EMI Licenses Its Music Library To pressplay; Deal Establishes pressplay as the Largest Online Subscription-Based Music Catalog

Business Wire, Oct 2, 2001

Business Editors

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 2, 2001

EMI Recorded Music, the world's third largest record company, and pressplay, the online music service, today announced a licensing agreement that will add EMI's titles to pressplay's expanding online catalog, which already includes titles from Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group.

The non-exclusive agreement establishes pressplay as the largest subscription-based music catalog available for streaming and downloading online.

Pressplay, which will launch its service this fall, will offer consumers on-demand access to a vast catalog of digital music through an array of affiliates, including Yahoo!, MSN and MP3.com. The pressplay service will offer streaming and downloads through a secure delivery system designed to respect and protect artists' rights.

"This agreement represents another major step forward for pressplay as we prepare to launch our service," said pressplay President and CEO Andy Schuon. "By combining EMI's extensive library with the vast amount of music from Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group that we have already secured, pressplay will offer consumers the single most comprehensive online music experience. We will continue working to secure agreements with other labels that will enable us to enlarge our offering."

Jay Samit, senior vice president of new media for EMI Recorded Music, said: "We are always looking for new ways to expand the reach of our artists' music as long as our artists' rights are fully respected, and pressplay offers a great new opportunity for us to do that. There is clearly huge demand for music delivered digitally and we want to support as many innovative and competing online music services as possible."

About EMI

EMI Recorded Music, the third-largest record company in the world, is an international music company with a presence in nearly 70 countries. Its sister division, EMI Music Publishing, is the world's largest music publisher. EMI Recorded Music includes important local and international artists, including some of the biggest names in the recorded music industry. EMI has artists in every leading music genre, including pop, rock, jazz, classical, Latin, Christian, country, rap/urban and dance. Its world famous labels include Angel, Blue Note, Capitol, Chrysalis, EMI, EMI Classics, Parlophone, Priority and Virgin. Its current roster includes approximately 1,500 artists, and it releases over 1,000 albums each year. EMI Recorded Music has license agreements with five online subscription services and providers. Overall, EMI has partnered with over 40 different music-related new media companies, ensuring that EMI' s artists enjoy the widest possible distribution for their music in the online as well as the physical world.

About pressplay

Announced in May 2000, pressplay is an equally held joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group (a unit of Vivendi Universal), and is based in New York City and Los Angeles. Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and other music companies will separately provide their music to pressplay on a non-exclusive basis. The company is led by an independent executive team with deep music, programming, technology and business experience.