Duritz has recorded solo material of his own, and collaborated with other musical acts, leading him to branch out as the owner of at least two record labels, acting as his own A&R man. In addition to his work writing, producing and scoring music to film has brought him recognition from the music industry, notably, in an award for co-writing the song, "Accidentally in Love" for the movie, Shrek from BMI.

Duritz' lyrics have been described as "morose" and "tortured" by critic Stephen Erlewine of Allmusic and as "wordy introspection" and his vocals "expressive." He has also suffered from what he describes as "a dissociative disorder, which makes the world seem like it's not real," which contribute to the duration between albums and the inspiration of many of his song lyrics.

Adam Duritz was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Duritz moved to Boston, then El Paso, Texas, and finally to Berkeley, California. Duritz has lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Amsterdam and, most recently, New York City. As a student, he attended Head-Royce School, the Taft School, the University of California, Davis and the University of California, Berkeley, but dropped out before earning a degree.

Before gaining noteriety, Duritz sang (and later wrote songs) for a few San Francisco Bay Area bands. These included Mod-L Society, and another, was a college rock band, Sordid Humor. While Duritz was not a member, in the early 1990s, two other musicians who Duritz had not yet met were introduced while working with the band. Duritz had been tapped to provide vocals on one track, and future bandmate David Immerglück, (nicknamed "Immy") as a session musician on bass guitar. Producing the album, was David Bryson, both of whom became good friends. In 1990, Duritz joined with Bryson, and followed his lead in forming the band, The Himalayans. In the Himalayans, his songwrting talents were beginning to gain recognition from the other musicians and a song, albeit in it's infancy, "Round Here" was written at that time. A year later, while The Himalayans recorded a demo tape for a major record label, Duritz and Bryson independantly submitted another demo tape of just the two of them singing stripped-down musical selections, and called themselves Counting Crows. After listening to both tapes, Duritz and Bryson's tape was selected; although they were asked to record the song on their debut album as it was. She Likes the Weather was the result, containing "Round Here".

He has collaborated with The Wallflowers (led by Jakob Dylan) on the album Bringing Down the Horse on the track "6th Avenue Hearthache"; with Ryan Adams on Gold and the song "Butterfly in Reverse" from Hard Candy; with Peter Stuart on Propeller and Daisy; with Live on V; and with Dashboard Confessional on the track "So Long, So Long" from Dusk and Summer. He also collaborated with Nanci Griffith on "Going Back to Georgia", from Griffith's 1994 Album "Flyer".

Duritz also contributed the songs "Spin Around," "You Don't See Me," and "You're a Star" to the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack that were performed by the film's fictional title band. Along with bandmates Vickrey, Bryson, and Immerglück, Duritz co-wrote the song "Accidentally in Love" for the soundtrack of the movie, Shrek, winning them each an award from BMI.

Duritz was also a judge for the 10th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

Since coming to fame with Counting Crows, a blog on the band’s official website, and later a frequently updated Twitter. He also reads and responds to posts on the band’s messageboard, and recently started a feature called AskCrowsAsk where fans can email questions for band members to answer. This relationship has not always been smooth; Duritz has clashed with some fans, chastising those involved in flame wars by quipping on his blog, "Some of you are truly fucking unpleasant people."

Duritz has made slow progress in the music industry as a record label owner. In 1997, Duritz co-founded E Pluribus Unum, an independent label. Before the label was purchased by Interscope Records in 2000, Duritz signed Joe 90, Gigolo Aunts, and Neilson Hubbard – all of whom he took on the road to open for Counting Crows. In November 2006, Adam Duritz began production on the Chicago pop punk band Blacktop Mourning's debut record under the name "The Devil and Bunny Show" alongside Counting Crows guitarist David Immerglück's current album. He later announced, on January 15, 2007, that he was launching boutique record label Tyrannosaurus Records. His debut artists include Notar and Blacktop Mourning. The label also re-released the sole album by Duritz's former band The Himalayans.

In addition to his musical pursuits, Duritz was executive producer for the films The Locusts (1997) and Burn (1998). He appeared in the 2007 mockumentary film Farce of the Penguins.