Nettwerk Music Group Signs Artist Promotion Agreement with Mercora; Canadian Record Label Partners with Social Radio Network to Promote Artists and Drive Music Store Sales

Business Wire, Sept 5, 2006

VANCOUVER, British Columbia & SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Nettwerk Music Group, Canada's leading privately-owned record label and artist management company, and Mercora, Inc. today announced an artist promotion agreement that provides worldwide rights to the sound recordings for Nettwerk artists on www.mercora.com. Nettwerk manages established artists such as Sarah McLachlan, Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies, and Dido as well as emerging artists such as The Format, Josh Rouse, Kinky, and Leigh Nash, formerly the lead vocalist for Sixpence None the Richer. Mercora is the world's largest social radio network with users in 140 countries. Nettwerk and Mercora are partnering to bring Nettwerk's top-selling artists to a global audience.

"Nettwerk's established and developing artists will benefit greatly from Mercora's innovative RADIO 2.0 technologies and social music network," said Terry McBride, co-owner and CEO of Nettwerk Music Group. "We are looking forward to working with Mercora to introduce our artists to new music fans and customers worldwide."

"Music labels and recording artists should pay close attention to the Nettwerk-Mercora relationship," said Ed Golod, president of Revenue Accelerators Inc., a New York-based consulting firm that specializes in sales strategies. "Partnerships like this allow music labels to increase their brand recognition, engage listeners and customers, and drive revenue growth in online and offline music stores." In fact, Mercora partners have demonstrated increases in online music store sales by as much as 30 percent or more.

Under terms of the partnership, Mercora will showcase Nettwerk artists on the home page of www.mercora.com. Music fans will be able to listen to Nettwerk artists for free, browse custom-designed Artist Spotlight pages with biography, discography, pictures, videos, and artist website links, and purchase music downloads in open MP3 formats from Nettwerk's music store located at www.werkshop.com. Nettwerk will also provide exclusive content such as MP3 downloads and music videos to Mercora.

"Music fans can now explore Nettwerk's complete portfolio of established and developing artists, simply by visiting www.mercora.com," said Avikk Ghose, director of Business Development at Mercora. "Additionally, fans can purchase the music downloads in open MP3 formats with no DRM, which significantly expands the market for Nettwerk artists."

Since its inception in 2003, Mercora has been a positive force in the online music space. The social radio network enables new music discovery and drives purchase behavior by providing online users with the ability to search, find, and listen to music from the world's largest legal catalogue. Music on the Mercora network is 100 percent programmed by users who gain instant access to over 100,000 music channels streamed in near CD-quality, over 3 million unique tracks, and 200,000 individual artists across all music genres. Music fans can discover new music for free and purchase downloads, ringtones, CDs, and tickets from Mercora's advertising and commerce partners.

About Nettwerk Music Group

Nettwerk Music Group is Canada's leading privately owned record label and artist management company, responsible for managing some of North America's biggest artists like Sarah McLachlan, Avril Lavigne and many others. Nettwerk has several offices located around the world including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Nashville and London; with the main office right next to Granville Island in Vancouver, B.C.

About Mercora, Inc.

Mercora's mission is to create the world's largest social radio and music network by cataloging and organizing the world's music and audio content and make it universally searchable and legally listenable for everyone. Mercora (www.mercora.com) is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.