Ring in the Holidays With Exclusive AOL Music Promotion On AOL Instant Messenger

Business Wire, Dec 14, 2001

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 14, 2001

Millions of AIM Users Can "Send to a Friend" Holiday Music Featuring

Artists Such as Macy Gray, Wyclef Jean, Dido, Sheryl Crow, James

Taylor, and Frank Sinatra

America Online, the world's leading interactive services company, today announced the launch of an exclusive AOL Music promotion on AOL Instant Messenger, giving web music fans access to a selection of holiday music for listening and sharing.

Available now through Friday, December 21, this first-of-its-kind music promotion can be found only on AOL Instant Messenger's AIM Today - the popular Welcome Screen for AIM 4.7. Visitors can access a collection of holiday music classics with the opportunity to share select tracks via AOL's instant messaging technology, which is used by millions of Internet users every day to communicate with friends and family worldwide.

"This is a special time of year to enjoy music and communicate with friends. With this promotion, we're pleased to offer AIM users access to a great collection of seasonal music and share the holiday spirit - just one easy click links friends to seasonal favorites and new releases," said Bill Wilson, Vice President Marketing and Label Relations, AOL Music. "This is the first music promotion we've done with AIM enabling users to 'send to a friend' and it further enriches consumers online music options to discover, experience, buy and now share music."

Holiday Hits to "Send to a Friend"

This holiday music package allows AOL Instant Messenger users to send unique holiday music messages using AIM's "Send to a Friend" technology. With a single click from the Holiday Music page at AIM Today, AIM users can send buddies a festive holiday greeting linking to:

-- An exclusive Frank Sinatra audio stream of "Little Drummer Boy"

-- A full CD listening party stream of "A Very Special Christmas

- Volume 5" featuring original recordings of your favorite

holiday tunes from the hottest artists including Macy Gray,

Wyclef Jean, Dido, Sheryl Crow and many more.

More Holiday Music

Additional holiday music content available from AIM Today's Music page includes DVD, audio and video streams. AIM users can enjoy a wide range of holiday music favorites, including:

-- Full DVD stream of Trans Siberian Orchestra featuring Jewel

-- Willa Ford's "Santa Baby" video

-- Audio stream of Destiny's Child singing "8 Days of Christmas"

-- Download of John Leguizamo's "Night Before Christmas"

-- Two audio streams of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

performed by James Taylor and Diana Krall

AIM Today is available with AOL Instant Messenger 4.7, which can be downloaded for free from www.aol.com/aim.

About AOL Instant Messenger

AIM is a free instant messaging product from AOL that makes it convenient for consumers to see when friends, family and other contacts are online and to communicate with them in real time. The AIM 4.7 instant messaging software offers AIM Today, a community-building tool and a central meeting place where AIM users can find people they know, meet new people with similar interests, get quick bits of information that they can share with friends, and learn tips on how to get the most out of instant messaging. AIM 4.7 for Windows is available at www.aol.com/aim.

About AOL Music

AOL Music reaches the largest audience of online music fans in the world through a rich array of programming, products and services that make it easy to discover, experience, listen to and buy music on the Web. AOL Music's leading offerings include the number one Internet music destination, AOL's Music Channel; premiere online radio products, Radio@AOL and Spinner; and the most popular audio jukebox player, Winamp. AOL Music also provides music programming, products and services throughout the AOL Service, AOL High-Speed Broadband, and AOL's family of Web brands, including Netscape, CompuServe, AIM and ICQ.