e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[Tinroad]

Duet Officially Named Pressplay
http://123jump.com/news_story.htm?id_news=6400574

New York, Jun 14, 2001 (123Jump via COMTEX) -- Sony Music Entertainment Inc. and Universal Music Group late Monday came up with a name for their online music subscription service and appointed a management team.

The distribution venture known by the working title "Duet" was officially christened "Pressplay", a name that presumably reflects its ease-of-use.

First announced in May of last year, Pressplay is a 50-50 joint music initiative between the two companies. It is scheduled to be launched in late summer and would be licensed to various online music outlets. Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) became the venture's first licensee in April.

Pressplay was created as an independent company with a board of directors and its corporate structure will be much like the Columbia House Record Club, which is half-owned by Sony and half by Warner Music Group. Presently, the digital-music venture employs 70 people in its offices in Los Angeles and New York.

Monday's announcement revealed the appointment of Andy Schuon as PressPlay's president and chief executive officer, with Michael Bebel as chief operating officer.

Schuon had previously led Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub.com, an online music site of the Universal Music Group, which has since been folded into GetMusic.com Inc., another Universal venture. Previously, he served as executive vice president and general manager of Warner Brothers Records and as the top programmer at MTV for several years.

Schuon therefore comes with valuable experience in online music. He will run all of Pressplay's operations, including the launch of the online subscription service, the management of its technical operations and the overall branding and development of the service.

"Andy has proven time and time again that he understands how to take a concept and turn it into a cultural touchstone," said Sony Music Entertainment Chairman and CEO Tommy Mottola, in a statement. "Mike Bebel brings to the table enormous technical experience and a broad-based knowledge of music distribution."

As COO of the venture, Bebel will oversee the business affairs, finance and day-to-day operations of the company, as well as lead its technology implementation.

Bebel previously served as executive vice president, business development and strategic planning for Universal Music Group's eLabs, where he was responsible for the development of e-commerce enterprises and business opportunities.

In his former role with Universal, Bebel also led its strategic investments in ClickRadio Inc., DataPlay Inc. and Listen.com. Besides this, he spearheaded Universal and BMG's GetMusic initiative and sat on the joint venture's board.

The appointments come as Pressplay negotiates with several technology companies, such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), according to sources familiar with the talks. Pressplay has been exploring a deal with Microsoft similar to its existing deal with Yahoo to distribute songs once the service launches, the sources said.

In an interview on Monday, neither Schuon nor Bebel confirmed that discussions with Microsoft were underway, but said the venture was negotiating with several parties.

"We already have the support of two of the world's largest music companies and Yahoo, and we hope to get as many music companies and online affiliate partners on board as possible by the time we launch,'' Bebel said.

Vivendi Gets the Upper Hand Over Sony

Monday's appointments thus shed more light on the direction of Pressplay, which to date has existed more as an idea than an actual product. The latest announcement also marks one of the firsts tangible steps of the venture to keep its promise of creating the online music service.

The announcement also underscores the fact that Universal has taken a much more prominent role in the venture than its partner, Sony. This is due, in part, to eagerness on the side of Vivendi Universal's CEO Jean-Marie Messier to compete in the realm of digital distribution with AOL Time Warner (AOL) and Bertelsmann AG and Emi Group Plc.

Vivendi Universal has been a major mover of consolidation in the online music industry in recent months. In May, the company paid $372 million to purchase music site MP3.com Inc. (MPPP), which increased its online reach by 40 million users.

In April, Vivendi shelled out $32 million to acquire EMusic.com Inc., as well as an undisclosed sum to buy out BMG's share of the companies' joint venture, GetMusic.com. With these acquisitions it hopes to bolster the technological prowess and content offerings of these companies to battle successfully with the rest of the top five record labels.

Labels' Contest

After their industry-wide effort to halt Napster, the record labels abandoned their united front, splitting into two major camps each of which control roughly 40 % of the music market. Pressplay's main rival is expected to be MusicNet, a similar distribution venture backed by AOL Time Warner, EMI Recorded Music, Bertelsmann and the streaming media company RealNetworks Inc. (RNWK).

Plans began to take shape following the recent court decision that sharply curtailed free music swapping on Napster. The world's big five labels have been announcing alignments and acquisitions at breakneck speed as they are preparing to launch music subscription services to fill the void left by the once wildly popular song-swap Napster. Their ambition is to find out viable alternatives quickly to hold up current Napster users, who could migrate to other file-sharing sites.

Vivendi believes that together with Sony, it will have a reliable system in place in just a few months and that it will challenge Napster and act as its legal alternative. On its part, MusicNet also hopes to be the next big trend in distributing music on the Web.

Pressplay's executive appointments follow a licensing deal announced last week between Napster and MusicNet. . This agreement, struck Wednesday, could give Napster the right to sell music from MusicNet's label partners, depending on whether the company can ease security concerns raised by those partners.

MusicNet is also trying to fill its top executive spot. It has begun searching for a new CEO, and has considered executives at EMusic and MP3.com as potential candidates, according to sources close to the companies. EMusic CEO Gene Hoffman has been approached by MusicNet's interim CEO Rob Glaser as one potential candidate, sources say, but they described the talks as "preliminary" and said no formal offer has been extended.

MusicNet has gathered momentum in the eyes of the music and technology industries, while Pressplay has been silent on many details of its service. RealNetworks' CEO Glaser has demonstrated the MusicNet service in front of Congress, showing a system that provides music in streaming and download forms.

Several analysts have said MusicNet has an edge over Pressplay because of its use of RealNetworks' secure technology. Pressplay, is yet to publicly display its service and demonstrate its platform.

.





CONTACT:
For more information, contact 123Jump.com, Inc. Send email to: [e-mail]
Or, visit 123Jump at: http://123jump.com