House of Blues Grows Partnership with RioPort to Provide Expanded Digital Music Download Offering

Business Wire, May 23, 2001

Business/Entertainment Editors

HOLLYWOOD--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2001

House of Blues to Offer Studio Tracks From All Five Major Labels

and Make Available Live Recordings for Promotional Download Via

RioPort's E-Tailer and d2d(TM) (direct-to-device) Network

House of Blues(R) Digital Inc. (HOB.com), the leading provider of live music content on the Internet, and RioPort Inc., the leading music application service provider (ASP), today announced that they will begin to make available paid commercial tracks from all five major record labels for digital download on HOB.com.

RioPort, the first music ASP to have formed digital download distribution agreements with all the major labels, will handle the integration for this music catalog through its PulseOne Media Service.

House of Blues Digital and RioPort also announced that they will make thousands of tracks from HOB's proprietary live recordings catalogue available for digital download through RioPort's network of premium e-tailers and d2d (direct-to-device) service customers, including MTV.com, VH1.com, Bolt, Nike.com, RioHome.com and more.

All promotional tracks are available in Windows Media Format (WMA) and are good for 90 days of playback.

The expanded online music initiative builds upon HOB's and RioPort's long-standing business partnership to deliver quality music offerings to consumers via the Internet. Since early 2000, RioPort has served as the exclusive provider of digital download technologies and music application services for HOB Digital.

"The continued growth of this partnership allows us to offer HOB.com's live music fans one of the broadest collections of music downloads available anywhere. Now, in addition to getting live records from Shaggy, Cheap Trick, Public Enemy, Mya, Willie Nelson and others, music fans can acquire the original studio tracks," said Stephen Felisan, senior vice president of Interactive and Technology for House of Blues. "It's another way we can leverage technology to provide great live music to people throughout the country and around the globe."

"RioPort is very pleased to extend its partnership with House of Blues Digital to provide the best selection of quality music offerings possible for digital download on HOB.com," said Jim Long, president and chief executive officer of RioPort. "Furthermore, our growing network of e-tailers and d2d customers are thrilled to be able to offer their customers access to this great catalogue of music."

About Rioport

RioPort.com Inc. is the leading music application service provider, enabling e-tailers and consumer electronics manufacturers with industry-standard solutions for selling music to consumers in a simple, secure manner. RioPort's distribution partners include the MTVi Group, House of Blues, Bolt, @Nifty and others. RioPort is backed by Oak Investment Partners, Vulcan Ventures, SONICblue, Microsoft Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., EMC Corp., Quantum Corp. and Macrovision Corp.

About HOB Entertainment Inc.

HOB Entertainment Inc., a Los Angeles-based global entertainment company, is the definitive live music brand. Founded in 1992, HOB Entertainment Inc. is comprised of five unique businesses, including:

-- House of Blues Clubs, which operate 1,000 to 2,000 capacity venues located
in Cambridge, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Anaheim
and Las Vegas, and includes the House of Blues Club Network, which provides a
network of small-capacity venues across the USA.

-- House of Blues Concerts Inc., one of North America's leading concert
promoters, which owns, operates or exclusively books 20 arena and amphitheatre
venues throughout North America, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver,
Dallas, Austin, Seattle (The Gorge), Atlanta, Cleveland, Toronto, Vancouver and
Montreal.

-- HOB Production and Distribution, an industry leader in the production,
promotion and delivery of quality live music content, which can be distributed
through terrestrial and satellite radio, domestic and international broadcast
television including cable and satellite, DVD, and accessed via convergent
media formats such as HDTV, Personal Video Recorder, Video-on-demand and
Interactive TV.

-- HOB Interactive, is HOB's Internet business (www.hob.com) and includes daily
Web casts, Internet radio, exclusive broadband pay-per-views, video and audio
digital downloads, and one of the largest on-demand archives of concerts and
artist interviews on the Internet.

-- HOB Artist Development, a centralized business unit, which develops
integrated marketing and promotional media programs for artists and record
labels, by leveraging HOB's Network of venues, production resources and branded
distribution channels.

House of Blues -- IT IS LIVE! (TM)