AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL, previously known as America Online, written as "AOL" and stylized as "Aol." but commonly pronounced as an initialism) 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. AOL is headquartered in New York City, but has many offices throughout cities in North America, such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Beverly Hills, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Dulles, Mountain View, Orlando, San Francisco, and Toronto. London and Tokyo are its foreign offices. As of December 2011, it serves 3.3 million paid subscribers.^{[citation needed]}

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. The company has claimed that it had 34 million subscribers at its peak, although an undisclosed portion were using free hours.

Timothy Lockwood Armstrong (born November 25, 1965) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known for his work with punk rock bands Rancid, Operation Ivy, Downfall, and the Transplants. He is also the owner and operator of Hellcat Records.

Armstrong was born November 25, 1965 and was raised primarily by his mother. At the age of five, he met Matt Freeman while playing Little League Baseball in Albany, California. Freeman and Armstrong formed a band many years later based on their shared love of bands such as The Clash and the Ramones. They both went to Albany Middle and High School. Armstrong married musician Brody Dalle in 1997, when she was only 18 and the couple divorced in 2003. Many of the lyrics on the album Indestructible deal with Armstrong's feelings about his divorce.

Basic Radio was founded in 1985 and included Matt Freeman and Tim Armstrong. The band never released any albums or EPs, but recorded demos, and soon after its break-up, Operation Ivy was founded.

Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actor and arranger, whose “retro” style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads. In addition to singing lead and backing vocals, Kravitz often plays all the guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and percussion himself when recording. He is known for his elaborate stage performances and music videos.

He won the Grammy Award for "Best Male Rock Vocal Performance" four years in a row from 1999 to 2002, breaking the record for most wins in that category and most consecutive wins in one category for a male. He has been nominated for and won other awards, including American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Radio Music Awards, BRIT Awards and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. On December 1, 2011, Kravitz was made an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He played the role of Cinna in the film The Hunger Games.

Cher Lloyd (born 28 July 1993) is an English recording artist. Lloyd rose to fame when she finished fourth in the seventh series of The X Factor. Shortly afterwards, Lloyd was signed by Simon Cowell to Sony Music subsidiary Syco Music.

Cher Lloyd's debut single "Swagger Jagger" was released in June 2011. Despite receiving negative reviews, the single entered at number one on the UK Singles Chart and number two on the Irish Singles Chart. Her second single "With Ur Love" was released on 31 October, featuring Mike Posner, and peaked at number four in the UK, and number five in Ireland, preceding her debut album Sticks + Stones, which peaked at number four in the UK Albums Chart and number seven on the Irish Albums Chart.

Cher Lloyd used to live in Malvern with her parents Darren and Dina, and three younger siblings brother Josh, and sisters Sophie and Rosie. Lloyd attended Dyson Perrins CE Sports College, where she studied performing arts. She also attended theatre arts school Stagecoach.

Lloyd had previously auditioned for The X Factor twice before (when the minimum age was lower) singing ballads, but did not make it through. Lloyd has previously performed at holiday camps and said she gets a mixed reaction to her music, but was a big hit with x-factor judge at the time Cheryl Cole. She remarked on their similarity and Cheryl went on to support her throughout the show. She auditioned singing the Keri Hilson version of "Turn My Swag On". At bootcamp she sang a rap version of "Viva La Vida" adding lyrics she claimed to have written herself, but this was disputed and reports claimed she took them from a song by rapper Swizz Beatz. At the judges' houses she performed "Cooler Than Me" but suffered from tonsillitis and was unable to complete her song. She was given a second chance, but broke down sobbing and could not complete the song. Despite this, she was still picked as one of the final three girls by mentor Cheryl Cole.

Luis Alfonso Rodríguez López-Cepero, more commonly known by his stage name Luis Fonsi, (born April 15, 1978 in Puerto Rico) is a Latin Grammy winning Puerto Rican singer and composer.

Born in Puerto Rico, Fonsi and his family later moved to Orlando, Florida, during Fonsi's early childhood. Around the time he was ten years old, Fonsi began to dream about becoming a member of Menudo, a Latin American boy band. While not being able to pursue that dream, he did, however, participate in many local boy bands, including one, Big Guys, where he met, and befriended, future *NSYNC member Joey Fatone.

In 1995, Fonsi enrolled at Florida State University to study music. He also joined the school's choir and sang with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

In April 2005, Fonsi had a brief return to the singing stage, when former Menudo member Ray Reyes invited him and another Puerto Rican, Adamari López, to a concert which was held at San Juan's Roberto Clemente coliseum. The press widely covered what El Vocero titled as Fonsi's moment as a Menudo, when he took the stage and joined the members of El Reencuentro to sing some of their old hits.