Loudeye Corp. (LOUD)

[excel]

Loudeye Announces QuickClips(TM) with Real-Time Analytics
7/9/2003 7:05:00 AM


SEATTLE, Jul 9, 2003 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Loudeye Corp. (LOUD) , a leading provider of services for the management, promotion and distribution of digital media, today introduced the Enhanced Music Samples Service, featuring the proprietary QuickClips(TM) application, which enables online retailers and portals to offer consumers a feature rich, branded media player interface for previewing and purchasing music. QuickClips includes a sophisticated real-time analytics suite, which provides critical information to help Loudeye's customers sell more effectively to consumers.

Loudeye has been the leading provider of music samples on the Internet since 1996, serving billions of samples to users since inception, and over 370 million samples in 2003 alone. Today's announcement represents the first major technological advancement in music samples since they were first introduced in the mid 1990's. It enables Loudeye's customers to directly monetize each sample served in ways previously unavailable.

The QuickClips player bridges the gap between music discovery and music purchase. By tapping the dormant power of music samples, QuickClips elicits the emotional response to close a sale, lowers customer acquisition costs and increases the average transaction value. This proprietary digital media solution enables:

-- Full brand control;
-- One click integration directly from QuickClips player to shopping cart;
-- Robust, real-time analytics; and
-- High quality, no buffering, "instant-on" user experience.


The QuickClips player beta is currently being provided to several Loudeye music samples customers for final testing. Loudeye anticipates full deployment to its samples customers by the end of the third quarter 2003. Loudeye currently provides music samples to many major online retailers and portals including Amazon, Yahoo!, MSN and WindowsMedia.com, AOL, Barnes & Noble, Borders, CDNow and Buy.com.

"Loudeye's QuickClips enhances the user experience for the purchase of music online, and its viral effects can help drive down customer acquisition costs in the online retail marketplace," said Paul Ritter, program manager for Internet Business Strategies at the Yankee Group. "Through its reporting and analytics capabilities, QuickClips provides tangible value and measurable results to online retailers, enabling them to realize ROI from music samples."

"Loudeye was the first company to provide music samples at scale on the Internet and now is the first to advance this offering to a new level of innovation for our customers," said Jeff Cavins, Loudeye's president and chief executive officer. "Loudeye samples have launched billions of digital music players. Through QuickClips, our customers can now monetize this massive deployment of digital music, while maintaining brand control throughout the entire music discovery and purchase cycle. We believe this innovation will be a catalyst to drive retail sales in an emerging music channel, while focusing and pin-pointing how to best sell to the consumer."

QuickClips and the Enhanced Music Samples Service

The Enhanced Music Samples Service enables online retailers, portals, media companies and other businesses to control the entire purchasing experience and drive the sale of music. In the past, it has been difficult to tap the effectiveness of audio samples, because the listening process involves several steps -- finding the sample link, choosing the player, choosing a bit rate, waiting for the player to load, waiting for the sample to buffer before finally hearing the audio. During this experience consumers can easily become impatient or distracted by the non-retailer promotions on third party media players, offering opportunity for an improved music samples service focused on engaging the shopper and driving the sale of music. By using the Enhanced Music Samples Service and customer-branded QuickClips player, Loudeye customers can now provide a consistent, branded interface during music discovery, listening and purchase, which integrates directly with their current commerce site.

The feature rich service includes the customized QuickClips media player, branded audio call-to-action statements, smart sample selections, instant-on audio samples, viral marketing features, and easy integration with the customer's proprietary sales features such as recommendations, shopping carts and consumer reviews. The QuickClips player is fully instrumented for extensive data collection to support the detailed usage reporting and real-time analytics features required to measure and refine the effectiveness of the purchase path. Through the Enhanced Music Samples Service, Loudeye also provides access to new releases weeks prior to official street release, to increase the effectiveness of pre-order promotions and sales.

Full Branding Control

The service allows customers to retain control of the shopping experience, by providing custom branded promotional inserts, call-to-action audio messages and a branded user interface for discovery, listening and purchasing, designed specifically to increase browse-to-buy conversions. The viral marketing feature extends the branded interface and helps lower customer acquisition costs.

Real-Time Analytics

According to a 2002 study by Arbitron Inc. and Edison Media Research, people who have watched or listened to streaming media online bought one and a half times more compact discs in the past year than the average American. Loudeye's Enhanced Music Samples Service provides a suite of real-time analytics and reporting to provide mission critical information regarding audio sample usages patterns and how usage correlates to sales. Now online retailers can see a direct correlation between music samples and online music sales.

State-of-the-Art Digital Media Technology

The service includes the latest in digital media technology, with high quality streaming audio samples, "instant-on" user experience and support for the major browser applications along with the two leading digital media formats. The QuickClips player also includes "smart" technology that selects the best bit rate for each user and auto-plays the most popular clips, with history paging for easy navigation.

"This product was clearly conceived and designed with music retailers and portals' needs in mind," said Mike Harburg, Loudeye's chief technology officer. "Putting song samples front and center in the music purchasing experience is a powerful way to drive the sale of music. Through player branding, instant-on audio and one click purchase capabilities, we believe QuickClips will captivate the music consumer while contributing to increased music sales. Our beta customers have shown enormous interest in the advanced features provided in this service."

Pricing and Availability

Loudeye Enhanced Music Samples Service is available immediately. Contact [e-mail] to view a demo and for pricing information.

About Loudeye Corp.

Loudeye provides the business infrastructure and services for managing, promoting and distributing digital content for the entertainment and corporate markets. For more information, visit www.loudeye.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about the growth of Loudeye's business including, the anticipated adoption of QuickClips and Enhanced Music Samples Services; expected benefits of Loudeye's QuickClips application and Enhanced Music Samples, including return on investment, driving retail sales, and decreased customer acquisition costs; timing of full deployment of QuickClips and the statements made by Loudeye's president and CEO, Loudeye's CTO and statements made by a third party analyst in this release. These statements are based on Loudeye's opinion of current trends and actual results may differ materially due to risks, including adverse changes or a slow down in the adoption of digital media and outsourced services in the markets Loudeye serves; the loss of any key customers; the failure to continue to maintain or develop new copyright licenses to deliver current and future services; the failure or loss of service of Loudeye's technological infrastructure; the complexity of Loudeye's services and delivery networks; and other risks set forth in Loudeye's most recent Form 10-Q, Form 10-K and other SEC filings which are available through EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Loudeye assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Loudeye Corp.

media, Andrew Cullen of Barokas Public Relations,
[phone], or [e-mail], for Loudeye; or investors,
Michael Dougherty of Loudeye, [phone], or [e-mail]


http://www.loudeye.com