode "Been Here All Along" as the Guitarist during the military tribute.

On October 26, 2010, Cyrus filed for divorce from his wife in Tennessee, citing irreconcilable differences. In a statement made to ''People'' the next day announcing the split, the couple said, "As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for our family... We are trying to work through some personal matters. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers." However, on March 18, 2011, Cyrus announced on ''The View'' that he had dropped the divorce.

Awards and nominations

Discography

;Studio albums

''Some Gave All'' (1992)

''It Won't Be the Last'' (1993)

''Storm in the Heartland'' (1994)

''Trail of Tears'' (1996)

''Shot Full of Love'' (1998)

''Southern Rain'' (2000)

''Time Flies'' (2003)

''The Other Side'' (2003)

''Wanna Be Your Joe'' (2006)

''Home at Last'' (2007)

''Back to Tennessee'' (2009)

''I'm American'' (2011)

;Compilation albums

''Heartland Live'' (Remix album) (1993)

''The Best of Billy Ray Cyrus: Cover to Cover'' (1997)

''Achy Breaky Heart'' (2001)

''20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection'' (2003)

''The Definitive Collection'' (2004)

''The Collection'' (2005)

''Love Songs'' (2008)

''iTunes Live from London'' (EP) (2009)

''The Best of Billy Ray Cyrus'' (2009)

''Icon'' (2011)

Filmography

+ Film	! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2001	''Radical Jack''	Jack
2002		Gene
2002	''Wish You Were Dead''	Dean Longo
2004	''Death and Texas''	Spoade Perkins
2004	''Elvis Has Left the Building''	Hank (uncredited)
2008	''Bait Shop''	Hot Rod Johnson
2008		Himself
2009	''Flying By''	George Barron	Direct-to-video
2009	''Hannah Montana: The Movie''	Robby Ray Stewart	Also producerRazzie Award for Worst Supporting ActorNominated — American Music Award for Favorite Soundtrack
2009	''Christmas in Canaan''	Daniel Burton
2010	''The Spy Next Door''	Colton James	Nominated — Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor
2011	''Billy Ray Cyrus: I'm American''	Himself	TV movie
2011	''Craptastic''	Radical Jack	''post-production''
2011	''Christmas Returns to Canaan''	Daniel Burton	''pre-production''

+Television	! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1995	''The Nanny''	Himself	1 episode; "A Kiss Is Just a Kiss"
1997	''Diagnosis Murder''	Himself	1 episode; "Murder, Country Style"
1999	''The Love Boat: The Next Wave''	Lasso Larry Larsen	1 episode; "Divorce, Downbeat and Distemper"
2000	''18 Wheels of Justice''	Henry Conners	1 episode; "Games of Chance"
2001		Dr. Clint Cassidy
2002	''Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye''	Dr. Clint Cassidy	1 episode; "Pilot"
2003	''Degrassi: The Next Generation''	Limo driver, Duke	1 episode; "The Power of Love"
2006	''Hannah Montana''	Robby Ray Stewart
2007	''Billy Ray Cyrus: Home at Last''	Himself	4 episodes
2007		Himself, contestant	17 episodes
2008	''Hillbilly: The Real Story	Host	Special featured on the History Channel
2008	''Nashville Star''	Host	9 episodes
2008	''Phineas and Ferb''	Buck Buckerson	1 episode; "It's a Mud, Mud, Mud, Mud World"
2011	''Full Throttle Saloon''	Himself	1 episode; "Episode 2.3"
2011	''Surprise Homecoming''	Host
2011	''When Pop Culture Saved America: A 9-11 Story''	Himself	TV documentary
2011		Judd Ridge

See also

List of best-selling albums in the United States

List of country music performers

List of number-one hits (United States)

References

Further reading

Kingsbury, Paul. (1998). "Billy Ray Cyrus". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 123–4.

External links

Billy Ray Cyrus at CMT.com

Archive of Original site.

Category:1961 births Category:Actors from Kentucky Category:Actors from Tennessee Category:American Christians Category:American country singers Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American film actors Category:American male singers Category:American Pentecostals Category:American television actors Category:Baptists from the United States Category:Brother Clyde members Category:Georgetown College (Kentucky) alumni Category:Living people Category:Lyric Street Records artists Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Musicians from Kentucky Category:Musicians from Tennessee Category:Participants in American reality television series Category:People from Greenup County, Kentucky

ar:بيلي ري سايرس ca:Billy Ray Cyrus cs:Billy Ray Cyrus cy:Billy Ray Cyrus da:Billy Ray Cyrus de:Billy Ray Cyrus et:Billy Ray Cyrus es:Billy Ray Cyrus eu:Billy Ray Cyrus fa:بیلی ری سایرس fr:Billy Ray Cyrus hi:बिली रे साइरस id:Billy Ray Cyrus it:Billy Ray Cyrus he:בילי ריי סיירוס lv:Billijs Rejs Sairuss hu:Billy Ray Cyrus nl:Billy Ray Cyrus no:Billy Ray Cyrus pl:Billy Ray Cyrus pt:Billy Ray Cyrus ro:Billy Ray Cyrus ru:Сайрус, Билли Рэй simple:Billy Ray Cyrus sk:Billy Ray Cyrus sl:Billy Ray Cyrus fi:Billy Ray Cyrus sv:Billy Ray Cyrus te:బిల్లీ రే సైరస్ th:บิลลี เรย์ ไซรัส tr:Billy Ray Cyrus vi:Billy Ray Cyrus

name	Miley Cyrus
background	solo_singer
full name	Miley Ray Cyrus
birth name	Destiny Hope Cyrus
birth date	November 23, 1992
birth place
genre	Pop, pop rock, country pop, dance
occupation	Actress, author, entrepreneur, fashion designer, singer-songwriter, musician, dancer
instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano
years active	2001–present
label	Walt Disney, Hollywood
associated acts	Hannah Montana, Disney's Friends for Change, Billy Ray Cyrus
url	100pxSignature of Miley Cyrus.
notable instruments	}}

Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom ''Hannah Montana''. Cyrus recorded music for the soundtracks, ''Hannah Montana'' (2006) and ''Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus'' (2007), released by Walt Disney Records. With the success of the ''Hannah Montana'' franchise she established herself as a teen idol. In 2007, Cyrus signed to Hollywood Records to pursue a solo career. She embarked upon the Best of Both Worlds Tour the same year, in which she performed as both herself and in character as Hannah Montana. The tour was eventually turned into a high-grossing concert film entitled ''Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert'' (2008). In July 2008, Cyrus released her first solo album, ''Breakout'' (2008), which was commercially successful.

She began her foray into film by providing the voice of "Penny" in the animated film ''Bolt'' (2008). Cyrus earned a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for her performance of ''Bolt''s theme song, "I Thought I Lost You". She also reprised her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in ''Hannah Montana: The Movie'' (2009). The ''Hannah Montana: The Movie'' soundtrack introduced her to new audiences within country and adult contemporary markets.

She began to cultivate an adult image in 2009 with the release of ''The Time of Our Lives'' (2009), an extended play which presented a more mainstream pop sound, and by filming ''The Last Song'' (2010), a coming-of-age drama film. The former included Cyrus's best-selling single, "Party in the U.S.A." (2009). A studio album titled ''Can't Be Tamed'' was released in 2010 and presents a new dance-pop sound. The music video and lyrics of the album's lead single, "Can't Be Tamed", portrays a more sexualized image for the entertainer. Cyrus ranked number thirteen on ''Forbes'' 2010 Celebrity 100. In April 2011, Cyrus was named the 64th hottest woman in the world on ''Maxim'''s Hot 100. In May 2011, Cyrus was also named the 89th sexiest woman in the world on FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the world.

Early life

Cyrus was born on November 23, 1992 in Nashville, Tennessee to Letitia Jean "Tish" (née Finley) and country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Her parents named her Destiny Hope because they believed that she would accomplish great things with her life. They gave her the nickname "Smiley", which was later shortened to "Miley", because she smiled so often as a baby. Cyrus suffers from a mild heart condition causing tachycardia which, though not dangerous, is often bothersome.

Against the wishes of her father's record company, Cyrus's parents secretly married a year after Cyrus's birth on December 28, 1993. Tish had two children from a previous relationship: Trace and Brandi. Billy Ray adopted Trace and Brandi when they were young. She has a half-brother, Christopher Cody, Billy Ray's son from a brief relationship, born the same year as Miley; he grew up with his mother in South Carolina. Tish and Billy Ray had two more children, Braison and Noah. Cyrus's godmother is entertainer Dolly Parton. Cyrus was very close to her paternal grandfather, Democratic politician Ronald Ray Cyrus. Cyrus has paid her grandfather several tributes since his death in 2006, including eventually changing her middle name to "Ray". According to Cyrus's father, "A lot of people say Miley changed her name to Miley Ray because of Billy Ray, but that's not true. She did that in honor of my dad, because the two of them just loved each other to pieces."

Cyrus grew up on a farm in Franklin, Tennessee, approximately an hour away from Nashville, and attended Heritage Elementary School. She was raised Christian and was baptized in a Southern Baptist church prior to moving to Hollywood in 2005. She attended church regularly while growing up and wore a purity ring. Several of Cyrus's siblings also eventually entered the entertainment business: Trace became a vocalist and guitarist for the electronic pop band Metro Station, Noah became an actress, and Brandi became a guitarist.

Career

2001–05: Career beginnings

In 2001, when Cyrus was eight, she and her family moved to Toronto, Canada while her father filmed the television series ''Doc''. Cyrus said watching her father film the show inspired her to pursue acting. After Billy Ray took her to see a 2001 Mirvish production of ''Mamma Mia!'' at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Cyrus grabbed his arm and told him, "This is what I want to do, daddy. I want to be an actress." She began taking singing and acting classes at the Armstrong Acting Studio in Toronto. In her first role, Cyrus played a girl named Kylie on ''Doc''. In 2003, Cyrus was credited under her birth name for her role as "Young Ruthie" in Tim Burton's ''Big Fish''.

At age 11, Cyrus learned about the casting for what became ''Hannah Montana'', a Disney Channel children's television series about a school girl with a secret double life as a teen pop star. Cyrus sent in a tape auditioning for the show's best friend role, but received a call asking her to audition for the lead, "Chloe Stewart". After sending in a new tape and flying to Hollywood for further auditions, Cyrus was told that she was too young and too small for the part. However, her persistence and ability to sing in addition to act led the show's producers to invite her back for further auditions. Cyrus eventually received the lead, renamed "Miley Stewart" after herself, at the age of twelve. During this time, she also auditioned with Taylor Lautner for the feature film ''The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D'' and it came down to her and another actress, but Cyrus started doing ''Hannah Montana'' instead.

As Cyrus's career took off, Tish Cyrus made several critical decisions regarding her daughter's representation. She signed Cyrus with Mitchell Gossett, director of the youth division at Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty. Gossett, who specializes in creating child stars, had arranged for Cyrus's auditions for Hannah Montana and is credited with "discovering" her. For Cyrus's music career, Tish followed the advice of Dolly Parton, Cyrus's godmother and a singer herself, and signed Cyrus with Jason Morey of Morey Management Group. "Dolly said the Moreys are people you can trust around your daughter," Tish Cyrus recalls, "and she said they have good morals, which is not always the case in this business." According to trade magazine ''The Hollywood Reporter'', Parton's advice was "the best advice [Tish] could [have gotten] on who should rep her daughter." Tish also recruited Billy Ray's business manager to manage her daughter's finances. Tish herself continues to co-manage or produce many of Cyrus's career decisions. For her education, Cyrus enrolled at Options for Youth Charter Schools and studied with a private tutor on the set of her television show.

2006–07: ''Hannah Montana'' and ''Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus''

''Hannah Montana'' became an instant hit and propelled Cyrus to teen idol status, according to ''The Daily Telegraph''. The series premiered on March 26, 2006 to the largest audience ever for a Disney Channel show and soon became one of the highest-rated series on basic cable, elevating Cyrus's wealth and fame along with it. ''Time'' magazine reports that Cyrus's "phenom[enal]" success is due partially to her talent and partially to "Disney learning to use its vast, multimedia holdings" and market Cyrus and ''Hannah Montana'' appropriately. Cyrus eventually became the first artist to have deals in television, film, consumer products, and music within The Walt Disney Company.

Cyrus's first single was "The Best of Both Worlds", the theme song to ''Hannah Montana'', which was released on March 28, 2006. "The Best of Both Worlds" is credited to "Hannah Montana", the pop star Cyrus portrays on the series by the same name. As with other songs credited to Montana, Cyrus typically dressed as the character when performing the song live. Cyrus's first release under her own name was a cover of James Baskett's "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", released on April 4, 2006 on the fourth edition of ''DisneyMania''. Dressed as Hannah Montana, Cyrus opened for The Cheetah Girls on twenty dates of their The Party's Just Begun Tour, beginning on September 15, 2006. On October 24 of same year, Walt Disney Records released the first ''Hannah Montana'' soundtrack. Of the nine tracks on the soundtrack performed by Cyrus, eight were credited to "Hannah Montana" and one, a duet with her father titled "I Learned from You", was credited to Cyrus as herself. The album peaked at number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart.

The second season of ''Hannah Montana'' premiered on April 23, 2007, and ran until October 12, 2008. Cyrus signed a four-album deal with Disney-owned Hollywood Records and, on June 26, 2007, released a double-disc album. The first disc was the soundtrack to the second season of ''Hannah Montana'', while the second, titled ''Meet Miley Cyrus'', was Cyrus's debut album credited to her own name. The double-disc album peaked at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 and was later certified three times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). ''Meet Miley Cyrus'' generated "See You Again", Cyrus's first single to be released under her own name and her first top ten hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In Fall 2007, Cyrus launched her first tour, the Best of Both Worlds Tour, to promote ''Meet Miley Cyrus'' and the ''Hannah Montana'' soundtracks. With the Jonas Brothers, Aly & AJ, and Everlife as her opening acts, Cyrus toured from October 17, 2007 to January 31, 2008 with stops in the U.S. and Canada. Tickets sold out in minutes and were scalped for up to $2,500 and an average of $214, well above their $26–$65 face value. A Ticketmaster official commented, "Hell hath no fury like the parent of a child throwing a tantrum. People who have been in this business for a long time are watching what's happening, and they say there hasn't been a demand of this level or intensity since The Beatles or Elvis."

2008–09: ''Breakout'', transitions and film career launch

After the end of the ''Best of Both Worlds Tour'' in January 2008, Walt Disney Pictures released ''Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert'', a 3D concert film of the tour, on February 1, 2008 for what was expected to be a one-week run. The film earned over $31 million at the box-office and an average of $42,000 per theater, twice the expected total, convincing Disney executives to extend the release for an indefinite run. "We don't want to turn away kids from the theaters who couldn't get into the concerts," said Chuck Viane, Disney's chief of distribution. The film's soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records/Hollywood Records on March 11, 2008 and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200.

On July 22, 2008, Cyrus released her second studio album under her own name, entitled ''Breakout''. Cyrus said ''Breakout'' was inspired by "what's been going on in my life in the past year." Cyrus co-wrote eight out of twelve songs on the album. "Songwriting is what I really want to do with my life forever, [...] I just hope this record showcases that, more than anything, I'm a writer." The album debuted at #1 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart and its lead single, "7 Things", peaked at number 9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. She hosted the 2008 CMT Music Awards with her father in April and the 2008 Teen Choice Awards by herself in August. Cyrus provided the voice of Penny in the 2008 computer-animated film ''Bolt'', which was released on November 21, 2008 to critical acclaim. Cyrus also co-wrote and recorded the song "I Thought I Lost You" as a duet with John Travolta for the film, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. In September 2009, she participated in the charity single "Just Stand Up!" in support of the anti-cancer campaign ''Stand Up to Cancer'' and in the City of Hope Benefit Concert in support of cancer research and training programs. She also became involved in Disney's Friends for Change, an environmentalist group, for which she recorded the charity single "Send It On" along with several other Disney Channel stars.

Cyrus had already begun transitioning to a more grown-up image in late 2008, when her representatives negotiated a deal for novelist Nicholas Sparks to write the screenplay and novel basis for a film that would serve as a star vehicle for Cyrus by introducing her to audiences older than the young fans she had gained through ''Hannah Montana''. Sparks and co-writer Jeff Van Wie developed ''The Last Song''. It was important to Cyrus that she not be type cast as a singer: "I didn't want to be a singer in another film. I don't want to do that anymore. You have no idea how many musicals show up on my door. I want to do something a little more serious." In March 2009, Cyrus published ''Miles to Go'', a memoir co-written by Hilary Liftin chronicling her life through age sixteen. Cyrus starred as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in ''Hannah Montana: The Movie'', released April 10, 2009. Both the film and its soundtrack, which contained twelve songs performed by Cyrus, achieved commercial success. The soundtrack's lead single, "The Climb", became a Top 40 hit in twelve countries and introduced Cyrus to listeners outside her typical teen pop audience. Cyrus had considered ending ''Hannah Montana'' after its third season, which finished production on June 5, 2009, but Disney retained and exercised its option for a fourth season.

Production on ''The Last Song'' lasted from June 15, 2009 to August 18, 2009. In between, Cyrus launched the third ''Hannah Montana'' soundtrack, recorded the extended play ''The Time of Our Lives'', and released the EP's lead single, "Party in the U.S.A." Cyrus said ''The Time of Our Lives'' "is a transitioning album. [...] really to introduce people to what I want my next record to sound like and with time I will be able to do that a little more." "Party in the U.S.A." debuted at number two on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for her best-ever ranking on the chart. ''The Time of Our Lives'' was released in conjunction with a clothing line co-designed by Cyrus and Max Azria for Walmart.

From September 14, 2009 to December 29, 2010, Cyrus toured on her Wonder World Tour to promote ''Breakout'' and ''The Time of Our Lives''. On December 7, 2009, Cyrus performed for Queen Elizabeth II and numerous other members of the British Royal Family at the Royal Variety Performance in Blackpool, North West England.

2010–present: ''Can't Be Tamed'', focus on film career and fourth studio album

Production on the fourth and final season of ''Hannah Montana'' began on January 18, 2010. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Cyrus appeared on the charity singles "We Are the World: 25 for Haiti" and "Everybody Hurts". Her third studio album, ''Can't Be Tamed'', was released on June 21, 2010. The album's first single is the title track, "Can't Be Tamed". The single was released for sale on May 18, 2010 and entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number eight. Cyrus's costumes and dances while promoting ''Can't Be Tamed'' were also considerably more provocative than previous performances, arousing media criticism. After releasing the album, Cyrus intends to take a break from the music industry in order to focus on her film career. She commented, "I've not taken, like, acting lessons or anything, but it doesn't mean I don't need to because I'm sure I do [...] I'm probably going to go book an acting coach." Cyrus has also decided to opt out of college for the same reason, saying "I'm a firm believer that you can go back at any age you want, because my Grandma went back to college at 62 [...] For right now, I really want to focus on my career. I've worked hard to get to where I am now, and I want to enjoy it while it lasts."

Cyrus starred in ''The Last Song'', which was released on March 31, 2010, and received generally poor reviews, as did Cyrus's performance. Nonetheless, the film was commercially successful, grossing more than $88 million at the worldwide box office. According to box-office analyst Exhibitor Relations, the film marked "a successful transition to adult roles for Miley Cyrus." The fourth and final season of ''Hannah Montana'' began airing on Disney Channel on July 11, 2010 and was ended on January 16, 2011. Cyrus filmed two more films, ''LOL: Laughing Out Loud'' and ''So Undercover'' in 2010. In ''LOL'', a remake of a 2008 French teen comedy, Cyrus plays "a daughter who is involved with all the wrong kids, doing drugs, failing school, but [...whose] mother has her on this perfect pedestal" and says "[She] just fell in love with the story." Miley's character loses her virginity, smokes cannabis, gets wasted and kisses two girlfriends on the lips. She will also star in ''So Undercover'', an action comedy film. Cyrus will play the part of "a tough, street-smart private eye hired by the FBI to go undercover in a college sorority." She learned street fighting for the role.

Despite her earlier announcement that she'd be focusing more on acting in the future, in February 2011, Cyrus confirmed she had no films lineup and was going to go on tour. On April 29, 2011, Cyrus embarked on her international Gypsy Heart Tour in South America and ended the tour on July 2, 2011 in Australia. Cyrus hosted ''Saturday Night Live'' on March 5, 2011, where she performed in several sketches. She also sang a brief song about her several controversies, such as the bong incident, the photo of her friend and she eating a Twizzler, and the "pole dance" on a hotel pole at the Teen Choice Awards, stating "I'm sorry that I'm not perfect." In March 2011, father Billy Ray Cyrus confirmed on talk show, ''The View'', that Miley had been in talks with producer Dr. Luke on a new album. In July 2011, it was announced that she would record her fourth studio album and she has no plans to sign onto any other film projects. However, it was reported on August 2, 2011 by Contact Music that Cyrus has signed on to star in a comedy in which she plays a woman who broke a promise to God.

Earnings

In 2008, Cyrus earned $25 million, up from her earnings of $18 million in 2007, and was ranked number 35 on ''Forbes'' magazine's "Celebrity 100" list. ''Parade'' magazine reported she was the richest teenage celebrity and that her franchise would be worth approximately $1 billion by the end of the year. In 2009, ''Forbes'' ranked her #29 on the ''Celebrity 100'' and reported she had earned a total of $25 million. Then Cyrus got ranked number thirteen on ''Forbes'' 2010 Celebrity 100 ranking $48 million. From the $48 million she made between June 2009 to June 2010 made her the no. 4 highest earners under 30 and the youngest on the list. between June 2010 and June 2011, Cyrus earned $54 million.

From working on Hannah Montana, Cyrus got paid $15,000 per episode she did on the hit show, making her the 6th highest paid child star on television behind fellow Disney stars Dylan and Cole Sprouse and Keke Palmer with $20,000 for their shows. Also, she is behind friend and Disney star Selena Gomez that makes $25,000 per episode of her show, Nick star Miranda Cosgrove with $180,000 per episode of her show, and one time co-star Angus T. Jones that got paid $250,000 for each episode of his show. Though she had not got paid as much as other Disney stars,when she was 17 she was named #19 on the "Top 20 World's Richest Female Singers Of All Time" list with over $100 million in 5 years active throughout her career, which made her the youngest female artist on the list. In 2011, she was named #1 on the "Top 10 Richest Teens in Hollywood" with $120 million.

Personal life and image

In an interview, friend and actor Tyler Posey stated that he and Cyrus met on the set of the show Doc, and that they shared their first kiss on the show. He then stated that he and Cyrus dated for two years and then broke up when they were 11.

Cyrus told ''Seventeen'' magazine that she and Nick Jonas had dated for two years and "were in love", but were "fighting a lot" by the end. After the break-up, Cyrus says that she initially "rebell[ed] against everything Nick wanted me to be. And then I was like, I've got to be by myself for now, and just figure out who I really am."

In February 2008, Cyrus and her friend opened a YouTube account and began posting videos of what they called ''The Miley and Mandy Show.'' The show, described as a "YouTube hit," is said to be filmed for fun by Cyrus and Jiroux and to be entirely their work, with Cyrus and Jiroux editing the footage together.

With Cyrus's increased success came increased media attention. In a May 2008 interview with ''The Los Angeles Times'', Francois Navarre, the proprietor of the X17 photo agency, said Cyrus's market value had picked up considerably after the ''Vanity Fair'' photo controversy: "She's started to sell more. [...] It used to be $300, and now it's $2,000 for a picture." Estimates for a picture of the then-15 year old's first kiss ranged from $30,000 to $150,000. Navarre noted that Cyrus rarely behaved against her wholesome image or went out without a parent and stated, "She has people waiting for the moment she starts to be less traditional. [...] It's natural. Any teenager. But it's going to come very fast. [...] As soon as her mom lets her go out by herself. It's going to start to be interesting." ''Time'' magazine included her on the 2008 ''Time'' 100, the magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Her write-up was written by former child star Donny Osmond, who warned, "As an idol to tweens the world over, singer-actress Miley Cyrus, 15, is riding a huge tidal wave at the pinnacle of her career; this is as it should be. I hope she enjoys it. [...] Within three to five years, Miley will have to face adulthood. [...] As she does, she'll want to change her image, and that change will be met with adversity."

Cyrus celebrated her 16th birthday at Disneyland with a charity fundraiser for Youth Service America, a youth volunteer service organization.

At the end of 2009, ''Billboard'' magazine ranked Cyrus the fourth best-selling female artist and the fifth best-selling singer overall.

In June 2009, Cyrus ended her nine-month relationship with model Justin Gaston shortly before flying to Georgia to film ''The Last Song''. While filming later that month, Cyrus began dating her co-star in ''The Last Song'', Australian actor Liam Hemsworth. She later called him her "first serious boyfriend". In August 2010, it was confirmed that her relationship with Hemsworth had ended. Cyrus and Hemsworth were seen together a month later, and were reportedly back together. It was announced in early November that the couple had split again. On March 31, 2011, Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth have reportedly rekindled their relationship. On June 20, Cyrus confirmed in a interview on the DirtTv in Australia that she and Hemsworth are still rocking and still are together.

On October 26, 2010, less than a month before Cyrus's eighteenth birthday, her father Billy Ray Cyrus filed for divorce from her mother in Tennessee, citing irreconcilable differences. In a statement made to ''People'' the next day announcing the split, the couple said, "As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for our family... We are trying to work through some personal matters. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers." However, on March 18, 2011, Cyrus's father announced on ''The View'' that he had dropped the divorce.

Cyrus is the youngest recording artist ever with four #1 albums in less than 3 years.

In June 2011, Cyrus was named by the Rolling Stones magazine a queen of pop, she was named #8 based on album sales selling 2.027 million copies. also, she was named #7 based on digital tracks selling 14.763 million digital copies, #5 based on youtube views with 784,667,358 views, #12 based on radio airplay with 216 airplay's, #11 based on Billboard hot 100 appearances with 164.2 points, and #9 based on social networking with 14.9 million Facebook likes, and 1.4 million Twitter followers. lastly, she was named #6 based off the gross of her tours with 66.5 million dollars in grossing, #14 based off award wins, in this case the Teen Choice Awards did not count and only mainstream-awards counted such as the Grammy Awards and awards like that in the music category, #14 based on album reviews. out of all the rankings for the categories, she was name on the official "Queen of Pop" list at #8 behind Beyonce, Katy Perry, best friend Taylor Swift, her inspiration Britney Spears and many more. She also beat out Carrie Underwood, Nicki Minaj, Adele, Christina Aguilera, and many more.

Controversies

In December 2007, a brief controversy emerged when photos Cyrus had posted on her private MySpace account, depicting her and a female friend sharing a piece of licorice and "almost kissing", were spread across the internet, prompting rumors of lesbianism. Cyrus comments, "For me, I was like, That's two girls—it's not a big deal. But they got spread around. Like someone copied and pasted and said, Omigod, look at this, and blah blah blah."

In April 2008, several provocative images of Cyrus in her underwear and swimsuit were leaked onto the web by a teenager who hacked Cyrus's Gmail account. Cyrus described the images as "silly, inappropriate shots" and stated, "I am going to make mistakes and I am not perfect. I never intended for any of this to happen and I am truly sorry if I have disappointed anyone." On April 25, 2008, the televised entertainment program ''Entertainment Tonight'' reported that Cyrus, then 15, had posed topless for a photoshoot taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz for ''Vanity Fair.'' On April 29, 2008, ''The New York Times'' clarified that though the pictures left an impression that she was bare-breasted, Cyrus was wrapped in a bedsheet and was actually not topless. Some parents expressed outrage at the nature of the photograph, which a Disney spokesperson described as "a situation [that] was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines." Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide, was quoted by ''Portfolio'' magazine to have said, “For Miley Cyrus to be a 'good girl' is now a business decision for her. Parents have invested in her a godliness. If she violates that trust, she won't get it back." In response to the Internet circulation of the photo and ensuing media attention, Cyrus released a statement of apology on April 27, 2008: "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about." Leibovitz also released a statement: "I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful."

In May 2008, Gossett, Cyrus's longtime acting agent, left Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty for United Talent Agency, partially with the hope of "giving Cyrus the major-agency backing that would support a widening career", according to ''The Hollywood Reporter''. About a year later in June 2009, Cyrus left both Gossett and UTA, which had recently negotiated her deals for ''The Last Song'' and the fourth season of ''Hannah Montana'', and joined the Creative Artists Agency, which had already represented her for music. Nikki Finke, who broke the news, reported, "Is this fair to UTA? Of course not. But I hear the decision was made by Miley's mother Trish Cyrus".

Cyrus's performance of "Party in the U.S.A." at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards incited a media uproar, with some viewers criticizing Cyrus's provocative outfit and inclusion of a brief pole dance as inappropriate for her age, then sixteen, and for her young fans. Conversely, ''Newsday'' reported that her sexualization "has been coming for some time." Ian Drew, senior editor of ''US Weekly'', said, "She already has this risque image, so it really wasn't much of a stretch. That's how Britney [Spears] took off. She was the good girl gone bad, and it looks to be working for Miley as well." Cyrus was also criticized that year for dating Gaston, five years her senior, and for a photo displaying Cyrus and friends making "slant-eyed" expressions, which the Organization of Chinese Americans claimed was offensive to the Asian community. Cyrus apologized for the photo on her website, defending her actions and saying, "In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity! I was simply making a goofy face."

Later in 2010, TMZ released a video of Cyrus, then 16, giving Adam Shankman, producer of ''The Last Song'', a lap dance at the film's wrap party. Cyrus's father defended her actions, saying Miley was just "having fun" and that "it's what people her age do". Later that year in December, TMZ released a video of Cyrus, which took place five days after her 18th birthday at her Los Angeles home, in which she is seen smoking from a bong. She claimed she was smoking the psychoactive plant ''salvia divinorum'', although this has not been confirmed by anybody but Cyrus herself. Salvia is legal in the state of California, and Cyrus was of legal age at the time the video was shot. Cyrus's father expressed his sadness regarding the matter on Twitter, saying, "Sorry guys. I had no idea. Just saw this stuff for the first time myself. I'm so sad. There is much beyond my control right now".

Filmography

+ Films	! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2003	''Big Fish''	Young Ruthie	Film debut
2007	''High School Musical 2''	Girl at pool	Cameo
2008	''Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert''		3D Concert film
2008		Penny	Voice-over Role
2009	''Hannah Montana: The Movie''		Based on TV series
2010	''''	Veronica "Ronnie" Miller	Film adaption of book
2010	''Sex and the City 2''	Herself	Cameo
2011		Herself	Cameo
2011	''So Undercover''	Molly	Release: October 28, 2011
2011	''LOL: Laughing Out Loud''	Lola	Remake of French film
Late 2012	''Not Afraid''	Katy Harrison	''Filming''

+ Television	! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2001–2003		Kylie	Recurring role
2006–2011	''Hannah Montana''		Lead role
2006-2008	''Disney Channel Games''	Herself / Hannah Montana	Contestant, special performer
2006	''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody''	Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana	"That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana" (Season 2, Episode 20)
2006–2008	''Disney 365''	Herself	In 9 episodes, 2006–2008.
2007	''''	Celebrity Star (voice)	"Frog Prince" (Season 2, Episode 5)
2007–2008	''''	Yata (voice)	Recurring role
2008	''E! True Hollywood Story''	Herself	TV special Documentary
2009	''''	Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana
2011	''Saturday Night Live''	Herself	Host, March 5 episode.
2011		Herself	Back-to-school special.

Discography

Studio albums

''Meet Miley Cyrus'' (2007)

''Breakout'' (2008)

''Can't Be Tamed'' (2010)

Extended plays

''The Time of Our Lives'' (2009)

Tours

Best of Both Worlds Tour (2007–08)

Wonder World Tour (2009)

Gypsy Heart Tour (2011)

Awards and nominations

List of awards and nominations received by Miley Cyrus

References

Further reading

External links

Miley Cyrus at MTV

}} |- |- |- |- |- |-

Category:1992 births Category:Actors from Tennessee Category:American child actors Category:American child singers Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:21st-century actors Category:American pop singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:Bubblegum pop Category:Fascination Records artists Category:Hollywood Records artists Category:Living people Category:American pop singer-songwriters Category:Child rock musicians Category:Musicians from Tennessee Category:People from Franklin, Tennessee Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee Category:Southern Baptists

als:Miley Cyrus ar:مايلي سايرس gn:Miley Cyrus az:Mayli Sayrus bn:মাইলি সাইরাস bcl:Miley Cyrus bg:Майли Сайръс ca:Miley Cyrus cs:Miley Cyrusová cy:Miley Cyrus da:Miley Cyrus de:Miley Cyrus et:Miley Cyrus el:Μάιλι Σάιρους es:Miley Cyrus eo:Miley Cyrus eu:Miley Cyrus fa:مایلی سایرس fr:Miley Cyrus gl:Miley Cyrus gu:માઇલી સાઇરસ ko:마일리 사이러스 hy:Մայլի Սայրուս hi:माईली सायरस hr:Miley Cyrus ilo:Miley Cyrus id:Miley Cyrus is:Miley Cyrus it:Miley Cyrus he:מיילי סיירוס jv:Miley Cyrus ka:მაილი საირუსი lv:Mailija Sairusa lt:Miley Cyrus hu:Miley Cyrus mk:Мајли Сајрус mt:Miley Cyrus ms:Miley Cyrus mn:Майли Сайрус nl:Miley Cyrus ja:マイリー・サイラス no:Miley Cyrus nn:Miley Cyrus pl:Miley Cyrus pt:Miley Cyrus ksh:Miley Ray Cyrus ro:Miley Cyrus ru:Сайрус, Майли sq:Miley Cyrus simple:Miley Cyrus sk:Miley Cyrusová sl:Miley Cyrus sr:Мајли Сајрус sh:Miley Cyrus fi:Miley Cyrus sv:Miley Cyrus tl:Miley Cyrus ta:மைலே சைரஸ் th:ไมลีย์ ไซรัส tr:Miley Cyrus uk:Майлі Сайрус vi:Miley Cyrus war:Miley Cyrus yi:מיילי סיירוס zh:麥莉·希拉

name	AOL Inc.
logo
type	Public company
traded as
foundation	1983 as ''Control Video Corporation''1991 as America Online, Vienna, Virginia, U.S.2006 as AOL
Location city	New York City
Location country	US
area served	Worldwide
key people	Tim Armstrong(Chairman and CEO)
industry	InternetTelecommunicationMedia
homepage	AOL.com portal AOL.com Corporate site
revenue	US$ 2.417 billion (2010)
operating income	US$ -983 million (2010)
net income	US$ -783 million (2010)
assets	US$ 2.962 billion (2010)
equity	US$ 2.287 billion (2010)
num employees	5,860 (2010) }}

AOL Inc. (, stylized as "Aol.", and previously known as America Online) is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services. The AOL-Time Warner merger, was financially unsuccessful; this is largely attribute to the failure of the capitalist mindset to diffuse into the Internet.

AOL is best known for its online software suite, also called ''AOL'', that allowed customers to access the world's largest "walled garden" online community and eventually reach out to the Internet as a whole. At its prime, AOL's membership was over 30 million members worldwide, most of whom accessed the AOL service through the AOL software suite.

In 2000 AOL and Time Warner merged under the name AOL Time Warner. The merger was not fruitful and on May 28, 2009, AOL announced that it would spin off Time Warner into a separate public company. The spinoff occurred on December 9, 2009, ending the eight year relationship between the two companies.

Description

With regional branches around the world, the former American "goliath among Internet service providers" once had more than 30 million subscribers on several continents. It ranked fourth (behind the Web, e-mail, and graphic user interfaces) in a 2007 USA TODAY retrospective on the 25 events that shaped the first 25 years of the Internet and was named to the ".com 25" by a panel of Silicon Valley influencers on the occasion of the same anniversary.

In January 2000, AOL and Time Warner announced plans to merge. The terms of the deal called for AOL shareholders to own 55% of the new, combined company. The deal closed on January 11, 2001 after receiving regulatory approval from the FTC, the FCC, and the EU's COMP.

AOL Time Warner, Inc., as the company was then called, was led by executives from AOL, SBI, and Time Warner. Gerald Levin, who had served as CEO of Time Warner, was CEO of the new company. Steve Case served as Chairman, J. Michael Kelly (from AOL) was the Chief Financial Officer, Robert W. Pittman (from AOL) and Dick Parsons (from Time Warner) served as Co-Chief Operating Officers. The total value of AOL stock subsequently went from $226 billion to about $20 billion. Similarly, its customer base decreased to 10.1 million subscribers as of November 2007, just narrowly ahead of Comcast and AT&T; Yahoo!. As of June 2010, AOL's subscriber base dropped to 4.4 million.

News reports in late 2005 identified companies such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google as candidates for turning AOL into a joint venture; those plans were apparently abandoned when it was revealed on December 20, 2005 that Google would purchase a 5% share of AOL for $1 billion.

AOL was rated both one of the best and worst Internet suppliers in the UK, according to a poll by BBC Watchdog.

On March 31, 1997, the short-lived eWorld was purchased by AOL. The ISP side of AOL UK was bought by The Carphone Warehouse in October 2006 to take advantage of their 100,000 LLU customers which made The Carphone Warehouse the biggest LLU provider in the UK.

The product was rated the "Worst Tech Product of All Time" by PC World in 2006.

On May 28, 2009, Time Warner announced that it would spin AOL off as an independent company once Google's shares ceased at the end of the fiscal year, and AOL's page and logo changed afterward.

AOL ceased to be a part of Time Warner on December 9, 2009. The company declared an IPO on that day, under the stock symbol NYSE:AOL.

History

AOL release timeline
1989
February 1991
January 1993	AOL 2.0 for the Apple Apple Macintosh
June 1994
September 1994
June 1995
June 1995
June 1996	AOL 3.0 for [[Windows 95 released
July 1998 / June 1999	AOL 4.0 (Casablanca) and Refresh 2 released
September 1999	AOL 5.0 (Kilimanjaro) released
June 2000	AOL 5.0 for 9x/NT/2K (Niagara) released
October and December 2000	AOL 6.0 (K2 – Karakorum) and Refresh released
September 2001	AOL 6.0.2 for XP (Steppenwolf) launched
October and December 2001, May and July 2002	AOL 7.0 (Taz) and Refresh 1, Refresh 2, and Refresh 2 Plus released
October 2002	AOL 8.0 (Spacely) released
April 2003	AOL 8.0 Plus (Elroy) launched
August and September 2003	AOL 9.0 Optimized (Bunker Hill / Blue Hawaii) and Refresh released
May 2004	AOL 9.0 Optimized SE/LE (Thailand / Tahiti) released
November 2004, July 2005	AOL 9.0 Security Edition SE/LE (Strauss) and Refresh released
August 2005 to March 2006	AOL Suite Beta launched (cancelled)
September 2006, March 2007	AOL OpenRide (Streamliner) launched
November 2006, April 2007	AOL 9.0 VR and Refresh (Raga) released (AOL 9.0 for Microsoft Windows Vista but also works with Microsoft Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP)
September 2007	AOL Desktop for Mac Beta released
October 31, 2007	AOL 9.1 (Tarana) released
December 2007	AOL Desktop (a.k.a. AOL 10.0) launched
May 2008	AOL Desktop for Mac 1.0 officially launched
September 2008	AOL Desktop 10.1 released
February and November 2009	AOL 9.5 and 9.5 Refresh released (Classic)
November 2010	AOL Desktop 9.6
July 31, 2011	AOL Desktop (Bn)

AOL began as a short-lived venture called Control Video Corporation (or CVC), founded by Bill von Meister. Its sole product was an online service called GameLine for the Atari 2600 video game console after von Meister's idea of buying music on demand was rejected by Warner Brothers. Subscribers bought a modem from the company for $49.95 and paid a one-time $15 setup fee. GameLine permitted subscribers to temporarily download games and keep track of high scores, at a cost of $1 per game. The telephone disconnected and the downloaded game would remain in GameLine's Master Module and playable until the user turned off the console or downloaded another game.

The original technical team was composed of Marc Seriff, Tom Ralston, Ken Huntsman, Janet Hunter, Dave Brown, Steve Trus, Ray Heinrich, Craig Dykstra, and Doug Coward.

In January 1983, Steve Case was hired as a marketing consultant for Control Video on the recommendation of his brother, investment banker Dan Case. In May 1983, Jim Kimsey became a manufacturing consultant for Control Video, which was near bankruptcy. Kimsey was brought in by his West Point friend Frank Caufield, an investor in the company. Von Meister quietly left the company in early 1985. Control Video was reorganized as Quantum Computer Services, Inc. on May 24, 1985, with Kimsey as Chief Executive Officer and Marc Seriff as Chief Technology Officer. Out of 100 employees from Control Video, only 10 remained in the new company. Case himself rose quickly through the ranks; Kimsey promoted him to vice-president of marketing not long after becoming CEO, and later promoted him further to executive vice-president in 1987. Kimsey soon began to groom Case to ascend to the rank of CEO, which he did when Kimsey retired in 1991.

Kimsey changed the company's strategy, and in 1985 launched a dedicated online service for Commodore 64 and 128 computers, originally called Quantum Link ("Q-Link" for short). The Quantum Link software was based on software licensed from PlayNet, Inc, (founded in 1983 by Howard Goldberg and Dave Panzl). In May 1988, Quantum and Apple launched AppleLink Personal Edition for Apple II and Macintosh computers. In August 1988, Quantum launched PC Link, a service for IBM-compatible PCs developed in a joint venture with the Tandy Corporation. After the company parted ways with Apple in October 1989, Quantum changed the service's name to America Online.

From the beginning, AOL included online games in its mix of products; many classic and casual games were included in the original PlayNet software system. In the early years of AOL the company introduced many innovative online interactive titles and games, including:

Graphical chat environments Habitat (1986–1988) and Club Caribe (1988) from LucasArts.

The first online interactive fiction series QuantumLink Serial by Tracy Reed (1988).

Quantum Space, the first fully automated Play by email game (1989–1991).

The original Dungeons & Dragons title ''Neverwinter Nights'' from Stormfront Studios (1991–1997), the first Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) to depict the adventure with graphics instead of text (1991).

The first chat room-based text role-playing game Black Bayou (1996–2004), a horror role-playing game from Hecklers Online and ANTAGONIST, Inc.

In February 1991 AOL for DOS was launched using a GeoWorks interface followed a year later by AOL for Windows. This coincided with growth in pay-based online services, like Prodigy, CompuServe, and GEnie. AOL discontinued Q-Link and PC Link in the fall of 1994.

In 2008 Neverwinter Nights was honored (along with Everquest and World of Warcraft) at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form of MMORPG games.

March 2011: AOL announced it will cut around 20 percent jobs or 900 workers among 5,000 workers.

Growth

Steve Case positioned AOL as the online service for people unfamiliar with computers, in particular contrast to CompuServe, which had long served the technical community. The PlayNet system that AOL licensed was the first online service to require use of proprietary software, rather than a standard terminal program; as a result it was able to offer a graphical user interface (GUI) instead of command lines, and was well ahead of the competition in emphasizing communication among members as a feature.

In particular was the Chat Room concept from PlayNet, as opposed to the previous paradigm of CB-style channels. Chat Rooms allowed a large group of people with similar interests to convene and hold conversations in real time, including:

Private rooms – created by any user. Hold up to 23 people.

Conference rooms – created with permission of AOL. Hold up to 48 people and often moderated.

Auditoriums – created with permission of AOL. Consisted of a stage and an unlimited number of rows. What happened on the stage was viewable by everybody in the auditorium but what happened within individual rows, of up to 27 people, was viewable only by the people within those rows.

Another area of early AOL leadership was education. Between 1990–94, AOL launched services with the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, Pearson, Scholastic, ASCD, NSBA, NCTE, Discovery Networks, Turner Education Services (CNN Newsroom), National Public Radio, The Princeton Review, Stanley Kaplan, Barron's, Highlights for Kids, the US Department of Education, and many other education providers. AOL's offered the first real-time homework help service (the Teacher Pager—1990; prior to this, AOL provided homework help bulletin boards), the first service by kids, for kids (Kids Only Online, 1991), the first online service for parents (the Parents Information Network, 1991), the first online courses (1988), the first omnibus service for teachers (the Teachers' Information Network, 1990), the first online exhibit (Library of Congress, 1991), the first parental controls, and many other online education firsts.

In September 1993, AOL added USENET access to its features. This is commonly referred to as the "Eternal September".

AOL quickly surpassed GEnie, and by the mid-1990s, it passed Prodigy (which for several years allowed AOL advertising) and CompuServe.

Originally, AOL charged its users an hourly fee, but in October 1996 this changed to a flat monthly rate of $19.95. During this time, AOL connections would be flooded with users trying to get on, and many canceled their accounts due to constant busy signals (this was often joked "AOL" standing for "Always Off-Line").A commercial featuring Steve Case telling people AOL was working day and night to fix the problem was made. Within three years, AOL's userbase grew to 10 million people. In 1995 AOL was headquartered at 8619 Westwood Center Drive in the Tysons Corner CDP in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, near the Town of Vienna.

AOL was quickly running out of room in October 1996 for its network at the Fairfax County campus. In 1996, AOL moved to 22000 AOL Way in Dulles, unincorporated Loudoun County, Virginia. The move to Dulles took place in mid-1996 and provided room for future growth. In a five year landmark agreement with the most popular operating system, AOL was bundled with Windows software.

Change in focus, decline, and rebranding

Since its merger with Time Warner (the owners of the aforementioned Warner Bros.) in 2001, the value of AOL has dropped significantly from its $240 billion high. Its subscriber base has seen no quarterly growth since 2002. AOL has since attempted to reposition itself as a content provider similar to companies such as Yahoo! as opposed to an Internet service provider.

In 2004 along with the launch of AOL 9.0 Optimized, AOL also made available the option of personalized greetings which would enable the user to hear his or her name while accessing basic functions and mail alerts, or while logging in or out.

AOL eventually announced plans to offer subscribers classic television programs for free with commercials inserted via its new IN2TV service. At the time of launch, AOL made available Warner Bros. Television's vast library of programs, with ''Welcome Back Kotter'' as its marquee offering.

In 2005, AOL broadcast the Live 8 concert live over the Internet, and thousands of users downloaded clips of the concert over the following months.

In 2005, AOL (along with Telepictures Productions) launched TMZ.com, one of the leading celebrity news and gossip sources on the web. TMZ.com has become known for its quickness to break celebrity news, often accompanied by exclusive videos and photos.

In 2006, AOL informed its American customers that it would be increasing the price of its dial-up access to US$25.90. The increase was part of an effort to migrate the service's remaining dial-up users to broadband, as the increased price was the same price they had been charging for monthly DSL access. However, AOL has since started offering their services for $9.95 a month for unlimited dial-up access. On April 3, 2006, AOL announced that it was retiring the full name "America Online"; the official name of the service became "AOL", and the full name of the TimeWarner subdivision became "AOL, LLC". On August 2, 2006, AOL announced that they would give away e-mail accounts and software previously available only to its paying customers provided the customer accessed AOL or AOL.com through a non-AOL-owned access method (otherwise known as "third party transit", "bring your own access", or "BYOA"). The move was designed to reduce costs associated with the "Walled Garden" business model by reducing usage of AOL-owned access points and shifting members with high-speed internet access from client-based usage to the more lucrative advertising provider, AOL.com. The change from paid to free was also designed to slow the rate of members canceling their accounts and defecting to Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo!, or other free e-mail providers. According to AOL CEO Randy Falco, as of December 2007, the conversion rate of accounts from paid access to free access was over 80%. In December 2006, in order to cut operating costs, AOL decided to cease using U.S.-based call centers to provide customer service. AOL drastically downsized U.S. corporate operations as well. On January 28, 2007, the last domestic AOL owned and operated call center (based in Oklahoma City) closed its doors, and, during October 2007, the last call center in Canada was also shut down. All customer service calls became handled by outsourced representatives in Romania, the Philippines, and India. On September 17, 2007, AOL announced that it was moving one of its corporate headquarters from Dulles, Virginia to New York City and combining its various advertising units into a new subsidiary called Platform A. This action followed several advertising acquisitions, most notably Advertising.com, and highlighted the company's new focus on advertising-driven business models. AOL management stressed that "significant operations" will remain in Dulles, which included the company's access services and modem banks. AOL created animated cartoons in 2008 to explain behavioral targeting to its users, showing how a user's past visits to other Web sites could determine the content of advertising they would see in the future. Later that year AOL initiated privacy research and extended the animated penguin campaign to the United Kingdom. AOL closed one of its three Northern Virginia data centers, Reston Technology Center, and sold it to CRG West in January 2008. This sale enabled AOL to consolidate its Northern Virginia operations from three sites (Dulles, Manassas, Reston) to two. AOL took advantage of the move to both reduce its overall hardware inventory and to determine a "right size" for its Network Operations Center staff after consolidating the three sites into two. In 2007, AOL announced that it would move one of its other headquarters from Loudoun County, Virginia to New York City; it would continue to operate its Virginia offices. As part of the impending move to New York and the restructuring of responsibilities at the Dulles headquarters complex after the Reston move, AOL CEO Randy Falco announced on October 15, 2007 plans to lay off 2000 employees worldwide by the end of 2007, beginning "immediately". That evening, over 750 employees at Dulles alone received notices to attend early morning meetings the next day; those employees were laid off on October 16, 2007, though the employees would remain on the payroll until December 14, 2007 in accordance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Other employees whose groups were due for phase-out as part of the restructuring were informed on October 16, 2007 that they would be kept on until December 14, 2007 to complete any outstanding tasks, after which they would be laid off. The reduction in force was so large that virtually every conference room within the Dulles complex was reserved for the day as a "Special Purpose Room", where various aspects of the layoff process were conducted for outgoing employees; remaining employees at Dulles were quick to dub the mass layoff "Bloody Tuesday" in online blogs and news reports. In April 2009, Tim Armstrong, formerly with Google, was named Chairman and CEO of AOL.

On November 23, 2009, AOL unveiled a sneak preview of a new brand identity which has the new logo ''Aol'' sumperimposed onto figures (for example, a goldfish, a rainbow, a tree, a postcard). The new identity was enacted onto all of AOL's services on December 10, 2009, right after TimeWarner split from AOL.

On September 28, 2010 AOL signed, at the San Francisco TechCrunch Disrupt Conference, an agreement to acquire TechCrunch to further its overall strategy of providing premier online content.

In December 2010, AIM eliminated access to AOL chat rooms noting a marked decline of patronage in recent months.

On February 7, 2011, AOL bought The Huffington Post for $315 million.

Controversies

Community leaders

Prior to mid 2005, AOL used online volunteers called Community Leaders, or CLs, to monitor chatrooms, message boards, and libraries. AOL's use of remote volunteers dated back to the establishment of its Quantum Link service in 1985. Some community leaders were recruited for content design and maintenance using a proprietary language and interface called RAINMAN, although most content maintenance was performed by partner and internal employees.

Two former community leaders, Brian Williams of Dallas and Kelly Hallissey of New York filed a class action lawsuit against AOL citing violations of U.S. labor laws in its use of community leaders. The lawsuit was filed in the United States Federal Courthouse, New York City on May 25, 1999 which subsequently was followed by the dismissal of all community leaders under the age of 18 years old as well as a reorganization of the community leader program as a whole. The Department of Labor was also investigating AOL's alleged labor law violations, but came to no conclusion closing their investigation in 2001. AOL began drastically reducing the responsibilities and privileges of its volunteers in 2000. The program was eventually ended on June 8, 2005. Current Community Leaders at the time were offered 12 months of credit on their accounts in thanks for their service.

Within one decade of the class action lawsuit being filed, the class had grown to over 6,000 members citing the largest class action lawsuit ever filed against an internet based company. Currently it is the third largest class ever involved in any lawsuit on a federal level in the United States, affecting ultimately the employment eligibility of individuals in an online environment.

In February 2010, a settlement was approved by the Courts in the class action suit. The settlement included a $15 million USD payment. This payment was then divided by one third, the first of which was attorney and legal fees. Five Million was then divided among the included members of the class which consisted of more than 7,000 individual former Community Leaders. The final five million dollars was donated to charities hand picked by Hallissey and Williams then approved by the Courts for distribution. One such charity, The Remote Area Medical Foundation (www.ramusa.org), received payments in excess of $1.2 million USD for the provision of medical services, supplies and medication for those in need within the more rural areas of the United States and beyond.

Prior to the 1999 class action lawsuit, the community leaders were informed of a change in compensation for duties performed by AOL. Community leaders would be charged a reduced rate per month for their accounts and no longer would be given unlimited access without invoice. During this live announcement via an online meeting of all community leaders in a virtual arena, Brian Williams of Dallas led many community leaders in a virtual "strike" or "sit-in" to protest the new charges the community leaders were being asked to now pay. This protest or strike is noted as the first of its kind for an online environment and was nicknamed for the row of the arena it was held in; Row 800. Following the protest, AOL terminated the online working relationship between itself and several of the Community Leaders involved. Quickly following the release of these community leaders was the reinstatement of each one terminated with exception to Williams, which AOL was not willing to review due to the role he played within the cause of the protest. During this time, Williams role on AOL was that of Guide XNT (Guide Program), CB Naked (Crystal Ball forum), VnV Naked (iVillage's Vices and Virtues Forum) and JCommBrian (Jewish Community Online Forum).

Billing disputes

AOL has faced a number of lawsuits over claims that it has been slow to stop billing customers after their accounts have been canceled, either by the company or the user. In addition, AOL changed its method of calculating used minutes in response to a class action lawsuit. Previously, AOL would add 15 seconds to the time a user was connected to the service and round up to the next whole minute (thus, a person who used the service for 11 minutes and 46 seconds would be charged for 13 minutes). AOL claimed this was to account for sign on/sign off time, but because this practice was not made known to its customers, the plaintiffs won (some also pointed out that signing on and off did not always take 15 seconds, especially when connecting via another ISP). AOL disclosed its connection-time calculation methods to all of its customers and credited them with extra free hours. In addition, the AOL software would notify the user of exactly how long they were connected and how many minutes they were being charged.

AOL was sued by the Ohio Attorney General in October 2003 for improper billing practices. The case was settled on June 8, 2005. AOL agreed to resolve any consumer complaints filed with the Ohio AG's office. In December 2006, AOL agreed to provide restitution to Florida consumers to settle the case filed against them by the Florida Attorney General.

Account cancellation

In response to approximately 300 consumer complaints, New York Attorney General's office began an inquiry of AOL's customer service policies. The investigation revealed that the company had an elaborate scheme for rewarding employees who purported to retain or "save" subscribers who had called to cancel their Internet service. In many instances, such retention was done against subscribers' wishes, or without their consent. Under the scheme, consumer service personnel received bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars if they could successfully dissuade or "save" half of the people who called to cancel service. For several years, AOL had instituted minimum retention or "save" percentages, which consumer representatives were expected to meet. These bonuses, and the minimum "save" rates accompanying them, had the effect of employees not honoring cancellations, or otherwise making cancellation unduly difficult for consumers.

Many customers complained that AOL personnel ignored their demands to cancel service and stop billing. On August 24, 2005, America Online agreed to pay $1.25 million to the state of New York and reformed its customer service procedures. Under the agreement, AOL would no longer require its customer service representatives to meet a minimum quota for customer retention in order to receive a bonus.

On June 13, 2006, a man named Vincent Ferrari documented his account cancellation phone call in a blog post, stating he had switched to broadband years earlier. In the recorded phone call, the AOL representative refused to cancel the account unless the 30-year-old Ferrari explained why AOL hours were still being recorded on it. Ferrari insisted that AOL software was not even installed on the computer. When Ferrari demanded that the account be canceled regardless, the AOL representative asked to speak with Ferrari's father, for whom the account had been set up. The conversation was aired on CNBC. When CNBC reporters tried to have an account on AOL cancelled, they were hung up on immediately and it ultimately took more than 45 minutes to cancel the account.

On July 19, 2006, AOL's entire retention manual was released on the Internet.

On August 3, 2006, Time Warner announced that the company would be dissolving AOL's retention centers due to its profits hinging on $1 billion in cost cuts. The company estimated that it would lose more than six million subscribers over the following year.

Direct marketing of disks

Prior to 2006, AOL was infamous for the unsolicited mass direct mail of CD-ROMs and 3½" floppy disks containing their software. They were the most frequent user of this marketing tactic, and received criticism for the environmental cost of the campaign. The mass distribution of these disks was seen as wasteful by many people and led to protest groups. One such was No More AOL CDs, a web-based effort by two IT workers to collect one million disks with the intent to return the disks to AOL. The website was started in August 2001, and an estimated 410,176 CDs were collected by August 2007 when the project was shut down. AOL CDs were recognized as No.1 on PCWorld's top ten list of most annoying tech products.

Software

In 2000, AOL was served with an $8 billion lawsuit alleging that its AOL 5.0 software caused significant difficulties for users attempting to use third-party Internet service providers. The lawsuit sought damages of up to $1000 for each user that had downloaded the software cited at the time of the lawsuit. AOL later agreed to a settlement of $15 million, without admission of wrongdoing. The AOL software then was given a feature called AOL Dialer, or AOL Connect on Mac OS X. This feature allowed users to connect to the ISP without running the full interface. This allowed users to use only the applications they wish to use, especially if they do not favor the AOL Browser. AOL 9.0 was once identified by Stopbadware as being ''under investigation'' for installing additional software without disclosure, and modifying browser preferences, toolbars, and icons. However, as of the release of AOL 9.0 VR (Vista Ready) on January 26, 2007, it was no longer considered badware due to changes AOL made in the software.

Usenet newsgroups

When AOL gave clients access to Usenet in 1993, they hid at least one newsgroup in standard list view: ''alt.aol-sucks''. AOL did list the newsgroup in the alternative description view, but changed the description to "Flames and complaints about America Online". With AOL clients swarming Usenet newsgroups, the old, existing user base started to develop a strong distaste for both AOL and its clients, referring to the new state of affairs as Eternal September.

Later, AOL discontinued providing access to Usenet on June 25, 2005. No official details were provided as to the cause of decommissioning Usenet access, except providing users the suggestion to access Usenet services from a third-party, Google Groups. AOL then provided community-based message boards in lieu of Usenet.

Terms of Service (TOS)

AOL has a detailed set of guidelines and expectations for users on their service, known as the Terms of Service (TOS, also known as Conditions of Service, or COS in the UK). It is separated into three different sections: ''Member Agreement'', ''Community Guidelines'' and ''Privacy Policy''. All three agreements are presented to users at time of registration and digital acceptance is achieved when they access the AOL service.

There have been many complaints over rules that govern an AOL user's conduct. Some users disagree with the TOS, citing the guidelines are too strict to follow coupled with the fact the TOS may change without users being made aware. A considerable cause for this was likely due to alleged censorship of user-generated content during the earlier years of growth for AOL.

Certified e-mail

In early 2005, AOL stated its intention to implement a certified e-mail system called Goodmail, which will allow companies to send email to users with whom they have pre-existing business relationships, with a visual indication that the email is from a trusted source and without the risk that the email messages might be blocked or stripped by spam filters.

This decision drew fire from MoveOn, which characterized the program as an "e-mail tax", and the EFF, which characterized it as a shakedown of non-profits. A website called Dearaol.com was launched, with an online petition and a blog that garnered hundreds of signatures from people and organizations expressing their opposition to AOL's use of Goodmail.

Esther Dyson defended the move in a ''New York Times'' editorial saying "I hope Goodmail succeeds, and that it has lots of competition. I also think it and its competitors will eventually transform into services that more directly serve the interests of mail recipients. Instead of the fees going to Goodmail and EON, they will also be shared with the individual recipients."

Other members of the antispam and blogging community were broadly critical of moveon.org and the EFF's attempts to characterize this as a "shakedown".

Tim Lee of the Technology Liberation Front posted an article that questioned the EFF's adopting a confrontational posture when dealing with private companies. Lee's article cited a series of discussions on Declan McCullagh's Politechbot mailing list on this subject between the EFF's Danny O'Brien and antispammer Suresh Ramasubramanian, who has also compared the EFF's tactics in opposing Goodmail to tactics used by Republican political strategist Karl Rove. Spamassassin developer Justin Mason posted some criticism of the EFF's and Moveon's "going overboard" in their opposition to the scheme.

The dearaol.com campaign lost momentum and disappeared, with the last post to the now defunct dearaol.com blog—"AOL starts the shakedown" being made on May 9, 2006.

Comcast, who also used the service, announced on its website that Goodmail has ceased operations and of as February 4, 2011 they will no longer use the service.

Search data

On August 4, 2006, AOL released a compressed text file on one of its websites containing twenty million search keywords for over 650,000 users over a 3-month period between March 1, 2006 and May 31, intended for research purposes. AOL pulled the file from public access by August 7, but not before its wide distribution on the Internet by others. Derivative research, titled ''A Picture of Search'' was published by authors Pass, Chowdhury and Torgeson for The First International Conference on Scalable Information Systems.

The data were used by Web sites such as AOLstalker for entertainment purposes, where users of AOLstalker are encouraged to judge AOL clients based on the humorousness of personal details revealed by search behavior.

User list exposure

Jason Smathers, an AOL employee, was convicted of stealing America Online's 92 million screen names and selling them to known spammers.

Company purchases

Company sales

AOL (Time Warner) has sold a number of its sub-companies in Europe. AOL Europe had six million users, but its subscription base had been steadily declining. In 2005, 287,000 European AOL online users migrated to other service providers. In September 2006, AOL Germany's ISP business (''AOL Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG'') was sold for $863m (€675m) to Telecom Italia. AOL's German web portal AOL Deutschland, however, is now operated by then newly founded ''AOL Deutschland Medien GmbH'' which still is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Today, AOL Deutschland offers virtually all free services of AOL.com (see below) in German versions as well as some of their own products, such as an AOL VISA card.

In October 2006, AOL UK's ISP business was sold for $688m (£370m) to Carphone Warehouse.

Notable people

Marc Andreessen (Netscape co-founder and AOL Chief Technology Officer) Jim Barksdale (former director)

John Barnes (former head researcher)

Randall Boe (Executive Vice President and General Counsel) Janice Brandt (former Vice Chair and Chief Marketing Officer) Jason Calacanis (former CEO of Weblogs, Inc. and former GM of Netscape) Steve Case (former CEO and Board Chairman) Mary Cheney (former Vice President for Consumer Advocacy) Elwood Edwards (Voice actor for "You've got Mail") Randy Falco (former CEO and Board Chairman) Justin Frankel (Nullsoft founder) Maureen Govern (former CTO) Ron Grant (former President and COO) Alexander Haig (former Director) Michael Jones (former CEO of Userplane) Jim Kimsey (former CEO and Board Chairman) Ted Leonsis (Vice Chairman, President AOL Audience Group) Jonathan Miller (former CEO and Board Chairman) Robert W. Pittman (former President)

Colin Powell (former Director)

Michael Powell (involved during merge with Time Warner)

Stelios Rodokalia (Investor)

Barry Schuler (former CEO)

Marc Seriff (former CTO)

Jason Smathers (former AOL employee convicted of stealing America Online's 92 million screen names and selling it to known spammers)

Jean Villanueva (former Vice President of Corporate Communications, married Steve Case in 1998)

Kelly Hallissey (Former CL, who in May 1999 launched, with Brian Williams a class action lawsuit citing labor law violations in federal court)

Brian Williams (Former CL, Creator of the Online Strike (known as row 800) and with Kelly Hallissey in May 1999 launched a class action lawsuit citing labor law violations in federal court)

International versions

AOL has several versions of its service for different countries.

Online security services

AOL's software incarnations have provided different combinations of security features, usually involving McAfee's VirusScan and Firewall software.

Timeline

In late 2005, AOL released AOL Safety & Security Center, a bundle of McAfee anti-virus, CA anti-spyware, and proprietary firewall and phishing protection software. The software was offered free of charge, but only to users with an AOL e-mail address or an AOL My eAddress running Microsoft Windows XP or 2000.

On June 8, 2006, AOL offered a new program called AOL Active Security Monitor. This is a diagnostic tool to check the local PC's security status, and recommends additional security software from AOL or Download.com. The program rated the computer on a variety of different areas of security and general computer health. On August 7, 2006, AOL released AOL Active Virus Shield. This software was developed by Kaspersky Lab. Active Virus Shield software was free and did not require an AOL account, only an internet e-mail address. On July 18, 2007, AOL released "McAfee VirusScan Plus: Special Edition from AOL" (VSP) to its free members, and a premium version, "McAfee Internet Security Suite: Special Edition from AOL" (MIS), to its paid subscribers. These replaced both the "AOL Safety and Security Center" and the now-defunct "AOL Active Virus Shield". MIS contained all components of VSP plus includes tools like automatic back-up.

Free services

On August 2, 2006, AOL announced a plan to offer "many" of its services free, with or without an AOL Internet connection."

Among the announced plans were free email services. AOL kept its promise by launching an e-mail service free of cost, and with unlimited storage space.

AIM (AOL Instant Messenger Chat rooms were included with the free service, but users were required to verify the age of an account created under the free plan using a credit card. AOL charged $1 to the credit card provided and then immediately refunded the charge.

AOL Video featured professional content and allowed users to upload videos as well. The original user-orientated video service was called UnCut Video, but was abandoned. AOL Local comprised its CityGuide, Yellow Pages and Local Search services to help users find local information like restaurants, local events, and directory listings.

AOL News is a free news website available to the public.

AOL provided free usage of a custom domain name, which it called an AOL My eAddress. This allowed users to create an e-mail address like 'example@whateveryouwant.com', and allowed up to 100 other addresses to be created. These e-mail accounts could be accessed in a manner similar to other AOL and AIM e-mail accounts.

Xdrive was a service offered by AOL which allowed users to back up their files over the Internet. It was closed on January 12, 2009.

Games.com was an online page featuring browser-based games. it is part of the main AOL website, under games.

AOLAnswers, a Q&A; website service formerly known as Yedda.

Shortcuts.com, a free service of ''AOL'', was a comprehensive savings destination offering consumers multiple savings opportunities including Electronic Coupons, Printable Coupons, Mobile Coupons, Online Coupons Codes and Cash Back Savings. Partnering with top companies such as News America Marketing, Kroger, Safeway, and many more, Shortcuts.com is the consumer destination for free savings offers.

Other developments

In late 2006, AOL began offering free and unlimited digital picture storage for both free and paid accounts. Original resolutions are preserved, and an ActiveX control provides a drag-n-drop interface within web browsers, permitting users to drop an entire folder of photos into the web page to upload them.

On October 4, 2006, AOL released a free Internet suite called AOL OpenRide, which combined a web browser, instant messenger, email client and media player.

On February 16, 2007, it was announced that AOL began supporting OpenID. On March 13, 2008, AOL purchased the popular networking site Bebo for $850m (£417m). On July 25, 2008 AOL announced it was shedding Xdrive, AOL Pictures, and BlueString to save on costs and focus on its core advertising business. AOL Pictures was terminated on December 31, 2008. On October 31, 2008, AOL Hometown (a web hosting service for the websites of AOL customers) and the AOL Journal blog hosting service were eliminated, after first announcing the impending shutdown on September 30, 2008

Since January, 2009, AOL News has discontinued its Comments Page for remodeling to filter out obscene or aggressive postings from users.

On February 25, 2009, AOL merged AIM Profiles with Bebo.

On April 6, 2010, AOL announced that they were planning to shut down or sell Bebo. This has been successfully concluded but with a huge loss on investment. In February 2011, AOL purchased The Huffington Post for $315 million. Shortly after the acquisition was announced, Huffingtonpost.com co-founder Arianna Huffington assumed the role of President and Editor-in-Chief of The AOL Huffington Post Media group. Huffington replaced David Eun. She will oversee the development of all editorial content from both companies including news, technology, music and local media websites.

Movie studios partnership

On Friday, August 25, 2006, AOL announced that it had signed a deal with several major movie studios to open an online video store allowing users to "download to own" full length movies and television shows. The deal was signed with News Corporation's 20th Century Fox, Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and former corporate sibling Warner Home Entertainment Group.

See also

.art

AOL Explorer

AOL Instant Messenger

AOL Mail

AOL Radio

AOHell

Comparison of webmail providers

Compuserve

Dot-com bubble

Eternal September

Inside-AOL.com

Live365

Prodigy

Quantum-Link Reloaded

Sessions@AOL

Truveo

Web search engine

References

External links

AOL

AOL mobile

AOL Trademark List – list of major trademarks owned by AOL

AOL CD Collecting Site has the only published book on AOL Disk Collecting with older CD versions available

National portals

AOL Argentina AOL Australia AOL Austria AOL Belgium AOL Bangladesh AOL Brazil AOL Canada AOL Chile AOL China AOL Czech Republic AOL Colombia AOL Finland AOL France AOL Germany AOL Hong Kong AOL India AOL Ireland AOL Italy AOL Japan AOL Malaysia AOL Mexico AOL Netherlands AOL Norway AOL Poland AOL Russia AOL Singapore AOL South Korea AOL Spain AOL Sweden AOL Taiwan AOL Thailand AOL Turkey AOL United Kingdom AOL United States AOL Venezuela

Category:Companies based in Dulles, Virginia Category:Companies based in New York City Category:Companies established in 2009 Category:Companies established in 1983 Category:Online service providers Category:Internet service providers of the United States Category:Internet services supporting OpenID Category:Former Time Warner subsidiaries Category:Global internet community Category:Web service providers Category:Orphan initialisms Category:Pre–World Wide Web online services Category:Companies based in Silicon Valley

ar:إيه أو إل cs:AOL da:AOL (internet) de:AOL es:AOL fa:ای او ال fr:America Online ko:AOL hi:एओऍल id:AOL it:AOL he:אמריקה און ליין kn:AOL (ಎಒಎಲ್) ka:AOL lt:AOL hu:America Online nl:AOL ja:AOL no:AOL nn:AOL uz:AOL pl:AOL pt:AOL ro:AOL ru:AOL simple:AOL sl:AOL fi:AOL sv:America Online te:AOL(ఎవోఎల్) th:เอโอแอล tr:AOL uk:America Online vi:AOL zh:美国在线