Digital Music Moves Out of the Dorm Room and Into the Living Room; Ripping and Burning Goes Mainstream; Cakewalk Pyro Brings MP3/CD Making to Music Fans of All Ages

Business Wire, Oct 17, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2000

While ongoing news about Napster and MP3.com (Nasdaq: MPPP) invoke stereotypes of college students up all night in their dorm rooms trading music online, recent findings indicate that MP3 music fans span three or more generations. A recent report by Internet researcher Media Metrix cites that baby boomers and the generations ahead of them account for more than 50 percent of those using multimedia players on the Internet, and that this group also represents 38 percent of Napster's five million U.S. home users.

These findings reveal that music fans now driving the digital revolution span a broad demographic range, and the phenomenon has moved well beyond early-adopter, generation Y college students. With CD-R (recordable) drives now included in many popular home PC models, and Internet usage among U.S. households surpassing 50%, "ripping" and "burning" have moved out of the dorm room and into the living room.

Cakewalk, the leading developer of music and sound software, has released new Cakewalk(R) Pyro(TM) (estimated retail price $39 U.S.), the MP3 and CD creation software designed for the majority of consumers who are just adopting this technology now-- the home and office users who prefer to get everything they need to rip and burn in one convenient, affordable software package.

Roll Your Own

Cakewalk Pyro is the first software package to provide everything a music fan needs to create, organize and listen to MP3s and audio CDs--including LP and cassette ripping software, online tutorials, support for popular DIAMOND (Nasdaq: DMEC) RIO and Creative Labs (Nasdaq: CRTV) NOMAD portable players, and even a blank CD-R disc and CD label making kit.

Rip and Burn Responsibly

"There's a lot of controversy about downloading digital music. Meanwhile, one thing is certain: Each of us has the right to enjoy our personal music collection in exciting new ways," commented Cakewalk founder & CEO Greg Hendershott. "Pyro is about ripping and burning responsibly. Want to turn your CDs and vinyl LPs into MP3 files so you can listen to them on your PC or portable player? Pyro does that. Want to create custom mix CDs of your favorite songs? Pyro does that too, plus a lot more. Pyro is the MP3 and CD creation software for the rest of us."

Not Your Father's Home Entertainment System?

"Pyro is the right product at the right time. We can't keep it on the shelves at leading retailers like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and CompUSA," commented Jim Bull, senior partner of Strategic Marketing Partners, a 300-million-dollar independent software manufacturer rep firm that represents companies like Sony (NYSE:SNE) Online, Lucas Arts, Qualcomm (Nasdaq:QCOM), and Cakewalk. "Your average consumers are just now realizing that the PC is a great home entertainment system. And Pyro becomes their stereo. It's a music appliance. Pyro lets people enjoy their favorite music when and where they want--both on and off the PC." It's not your father's home entertainment center--or is it? Consumers of all ages and types, From Pre-Boomers to Gen Y, from Classical and Jazz enthusiasts to Rap and Metal fans, are breathing new life into their music collections with Pyro by converting LPs and cassettes to CDs or MP3s. Using Cakewalk's one-click ESP (Environmental Sound Processing) technology, Pyro optimizes audio quality for where ever you listen to music--in the car, living room, on a portable player, or on the PC. Pyro makes it easy for music fans to create their own "best of" and "greatest hits" collections, right down to designing and printing custom jewel case artwork.

Cakewalk Pyro Feature Highlights

RIP

--Rip your favorite songs or entire albums from your CDs and keep that great digital quality

--Convert your vinyl LPs and cassettes into CDs

--Create MP3, WAV and WMA (Windows Media) files

BURN

--Set up a playlist and then burn the songs to audio CD with one click of a mouse

--ESP(TM) (Environmental Sound Processing) optimizes music for playback on home stereo, laptop or desktop PC, headphones or portable player

ARRANGE, ORGANIZE & PLAY

--Quickly locate audio files on your PC and sort by artist, song title, format, song length or file size

--Instantly transfer song titles & artist from standard CDs with CDDB(TM) online database (no more typing!)

--Listen to your playlists on your PC or take your favorite songs with you on your portable MP3 player

--Supports playlist formats from other Jukeboxes

--Create playlists with multiple file formats--MP3, WAV, WMA

--Take your favorite songs with you on your portable RIO or NOMAD MP3 player

ONLINE SUPPORT AND TUTORIALS

--Become an expert on digital music in minutes with Cakewalk's FastForward(TM) tutorials

--Link to Cakewalk Pyro owner's page for the latest updates, tech tips, and web music links

CD LABELING GRAPHICS KIT

--Give your CDs a polished look with Neato(R) MediaFaceII(TM) labeling software

--Design and print full-color CD labels and jewel case inserts