ARTISTdirect Announces Licensing Partnership with Universal Music Publishing Group; Launches Interactive Lyrics Page

Business Wire, August 18, 2008

Publishing Deal Provides ARTISTdirect with Lyric Rights

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- ARTISTdirect, Inc. (www.artistdirect.com), the premier Internet resource for music and entertainment news, today announced a licensing partnership with Universal Music Publishing Group, the world's leading global music publishing company, for rights to the lyrics of some its most popular songs. Through the deal, lyrics to Universal Music Publishing Group songs will be featured in a dynamic new interactive lyrics section launching this fall on ARTISTdirect.com.

The licensing partnership opens the vaults of the publisher powerhouse to give ARTISTdirect fans for the first time easy access to legal, accurate song lyrics from top music acts past and present from current chart toppers to beloved classics.

"Universal Music Publishing Group has an amazing catalog of award-winning music and we are privileged to be able to provide the words to songs that have so profoundly impacted our culture," said Dimitri Villard, Interim CEO of ARTISTdirect. "This partnership helps create one of the largest repositories for official lyrics as written by the songwriters."

"Our search for new revenue opportunities for our songwriters and artists continues and this deal marks another positive step in monetizing the legal use of lyrics online," said David Renzer, Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group. "We are happy to partner with ARTISTdirect for this new service."

The upcoming launch of the new lyrics pages fortify ARTISTdirect as the best destination for music fans looking for information, news and entertainment on every musical act in a multitude of genres. Users will be able to access layers of exciting interactive features and contextually relevant music content alongside the lyrics such as up-to-the-minute artist news, streaming music and videos as well as advanced search functionality. Song lyrics will be searchable and viewable in a text format and will provide music fans with accurate song verses for a wide variety of music genres including hip-hop, indie rock, pop, jazz, blues and more.

Added Villard: "This added lyrics feature also enables ARTISTdirect to further solidify the band-fan relationship with another layer of connectivity with our community."

ARTISTdirect provides 24/7 in-depth coverage of music and entertainment news with behind-the-scenes interviews, reviews and exclusive music festival information with a full time editorial staff dedicated to keeping fans in-the-know. Additionally, ARTISTdirect hosts a variety of music videos and robust video channels featuring content from ManiaTV, GoDigital, Comedy-Time, Suretone Records, Celebrities.com and the ARTISTdirect Archives amongst others.

About ARTISTdirect, Inc.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, ARTISTdirect.com is the premier destination for all things related to music and film and their artists. Through its rich, multimedia repository of contextually relevant information and entertainment, the company creates deep connections between artists and fans that deliver benefits to both the entertainment consumer and the entertainment industry. ARTISTdirect.com receives over 5 million unique visitors per month while the ARTISTdirect network, a family of related Web sites, draws more than 45 million monthly unique visitors. Featuring the latest hit videos, streams, free downloads, breaking news, in-depth interviews with musicians, actors, filmmakers and film score composers, a huge data base filled with biographies and discographies plus hard-to-find information, as well as CDs, concert and movie tickets for purchase, ARTISTdirect.com is the ultimate resource for anyone with an appetite for finding new and interesting content about their favorite artists and their music and films.

For more information please visit www.artistdirect.com

About Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG)

UMPG is the industry's leading global music publishing operation and is part of Universal Music Group. UMPG represents music in every genre from many of the world's top songwriters and catalogs including U2, Elton John, Bernie Taupin, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, R. Kelly, Coldplay, Nelly, Juan Gabriel, Ciara, Dave Grohl, Prince, Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5, Britney Spears, Beastie Boys, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Paul Simon, Henry Mancini, Christina Aguilera and Linkin Park, among many others. For more information, visit: www.umusicpub.com.