No. 1 Online Music Retailer Amazon.com Announces Fourth Quarter 1999 Music Store Results

Business Wire, Feb 2, 2000

Entertainment, Music, and Business Writers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2000

Leading online retailer Amazon.com (www.amazon.com) (Nasdaq:AMZN) today announced that sales from its U.S. Music Store in the fourth quarter of 1999 reached $78 million, up more than 136 percent from the fourth quarter of 1998. Sales for fiscal year 1999 were $195 million, and the store ended the year with an annualized run rate solidly over $300 million. With these results, Amazon.com continues to set the pace for online music sales.

Amazon.com's continual focus on providing the best music shopping experience helped the retailer dominate 1999 industry polls, earning the following honors:

-- No. 1 overall Internet music store in Gomez Advisors' two most

recent scorecards.

-- No. 1 ranking in the first Forrester PowerRankings for online

books, music, and video retailers.

-- The Harris Interactive ecommercePulse Excellence Award for the

highest overall satisfaction rating among online music and video

retailers.

-- The Midemnet Award 2000 for the best music shopping/digital

distribution Web site.

&uot;Amazon.com's music team is a group of music experts and music lovers devoted to helping our customers find music titles and music-related items they'll love,&uot; said Jennifer Cast, Amazon.com Music Store general manager. &uot;We're extremely grateful to our customers, who shared suggestions and criticisms that resulted in making Amazon.com not only the No. 1 online music shopping destination but also the easiest-to-use, most comprehensive music store on or off the Internet. We look forward to working with our customers to develop many more additions and improvements to our store in 2000.&uot;

During 1999, Amazon.com launched a steady stream of new features to serve its music customers better. Enhancements to Amazon.com's Music Store last year include:

-- Free Digital Downloads that enable customers to try before they

buy: During 1999, Amazon.com's Music Store led the way in the

exciting arena of digital downloads, becoming the first major

online retailer to dedicate an area of its store to free,

full-length song downloads from established artists, major-label

performers, and independent artists. Innovative and successful

download offerings helped spark several albums to No. 1 on the

Amazon.com music charts, including Santana's Supernatural, Sarah

McLachlan's Mirrorball, and Buena Vista Social Club. In November,

Amazon.com teamed with the artist Moby and The Late Show with

David Letterman to offer a download immediately following a

performance on the show. Amazon.com continues to offer the

largest selection of free promotional song downloads from major

label artists of any major online music retailer, in addition to

a large collection of downloads from independent artists in the

Amazon.com Advantage program.

-- Expanded selection of music from independent artists unavailable

in most stores: Customers can find thousands of noteworthy CDs by

independent artists and labels enrolled in Amazon.com's Advantage

program. New features to expose and promote the music of these

artists include the Emerging Artists area, which offers

bestseller lists in 18 genres and features new and notable CDs.

The New Music Spotlight, also a new addition, features free

downloads from many of these artists, introducing customers to a

selection of handpicked songs they may have never heard before.

With these features, customers can now easily explore and

discover great new music from independent artists in any genre.

-- Increased selection of music-related items: The addition of tapes

and vinyl in the Music Store, the expansion of the Amazon.com

Advantage program, and the launches of Electronics, Toys,

Auctions, and zShops make Amazon.com the ultimate one-stop

shopping destination for all things music. Amazon.com now offers

the largest selection of music-related items, including U.S. CDs

from major-label and independent artists, import CDs, cassette

tapes, vinyl, music-related books, music videos, home audio

electronics, portable CD and MP3 players, music memorabilia, both

children's and adults' musical instruments, and used and rare

music titles.

-- Classical Music Center: No other music store--physical or

online -- offers classical music experts and novices a greater

selection of classical music or more ways to discover excellent

classical recordings. The new Classical Music Center combines new

features such as Orchestra Schedules with Amazon.com editors'

selections for the Essential CDs by classical composers and

artists, plus enhanced areas including Classical and Opera

stores, Classical and Opera Top Sellers, and the powerful

Classical Search Engine.

-- Guides to the best music for every taste: The enhanced

Recommendation Center helps customers find CDs they'll love via

Amazon.com's editors' selections for the Essential CDs by Style,

Artist, Composer, and Year, plus informative introductions to

Classical, Jazz, and International music that help new listeners

become familiar with genres that can sometimes be perceived as