The roots of the site took place in San Francisco in 1998. Original co-founders Aaron Newton, Scott Bilby, and Justin Sinkovich created the site utilizing Newton and Bilby's Web and technology background and Sinkovich's music industry experience. The three co-founders wanted a name that properly reflected their idea. They also wanted a name related to San Francisco, the epicenter, as well as music, or sound, or tone, tonic. They settled on the combination of two words: epi-tonic, the center of sound. Epitonic.com was born.