IODA Launches Promonet; Promotional Distribution Network Provides Thousands of Pre-Cleared MP3s to Blogs and Podcasts; Partnerships with MP3.com, TowerPod, hi5.com, Tribe.net and iSound Extend Promotional Network Reach

Business Wire, March 14, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO & AUSTIN, Texas -- IODA -- the Independent Online Distribution Alliance -- today officially launched Promonet, a unique promotional distribution network that provides writers and programmers from blogs, podcasts, Internet radio, e-zines, social networks and other promotional music sites with thousands of pre-cleared, legal music tracks and other promotional assets from IODA's roster of more than 1,500 leading independent labels. The announcement was made today by IODA founder and CEO Kevin Arnold from the South By Southwest Music Media Conference in Austin, TX.

Since its beta launch last fall, IODA's labels have made over 7,000 songs from all genres available as pre-cleared "Promotracks," including songs from Built to Spill, Public Enemy, The Wrens, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Young Buck, Ambulance Ltd, KRS-One, Pinback, Stephen Lynch, The Dwarves, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Why?, Numatic Soul, and Buckethead. Hundreds of blogs and podcasts have already registered to access music from Promonet, including tastemakers such as DailySonic.com, Indiefeed.com and EricRice.com, as well as podcast networks like the Association of Music Podcasting (AMP) and LibSyn. Partnerships with MP3.com, TowerPod, Live365, iSound and social networking sites hi5.com and Tribe.net further extend Promonet's reach by exposing Promonet content to large, music-loving audiences and user communities. Applications for access to Promonet can be submitted online at http://promonet.iodalliance.com.

"The infinite shelf space of the digital retailer has lowered many distribution barriers but created a new kind of marketing problem," said Tim Mitchell, VP of Marketing and Business Development, IODA. "Our solution uses technology and the viral nature of networks to provide a low-cost, transparent, and results oriented marketing platform to effectively connect independent music with its fans."

"Properly servicing promotional outlets isn't as simple as sending a CD to a magazine or a radio station anymore," said Eric Lemasters, Director Label Relations and New Media, KOCH Entertainment Distribution. "For the label, IODA's Promonet is like having a separate digital promo department to reach all of the pertinent podcasts and blogs with your music. For the podcasters and bloggers, it's like one-stop shopping for legitimate music. Everyone wins. Hats off to IODA for creating such a cutting-edge service that is so badly needed."

In preparation for Promonet's launch, IODA created a groundbreaking promotional license that specifies terms under which qualified blogs, podcasts, and e-zines can use Promotracks on their sites. In exchange for access to the thousands of Promotracks available in the system, qualified Promonet users must comply with a few simple rules designed to raise awareness and drive sales of the music: sites using Promotracks must identify the music and include links to the artist and label web sites as well as "buy" links to at least one digital retail site for each release. IODA provides all of the necessary data and links via the Promonet interface. To date, during the Promonet beta, clicks to nearly 10,000 digital buy links have been logged from the use of Promotracks in blogs and podcasts.

"IODA's Promonet is simply the best choice available in the market for cutting-edge rights-cleared music," said Chris MacDonald, founder of IndieFeed. "The staff at IndieFeed is consistently amazed at the breadth and relevance of the music catalog available for podcast production, in a variety of music genres. This is truly one of those win-win systems where independent labels match with content producers and, ultimately, the discriminating listener, to discover the best music being produced worldwide. Our subscription numbers have increased no doubt to IODA's relationships with incredibly prolific labels and artists."

"I'm impressed with Promonet's library of content and easy to use interface," said Adam Varga, founder of DailySonic.com. "We use it at DailySonic to quickly find all sorts of great pre-cleared music -- from finding a psych rock track used to heighten the mood of a world news segment, to finding an underground hip-hop track to accompany a feature on new forms of graffiti, to new music releases from great indie labels. It's definitely been both a time saver and an ear opener."

IODA-distributed labels can select up to three songs per album for inclusion in Promonet, where other promotional content such as artist photos, bios, album art, one-sheets, and other information posted by labels and artists is available, along with preview clips of all tracks and "buy links" for each release at the many digital music services and retailers to which IODA distributes. Videos will be available through the network next month. Promonet is an extension of IODA's industry-leading technology platform and a companion to its acclaimed Rightsholder Dashboard. There is no charge to IODA-distributed labels to make their assets available on Promonet.

"With Promonet, IODA continues their leadership of the digital music landscape by providing licensing and promotional tracks for promotional podcasting" said Derrick Oien, President of The Association of Music Podcasting (musicpodcasting.org). "We are excited to be working closely with them."