Alliance Entertainment Appoints Jeffrey Smith as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Alliance Authentic™

PLANTATION, Fla., Jan. 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:AENT), the world's largest distributor of vinyl records and a leading curator of physical entertainment products and collectibles, today announced the appointment of Jeffrey Smith as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Alliance Authentic™, the company's newly launched premium platform for authenticated, numbered, investment-grade vinyl collectibles.

Smith joins Alliance Authentic following a highly successful tenure as Vice President of Marketing at Discogs, the world's largest online marketplace for vinyl collectors. At Discogs, Smith played a central role in transforming the platform into a performance-driven commerce engine, driving substantial revenue growth, expanding global engagement, and deepening Discogs' position as the definitive destination for vinyl culture and collecting.

"Jeffrey is one of the most respected and proven leaders in the global vinyl ecosystem," said Jeff Walker, CEO of Alliance Entertainment. "He understands collectors, marketplaces, and how to build trusted, high-performance commerce platforms at scale. As Alliance Authentic moves from launch into growth, Jeffrey brings exactly the combination of cultural credibility, data-driven execution, and leadership we need to accelerate adoption and build a category-defining brand."

Proven Leader in Vinyl Commerce, Marketing, and Marketplace Growth

During his time at Discogs, Smith led a comprehensive transformation of marketing, demand generation, and brand strategy. His leadership helped drive a dramatic increase in marketing-driven orders, materially improve return on advertising spend, and grow lifecycle and owned-channel revenue into a significant share of total platform sales. He also led major brand repositioning efforts, scaled performance marketing into a core growth engine, and played a key role in strategic partnerships with global retailers, technology companies, and music labels.

Prior to Discogs, Smith founded and led Crash Avenue, a successful independent marketing and public relations agency representing both major and independent record labels and artists. Over more than two decades in music, culture, and commerce, Smith has built teams, launched platforms, and executed campaigns at the intersection of brand, fandom, and transactional marketplaces.

Driving Growth for Alliance Authentic™

As Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Smith will be responsible for building and executing Alliance Authentic's global growth strategy across direct-to-consumer sales, the peer-to-peer marketplace, retail partnerships, and future category expansions. He will lead brand development, demand generation, lifecycle marketing, strategic partnerships, and go-to-market execution as Alliance Authentic scales its ecosystem of authenticated vinyl collectibles.

"Alliance Authentic is building something genuinely new within record collecting culture, a platform grounded in authenticity, trust, and long-term stewardship," said Smith. "By working directly with labels and creating a credible framework for owning the records that carry personal and cultural significance, Alliance Authentic brings deeper meaning to the music we truly love, the ones that reflect who we are and why music matters to us. I'm excited to lead this team and help build the definitive marketplace for authenticated vinyl history."

Strategic Expansion of the Alliance Authentic Leadership Team

Smith's appointment follows the official launch of Alliance Authentic on January 6, 2026, and represents a key milestone in building the leadership team required to scale the platform globally. His addition underscores Alliance Entertainment's commitment to scaling Alliance Authentic into a long-term, high-margin growth business within the company's broader collectibles portfolio.

About Alliance Authentic™

Alliance Authentic™ is a premium collectible platform dedicated to preserving entertainment history through authentic, certified, encapsulated, and individually numbered collectibles. Each release is sourced directly from music labels, studios, and brands, digitally authenticated, and designed for long-term ownership and resale.

Alliance Authentic™

The Ultimate Vinyl Collectible™

Own a Piece of Vinyl History™

About Alliance Entertainment

Alliance Entertainment (NASDAQ:AENT) is a premier distributor and fulfillment partner for the entertainment and pop culture collectibles industry. With more than 340,000 unique in-stock SKUs — including over 57,300 exclusive titles across compact discs, vinyl LPs, DVDs, Blu-rays, and video games — Alliance offers the largest selection of physical media in the market. Our vast catalog also includes licensed merchandise, toys, retro gaming products, and collectibles, serving over 35,000 retail locations and powering e-commerce fulfillment for leading retailers. The company's growing collectibles portfolio includes Handmade by Robots™, a stylized vinyl figure line featuring licensed characters from leading entertainment franchises. Leveraging decades of operational expertise, exclusive licensing partnerships, and a capital-light, scalable infrastructure, Alliance is a trusted partner to the world's top entertainment brands and retailers. Our omnichannel platform connects collectors and fans to the products, franchises, and experiences they love — across formats and generations. For more information, visit www.aent.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this Press Release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," "plan," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "outlook," and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding estimates and forecasts of other financial and performance metrics and projections of market opportunity. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether identified in this Press Release, and on the current expectations of Alliance's management and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as and must not be relied on by an investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Alliance. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including risks relating to the anticipated growth rates and market opportunities; changes in applicable laws or regulations; the ability of Alliance to execute its business model, including market acceptance of its systems and related services; Alliance's reliance on a concentration of suppliers for its products and services; increases in Alliance's costs, disruption of supply, or shortage of products and materials; Alliance's dependence on a concentration of customers, and failure to add new customers or expand sales to Alliance's existing customers; increased Alliance inventory and risk of obsolescence; Alliance's significant amount of indebtedness; our ability to refinance our existing indebtedness; our ability to continue as a going concern absent access to sources of liquidity; risks that a breach of the revolving credit facility could result in the lender declaring a default and that the full outstanding amount under the revolving credit facility could be immediately due in full, which would have severe adverse consequences for the Company; known or future litigation and regulatory enforcement risks, including the diversion of time and attention and the additional costs and demands on Alliance's resources; Alliance's business being adversely affected by increased inflation, uncertainty regarding tariffs, higher interest rates and other adverse economic, business, and/or competitive factors; geopolitical risk and changes in applicable laws or regulations; as well as our financial condition and results of operations; substantial regulations, which are evolving, and unfavorable changes or failure by Alliance to comply with these regulations; product liability claims, which could harm Alliance's financial condition and liquidity if Alliance is not able to successfully defend or insure against such claims; availability of additional capital to support business growth; and the inability of Alliance to develop and maintain effective internal controls.

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