America Online's ICQ, Spinner and Winamp Brands Partnering with EMusic.com to Sell Downloadable Music

Business Wire, August 16, 1999

DULLES, Va. and REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 1999--

America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), the world's leading interactive services company, and EMusic.com (Nasdaq: EMUS), a leading Internet seller of downloadable music, today announced that EMusic.com will offer downloadable music on America Online's ICQ, Spinner and Winamp services.

The agreement calls for EMusic.com and the ICQ, Spinner and Winamp brands to cross-promote downloadable music products through reciprocal links, Web advertising and other marketing initiatives. In addition, EMusic.com will develop co-branded sites with ICQ, Spinner and Winamp for downloadable music.

From its collection of over 20,000 songs, EMusic.com offers consumers complete albums for $8.99 or the ability to purchase individual tracks for 99 cents. Under the non-exclusive, three-year agreement, EMusic.com will pay AOL a fixed marketing fee as well as a share of transaction revenues. AOL will also receive warrants in EMusic.com.

Bob Kohn, EMusic.com Chairman, said: "ICQ, Spinner and Winamp are strong communities in the online arena. This new partnership will allow the close to 50 million users of ICQ, Spinner and Winamp to discover and purchase great downloadable music from EMusic.com. We are thrilled to bring our expanding catalog of songs to this large, wired audience of music lovers."

Ted Leonsis, President of AOL Interactive Properties, said: "The audience for digital downloads of music is growing exponentially. Just last week Media Metrix reported an estimated 400% increase in home users of digital music over the past year. Music is already enormously popular with the ICQ audience, and Spinner, Winamp and EMusic.com will bring even more music offerings to this hip, tech-savvy group of people."

Mr. Leonsis continued: "We are delighted to be working with EMusic.com. This agreement furthers our efforts to grow new communities around music and help consumers take advantage of the convenience of listening to and buying music online as we move into a more connected society."

Gene Hoffman, EMusic.com President and CEO, said: "EMusic.com offers music ranging from alternative to hip-hop to pop to jazz. We look to bringing our diverse catalog of songs from over 85 independent record labels and direct artist relationships to the ICQ, Spinner and Winamp audiences."

About America Online, Inc.

Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services.

America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 17 million members, and CompuServe, with approximately 2 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers; AOL MovieFone, the nation's No. 1 movie listing guide and ticketing service; and Spinner Networks, Winamp and Shoutcast, leaders in Internet music.

Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy.

About EMusic.com

Since it was founded in January 1998, EMusic.com has established itself as a leader in the growing market for downloadable music. www.emusic.com is a Web site for sampling and purchasing music in the MP3 format, which has become the standard in the digital distribution of music. EMusic.com features an expanding catalog of alternative, blues, hip-hop, jazz, pop, punk, techno and Indie rock music through its direct relationships with leading artists and exclusive licensing agreements with over 85 independent record labels, such as Epitaph, Rykodisc, Jewel-Paula, King Biscuit, spinART, Jetset and Ubiquity.

From its collection of over 20,000 tracks, EMusic.com offers music fans complete albums for $8.99 or the ability to purchase individual tracks for 99 cents. The company is based in Redwood City, California.

EMUSIC.COM is a trademark of EMusic.com Inc.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Copies of previous EMusic.com press releases, additional background on the company, executive biographies and electronic versions of the EMusic logo, can be found in the EMusic Press Room at http://www.emusic.com/about/press_room/

Any forward-looking statements contained in this release involve a number of uncertainties, risks and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements to materially differ. Factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially include, among others, those set forth in the Company's S.E.C. reports.