eMUSIC TEAMS UP WITH UK’S (AIM) ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC

World’s No. 1 Independent Music Service Continues Global Expansion; Licenses More Than 10,000 Tracks from Leading UK-Based Indie Labels

Celebrated Artists from V2, Cherry Red Records and ZTT Records Now on eMusic

New York, NY—September 20, 2005—eMusic, the world’s No. 1 independent music service, selling more than 2.4 million tracks monthly, today announced the launch of its partnership with The Association of Independent Music (AIM), the UK-based nonprofit trade organization for independent record companies and distributors. This new alliance with AIM demonstrates eMusic’s continuously expanding global presence, while adding more than 10,000 new tracks from 19 highly regarded UK-based indie labels, including V2, Cherry Red Records and ZTT Records.

Debuting on eMusic with the AIM launch are some of today’s most popular indie acts representing a wide range of genres from alternative, rock, pop and punk to dance, electronic, hip-hop and breakbeat. Among the artists that can now be discovered on eMusic through the AIM partnership are Belle and Sebastian, Elbow, Rakes, Stereophonics, Mercury Rev, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Girls On Top, Shane MacGowan and John Digweed.

This partnership with AIM strengthens eMusic’s position as the only music service with significant global credibility on the indie music scene. AIM is the gateway into one of the most diverse and influential indie markets in the music industry, as the UK has always commanded a large share of important names across the industry.

“Perhaps no other music community is as dedicated to the nurturing and success of independent music than the UK’s AIM,” said David Pakman, president and CEO of eMusic and a managing director of Dimensional Associates, the private equity arm of JDS Capital that owns eMusic, The Orchard and Dimensional Music Publishing. “Offering AIM’s affiliated labels to our subscribers is an essential part of our global expansion strategy. We are extremely excited to partner with AIM and their outstanding roster of labels and artists as they bring exceptional depth and diversity to the eMusic catalog.”

“I'm delighted to be able to offer our members the opportunity to make their music available through eMusic's service” commented James Kyllo, General Manager, AIM Digital.

“V2 is very excited to be working with eMusic,” said Beth Appleton, New Media and Business Development Manager of V2. “eMusic has an established subscription base and we are very pleased that our repertoire will now be available via the eMusic platform and look forward to seeing the results of working together.”

About eMusic
eMusic (http://www.emusic.com) stands alone as the only digital music service that is 100% focused on serving the needs of independent music fans and independent labels. Delivering more than 2.4 million downloads each month, eMusic is among the top digital music services, offering a diverse catalog of 750,000 tracks from established and emerging artists in every genre from the world's top independent labels. eMusic was not only the first service to sell songs and albums in the popular MP3 format, it was the first company to launch a digital music subscription service. Unlike other services that severely restrict portability, eMusic allows members complete flexibility to burn CDs, transfer to MP3 devices and make multiple copies for personal use. eMusic also offers access to exclusive recordings from eMusicLive's network of premier music venues across the country. eMusic subscription plans start at $9.99 per month for 40 downloads. A free trial is available to all new users. Based in New York and San Diego, eMusic is wholly owned by Dimensional Associates, Inc., the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc.

NOTE: eMusic is a registered trademark and eMusic.com is a trademark of eMusic.com Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About AIM and the UK independent Record Sector:

AIM is the non-profit trade body established in 1998 by UK independent record labels to represent the independent record sector, 1/5 of the UK market with 2004 sales worth nearly £1/2 billion from mainstream retail alone.

AIM has over 900 members, from the smallest start-ups to the largest and most respected independents in the world. The early adopter mentality of the independents is common to all aspects of their business. AIM promotes this exciting and diverse sector globally, leveraging the sector’s power as a fifth major to enable its members to grow, grasp new opportunities and break into new markets. AIM has agreed collective licensing deals with Sony Connect, Yahoo, Musicnet, eMusic, Karma Download, Tunetribe and others through its new media arm AIM Digital, and remains the only organisation to have inked deals with both old and new versions of Napster.

AIM oversees an independent sector whose artists have claimed the Mercury Music Prize for three years running and earned two thirds of nominations in 2005. This cutting edge sector also scooped the third highest number of 2005 Brit nominations and came behind only Universal in terms of wins, with indie signed Franz Ferdinand grabbing the Brit for “Best British Group” closely followed by the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song.

In commercial terms the independent sector accounted for 30% of all UK artist albums that went silver, gold or platinum in 2004 and produced the only UK debut album with triple platinum sales. Nine of the world’s twenty most critically acclaimed albums in 2004, as voted by the UK music press, were also independent.

UK independent signed artists include Bjork, The Killers, Bloc Party, Stereophonics, The White Stripes, The Strokes, Basement Jaxx, The Prodigy, Paul Weller, Badly Drawn Boy, Pixies, Mylo, Robert Plant, Nitin Sawnhey, Elbow, The Zutons, Babyshambles, Arcade Fire, Royksopp, Roots Manuva, Lemon Jelly, Coldcut, M.I.A., and thousands of others.

www.musicindie.com

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