Business Services Industry
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
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