Billboard and Creative Multimedia release music resource and buyer's guide on CD-ROM

Business Wire, Oct 10, 1996

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 1996--

Quickly and easily find the music you'll

want to own -- guaranteed

Billboard(r) magazine, the global music industry's definitive information source, and Creative Multimedia today announced availability of their Billboard Music Guide on CD-ROM.

A complete music information resource and buying guide, Billboard Music Guide saves users time and money by helping them make better informed music purchases.

Intended for music lovers of all ages, Billboard Music Guide is designed to enhance the user's knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of music. According to Craig Froude, Creative Multimedia's senior marketing director, "Partnering with Billboard, the acknowledged arbiter of popular music, has enabled us to deliver to consumers a comprehensive, authoritative music resource in an accessible, enjoyable format."

Covering 17 music genres from rock and country to rap and jazz, Billboard Music Guide provides information on more than 60,000 albums from 4,000 artists and bands, and features thousands of articles, reviews, and track lists. Highlights include:

-- 38,000 reviews from Billboard magazine and the All-Music Guider

-- more than 50 video clips of great performances and artist interviews

-- 900 performer photos and 8,000 album covers

-- more than 1,000 audio "sampling clips"

-- 40 years of the Billboard 200 charts, from 1956 to 1995

Billboard Music Guide's database can be searched a variety of ways, including by artist, album, song title, genre, record label, or year released. Users can create and print personalized music shopping lists, then go online and purchase their selections. The CD-ROM's "Influences and Related Artists" feature encourages users to explore and sample new musical genres that share the sounds and influences of favored artists.

The Billboard Music Guide CD-ROM directly links to Creative Multimedia's entertainment website, MusicMatch (URL: musicmatch.com), where users can search or browse a music database containing 165,000 albums. MusicMatch features an electronic retail component, so users can buy albums and music-related items. Purchases made through MusicMatch are covered by a 14-day, "no questions asked" money-back guarantee.

Billboard Music Guide is available individually, or bundled with the Blockbuster Entertainment Guide to Movies & Videos in Windows and Macintosh formats. Like other Creative Multimedia titles, the dual CD-ROM set (average purchase price $39.95) is available everywhere CD-ROMs are sold, including retail outlets and bookstores in the United States and Canada. Billboard Music Guide can be purchased from select retailers, or through Creative Multimedia's website or its toll-free number, 800/262-7668.

Billboard is published by BPI Communications Inc., a worldwide media company providing specialized publications, electronically delivered data, and marketing services to entertainment, media, and arts and design businesses, and to consumers.

In addition to Billboard, BPI publishes 23 magazines, including Musician, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek, and Mediaweek, plus 33 annual directories. BPI's book division, Watson-Guptill, publishes and distributes specialty books under six imprints. BPI also operates seven computer-based communications and information services, including Billboard Online (www.billboard-online.com).

The All-Music Guide and its cinematic counterpart, the All-Movie Guide, are divisions of Matrix Software Inc., located in Big Rapids, Mich. Run by a group of music and film enthusiasts tracing their roots to the `60s, the All-Music Guide and All-Movie Guide represent the combined efforts of over 200 experienced music and film writers pointing out the most important artists and their best work.

Most AMG reviewers are well-known experts who write for magazines like Rolling Stone, Goldmine, Pulse, Request, Billboard, Music Express, Mix, Agent/Manager, Rock & Roll Disk, CD-Review, Spin, Musician, and many other music and film publications.

Founded in 1987, Creative Multimedia develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes interactive multimedia information for use with personal computers. Creative Multimedia, the leader in lifestyle and leisure interactive media, partners with the nation's leading publishers and entertainers to bring the highest quality name-brand, interactive products to the market.

Additional company and product information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.creativemm.com.

For a review copy of The Billboard Music Guide, call Vicki Quick, Creative Multimedia, 503/241-4351, x309, or contact by e-mail: vickiq@creativemm.com.

CONTACT: Creative Multimedia

Vicki L. Quick, 503/241-4351, x309

Fax: 503/241-4370

E-mail: vickiq@creativemm.com

or

Billboard

John Morgan, 212/536-5378