Universal Music Group Uses Digital Islands E-business Delivery Network for Commercial Download Trials

Business Wire, August 7, 2000

Business & Entertainment Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2000

Worlds Largest Music Company Lets Customers Download

Digital Music and Multimedia Content from Blink 182,

Live, Luciano Pavarotti and Other UMG Artists

The world's largest music company, Universal Music Group, is using hosting, networking and Footprint(TM) content delivery services from Digital Island, Inc. (Nasdaq:ISLD), a leading Global e-Business Delivery Network, for trials of the bluematter(TM) digital music product.

Universal Music Group (UMG) recently launched bluematter, a new digital music product that allows fans to download single tracks from one of UMGs many online merchant affiliates. The songs come with multimedia content about the artist, including biographies, lyrics and photographs. Each week, UMG will expand the selection of music and content from artists like pop bands Blink 182, SMASH MOUTH and 98 Degrees, jazz guitarist George Benson and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti.

Digital Island hosts UMGs informational Web site, bluematter.com, and all of UMGs online music content in its secure data centers. When customers buy tracks, Digital Islands Footprint content delivery service accelerates the download by caching music files on servers close to Internet users at the edge of the network and intelligently matching the user to the optimal Footprint site. Digital Island has located its Footprint servers at ISPs and broadband providers that are directly connected to consumers worldwide.

To track the performance and usage of bluematter.com and proactively ensure customers a fast and rich online experience, UMG is using Digital Islands monitoring service VistaWare. As Digital Islands first VistaWare customer, UMG can monitor the status of servers, data centers and networks.

Our agreement with Digital Island allows us to provide a fast and reliable service to consumers as we gauge their appetites and preferences for legitimate digital music during the bluematter trials, said Heather Myers, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Universal Music Group's GLOBAL e. We are excited about using Digital Islands integrated hosting, networking and Footprint content delivery services to give fans easy and immediate access to music on the Internet.

Universal Music Group is laying the groundwork for a legitimate digital music market where customers can potentially have access to Universals vast library of music, said Ruann F. Ernst, chairman and CEO of Digital Island. With Digital Islands global e-Business services, the worlds largest music company can interact with customers through rich multimedia content and complete transactions with the speed and security todays online consumers demand.

Online consumer spending in the Internet music market is expected to quadruple over the next three years, reaching $2.6 billion by 2003, according to Jupiter Communications.

Digital Island(R) is a leading Global e-Business Delivery Network using hosting, content delivery, networking and application services to help companies improve their customers online experience by making Web applications run faster and more reliably and scale globally, resulting in more successful e-Business transactions. Digital Island is headquartered in San Francisco with a presence in 25 countries. www.digitalisland.net.

Important Notice

Digital Island is a registered trademark of Digital Island, Inc. Footprint is a trademark of Digital Island, Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

This release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, include but are not limited to: the companys short operating history which makes it difficult to predict its future results of operations; the companys history of operating losses and expected future losses which could impede its ability to address the risks and difficulties encountered by companies in new and rapidly evolving markets; the companys future operating results could fluctuate which may cause volatility or a decline in the price of the companys stock; the possibility that the company may not be able to price its services above the overall cost of bandwidth causing its financial results to suffer; and other factors detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.