The Orchard Announces Global Mobile Distribution Platform

The Orchard Announces Global Mobile Distribution Platform

World's Leading Distributor and Marketer of Independent Music Will Provide Tracks to Dwango Wireless, Zingy, 9 Squared, HIFI Ringtones, IAM Mobile, Securycast, Arvato Mobile and Hudson Soft

- Dimensional Associates, Parent Company of The Orchard, to Launch Dimensional Mobile Entertainment -

NEW YORK and CANNES, France, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The Orchard, the world's leading distributor and marketer of independent music, today announced that it has licensed portions of its catalogue to eight industry-leading mobile companies: Dwango Wireless, Zingy, 9 Squared, HIFI Ringtones, IAM Mobile, Securycast, Arvato Mobile and Hudson Soft. The licensed tracks-drawn from The Orchard's 300,000-song catalogue-will be sold as "mastertones" or "true tones" to customers of those mobile services.

The Orchard catalogue includes thousands of tracks coveted by mobile customers eager to personalize their phones. Immediately available are great comedy tracks from comedians Jerry Seinfeld and George Carlin, rock from Coldplay, Green Day, and Beck, rising stars such as Keane and The Donnas, tango from Astor Piazzolla, and Indian music from Ravi Shankar to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. These new agreements will let customers around the world be the first to use these tracks as mastertones and ringbacks. In addition to these leading artists, The Orchard will program broad theme-based music offerings drawing from its deep catalogue.

"Mobile music services want to work with suppliers like The Orchard who understand how to merchandise independent music on mobile platforms," said Greg Scholl, chief executive of The Orchard and a managing director of Dimensional Associates, the parent company of The Orchard, eMusic and Dimensional Music Publishing. "Our expertise in programming niche genres and our deep catalogue will now extend on mobile platforms across four continents through these licensing deals. We remain committed to leading the industry in expanding the market for the world's best independent music-and providing revenue and exposure to our label partners."

In addition, in response to market opportunities in mobile music, Dimensional Associates announces the formation of a new entity, Dimensional Mobile Entertainment (DME). DME will be headed by David Pakman, who is a managing director of Dimensional Associates and the COO of eMusic. DME will be focused on maximizing all mobile exploitation opportunities across Dimensional's family of companies and developing new mobile media businesses through acquisitions and internal development.

DME will launch a number of mobile initiatives in 2005, including:

* The eMusic Mobile service, a new offering for eMusic subscribers that
will allow a single subscription across PC and mobile platforms for
mastertones, streams and full-length downloads to handsets.

* Renewed efforts around the exploitation of the Dimensional Music
Publishing catalogue, including mono- and poly-phonic ringtones to
mobile carriers and operators. This catalogue includes John Denver,
"Disco Inferno," "Get Up, Stand Up" and such classics as Billy
Strayhorn's "Take the 'A' Train."



"The digital music revolution is not shackled to the PC," said David Pakman. "Mobile devices are perfect delivery vehicles for digital music. Outside the U.S., the digital music market is five to ten times larger on mobile platforms than on PC platforms. We are well-positioned to capitalize on this trend by investing heavily in the development of mobile music across Dimensional's portfolio and building new businesses focused on portable music."

About The Orchard

The Orchard (http://www.theorchard.com/ ) is the leading distributor and marketer of independent music in the world, representing thousands of labels spanning over 72 countries and every music genre. The Orchard supplies its catalogue of over 300,000 tracks to all of the leading legal digital music stores and services throughout the world. Headquartered in New York, The Orchard maintains operations in London, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv and Melbourne.

About Dimensional Associates, Inc.

Dimensional Associates, Inc., is the New York-based private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc. Its portfolio companies include eMusic, The Orchard and Dimensional Music Publishing (formerly DreamWorks Music Publishing).

About The Orchard's New Partners

Dwango Wireless

* Founded in 1997, this Japanese company entered the U.S. wireless space
in 2001.

* Specializes in customized entertainment content, ringtones, games and
applications for mobile phones.

* Provides unique content for ESPN, Rolling Stone and Playboy.

Zingy

* Offers ringtones, ringback tones, wallpapers, games, chat, dating,
picture services, and more.

* Delivers content to or powers the mobile media offerings of most major
North American operators, including AT&T Wireless, Alltel, Boost
Mobile, Cingular, Nextel, Sprint PCS, Telcel, First Cellular and T-
Mobile.

* Has distribution partnerships with AOL, MSN and MTV.

9 Squared

* Based in Denver, CO, 9 Squared develops and aggregates entertainment-
based mobile phone content.

* Average over one million downloads per month throughout their network.

* Controls catalogue of over 6,000 pieces of mobile content for more than
275 music publishers, record labels, game developers, image providers
and film studios.

* Recently teamed with Monstermob [UK mobile content provider with over
320,000 subscription customers], NFL [wallpaper logos] and Billboard.

Hifi Ringtones

* Specializes in Real Music Ringtones. Licenses musical real tones from
over 200 artists on Sony, V2, Silva Screen and many others.

* Partnered with e-payment solutions provider MPP Global Solutions, who
supply Hifi Ringtones with a content management system, payment
collection, online sales tracking and more.

IAM Mobile

* Australian service launched in December 2004 by former record producer
Hilton Rosenthal [Johnny Clegg, Paul Simon, Carole King].

* Offers Trutones -- ringtones featuring original music and voice
recordings by original artists -- to AUS consumers. Includes artists
like Beyonce, Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jet, Snoop Dogg,
Isaac Hayes, Jerky Boys, 50 Cent, and many others.

* Partnered with these providers: Telstra Corp. Limited (Telstra Mobile
Net), Vodafone, Pacific Limited, Singtel Optus Limited.

Securycast

* Founded in Finland in 2003.

* Digital Service Provider [DSP] that boasts a digital rights management
[DRM] distribution system called BCS - Better Content Security. BCS
software is tailored to distribute music, videos, movies, e-books,
games, etc.

Arvato Mobile (A Bertelsmann Company)

* Is Europe's leading mobile entertainment provider.

* Enables operators, media companies and internet-portals to offer their
customer first-rate mobile content and innovative applications.

* Agreements with over 100 music companies and over 150 rightsholders
from the movie-, games- and television-industry.

* References include Vodafone Global, T-Mobile, Wind, TIM, Orange, O2, i-
mode, Swisscom, Telering, Telefonica, Mobilkom and T-Online.

Hudson Soft, Co. Ltd.

* Published the first PC game in Japan in 1978 with Nintendo.

* Continue to provide cutting-edge games for all video game consoles.

* Started a mobile division in 2000 to provide mobile content for NTT
Docomo's I-mode platform.

* Offers over 5,500 master tones through "Chakushin Uta."

* 270,000 people registered to the site with exponential sales growth.


Media Contacts:

Andy Morris MIDEM-based Contact
Andy Morris & Company Jason Ojalvo
212-561-7465 +1 917-640-7018
andy@amc-pr.com MIDEM stand R 31.17


Web sites: http://www.theorchard.com


Source: The Orchard

CONTACT: Andy Morris of Andy Morris & Company, +1-212-561-7465,
andy@amc-pr.com; Jason Ojalvo, MIDEM-based Contact, +1-917-640-7018, MIDEM
stand R 31.17


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Profile: intent