Companies Come Together to Provide an Industry Standard Solution to Music Labels, Rights Organizations, Licensed Music Services, Broadcasters and Retailers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — January 7, 2002 — Loudeye Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq NM: LOUD), a leading provider of Webcasting and digital media streaming services, and Audible Magic Corporation, a provider of content-based identification (CBID) technologies, today announced at the Future of Music Conference in Washington D.C., the immediate availability of a digital music tracking and management solution.

Loudeye is contributing major portions of its extensive digital music archive system and metadata database, which includes content from both major and independent labels, its scalable and extensible media data center and its robust hosting and network infrastructure. These are integrated in a solution that includes Audible Magic’s advanced CBID technologies for accurately identifying and tracking music or speech from digital sources such as files and Internet streams, as well as analog sources such as terrestrial radio and TV broadcasts, without the use of watermarks.

The Challenge

The music industry is undergoing a period of dynamic change. Industry trends demonstrate that consumers are beginning to expect flexible access to their music in a variety of digital formats and on a variety of device platforms. To meet this demand, vendors are proliferating, spurring new distribution and licensing models. Nonetheless, new consumption behaviors, business models and distribution opportunities require the need for copyright holders and artists to be paid for the usage of their music. Lack of standards, incompatible systems, inaccurate song information, the cost and complexity of in-house deployments, and the sheer volume of music transactions that need to be managed make this a challenging problem.

The Solution

The solution that Loudeye and Audible Magic are announcing today represents a back-end system that meets the specialized needs of music service providers, content owners and global rights organizations to address these challenges.

The two companies provide an end-to-end solution that:

  • independently monitors and generates accurate reports of digital music usage and performances;
  • functions across multiple devices, platforms and networks;
  • easily integrates into existing systems;
  • scales to handle the high volumes of consumer music usage across all broadcast, peer-to-peer and subscription service models; and
  • provides cost savings of 20-40% when compared to the use of multiple point technologies and in-house developed solutions.

“This joint offering represents an important step in providing a comprehensive system that we believe addresses many of the challenges faced by the music industry in developing a viable market for authorized usage of digital music,” said John T. Baker, Loudeye chairman and chief executive officer. “This solution is capable of non-intrusively and accurately identifying a wide range of audio content and provides the industry with critical and much-needed media services.”

How it Works

The initial implementation utilizes major portions of Loudeye’s music information database to generate a digital fingerprint library using Audible Magic’s audio identification technology. The fingerprint library is integrated with Loudeye’s track-level metadata to create the industry’s most comprehensive reference database for music identification. Audible Magic’s CBID technologies monitor digital music usage and performances, comparing such activity against the reference database to accurately identify each song to a master recording, copyright owner and artist.

Audible Magic will receive database updates on a continuous basis as new song information is added to Loudeye’s catalogue, and officials from both companies anticipate it will rapidly expand to include Loudeye’s complete music information database, which spans nearly the entire North American music catalog.

“Our comprehensive music identification technology, combined with Loudeye’s extensive metadata, enables us to offer the media industry trusted and practical solutions for digital content tracking and management,” said Vance Ikezoye, president and CEO of Audible Magic. “This solution can be deployed immediately to help copyright holders and artists benefit from the growth in use of digital music.”

Pricing and Availability

The combined solution is available immediately. Customized features determine pricing.

Loudeye is a leading provider of services and infrastructure for the delivery of digital media and streaming content. Loudeye offers music samples, metadata, digital rights management (DRM), online radio, media restoration and Webcasting solutions for customers in the enterprise, retail, broadcast, cable and satellite industries. Loudeye has music licensing agreements with the world’s five major record companies and more than 800 independent labels. Customers include MSN, AOL, CDNOW, BMG Direct and barnesandnoble.com.

Loudeye’s Activate subsidiary offers live and on-demand enterprise Webcasting services for earnings calls, product launches, conference streaming, distance training and sales calls. Customers using Activate’s Webcasting services include Compaq, Microsoft, Adobe, and Safeco. Loudeye’s VidiPax subsidiary provides video and audio restoration, preservation and migration services for customers including Coca Cola, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the University of North Carolina, and the Alan Lomax Archives.

To learn more, visit www.loudeye.com, www.activate.net or www.vidipax.com.

Audible Magic Corporation is the leading provider of content management and anti-piracy services. Its patented content identification technologies and extensive reference database of audio and video content enable the company to monitor, track, manage, filter and monetize multi-media digital content. The company’s core copyright-sensing technology, CopySense®, accurately identifies digital or broadcast media content based on the perceptual characteristics of the content itself. Built on a patented electronic fingerprinting process, the technology is robust, efficient, and massively scalable. Recognized throughout the music and video industry as the de factor leader in identification services, Audible Magic is headquartered in Los Gatos, California. Its customers include Web 2.0 websites, CD/DVD replicators, peer-to-peer networking companies, internet service providers and universities, which span the media and entertainment industries, major business, governmental and educational institutions markets.

For more information, visit Audible Magic’s website at www.audiblemagic.com or contact:

Audible Magic Media & Analyst Inquiries

Jay Friedman
Vice President of Marketing and Product Management
408-399-6405 x238
[email protected]