Top Twenty Spoken Word MP3 Downloads for 1999; MP3Lit.com Ranks the Most Popular MP3 Author Recordings

Business Wire, Jan 5, 2000

Business/Entertainment Editors & High-Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 5, 2000

MP3Lit.com Inc., (www.MP3Lit.com) the premier free digital audio literature and spoken word site, today announced its most popular MP3 downloads for 1999.

The top 20 authors were compiled from the thousands of MP3 files downloaded daily from the site in all genres, including fiction, poetry, politics, travel, how-to, self-help, classics and more.

"There's been an explosion of non-music MP3s appearing on the Web, and MP3Lit.com is in a unique position to chart their popularity," said Gary Hustwit, MP3Lit.com chief executive officer. "Our site features hundreds of the best free spoken word recordings on the Internet, and our users have chosen the best of the best."

1999 Top 20 Spoken Word MP3 Authors on MP3Lit.com

1. Henry Rollins

2. Dennis Miller

3. Dylan Thomas

4. Nicole Blackman

5. Charles Bukowski

6. Nick Cave

7. P.J. O'Rourke

8. David Sedaris

9. Mumia Abu-Jamal

10. Ben Stiller & Janeane Garofalo

11. Anne Rice

12. Sylvia Plath

13. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

14. T.S. Eliot

15. Amiri Baraka

16. Noam Chomsky

17. W.H. Auden

18. William Upski Wimsatt

19. James Gleick

20. Tom Wolfe

"Henry would like to thank all the people who have downloaded his work from MP3Lit.com," said Carol Bua, director of 2.13.61 Publications, Henry Rollins' publisher. "It's quite an honor to be the number one spoken word MP3 download."

Rollins was active in both music and publishing in 1999, touring extensively with The Rollins Band and releasing a new book, "Smile, You're Traveling."

MP3Lit.com features a full spectrum of established and emerging authors, including Toni Morrison, Michael Crichton, Richard Ford, Maya Angelou, Howard Zinn, Maggie Estep, David Guterson and more. MP3Lit.com also produces new and original recordings every month and hosts the LoudMouth channel for unpublished authors to showcase their literary talents to the world.

The company is working with dozens of publishers large and small to promote their book and audiobook releases, including Random House Audio, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio, Time Warner Audiobooks, Harper Audio and others.

About MP3Lit.com

MP3Lit.com is the first Web site focused solely on offering quality digital spoken word and audio literature in MP3. The company, which was founded in August 1999, offers hundreds of recordings of short stories, novel excerpts, poems, essays, interviews and more from a wide variety of genres in both MP3 and Real Audio formats -- all free to the consumer.

MP3Lit.com Inc. is privately owned, has headquarters in New York and a West Coast sales and marketing office in Los Angeles. The company recently signed deals with America Online's Spinner.com, RioPort.com, Real Networks Take5 and other Web sites to supply quality spoken word audio content. For more details visit MP3Lit.com or contact Kristina Junger at kristina@kjunger.com or 310/826-3544.