Virgin Digital Acquires Shift Music in a Move to Create a Knowledge Base Among Non-Digital Music Consumers

Virgin Digital Acquires Shift Music in a Move to Create a Knowledge Base Among Non-Digital Music Consumers

Acquisition to Serve as Foundation for New Offering

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ Virgin Digital, the digital entertainment platform of the Virgin Group Ltd., announced today that it has acquired Los Angeles-based Shift Music Inc., a consumer-facing digital music conversion, training and consulting company. In a move to converge physical formats with a leading digital music service, Shift and its assets will be folded into Virgin Digital, and will serve as the foundation of a new offering from the service devoted to facilitating consumers' transition to a pure digital media environment.

As part of the acquisition, Aaron Grosky, Founder of Shift Music will become Virgin Digital's Head of Digital Services and Artist & Label Relations. Grosky will report to Zack Zalon, President of Virgin Digital. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Digital music services bring new and exciting opportunities for consumers to enjoy their music. However, figuring out how everything can sync together can be a scary proposition for users when they attempt to merge their physical music collections with their digital music collections," said Zack Zalon, President of Virgin Digital. "Virgin Digital is committed to offering consumers with the most comprehensive and superior digital music experience. With Shift, we can make a new connection with consumers who have been hesitant about making the move to the world of digital music, and help those already adopting the digital way to expand their collections seamlessly."

"Shift Music was created to help people manage their music collections across multiple formats," said Aaron Grosky, Founder of Shift Music, Inc. "The acquisition completes the circle of converging physical with digital assets and was a natural move for us. We are thrilled to be an extension of the Virgin Digital service."

With over 1,000,000 tracks, Virgin Digital is the first comprehensive retail-driven digital music experience featuring a store, digital music club subscription, premium radio, media management tools and community options that is simple to use and operates seamlessly with over 50 portable devices. Through the Digital Megastore, users are able to buy tracks for $0.99 per song and from $9.99 per album. The Virgin Digital Music Club is priced at $7.99 per month enabling members to listen to anything from the entire store on their PC.

About Virgin Digital Virgin Digital, part of the Virgin Group Ltd., is a leading digital music company offering consumers the most comprehensive digital music service available. Virgin Digital is responsible for leveraging new technologies and combining them with Virgin's unrivaled heritage in music to build innovative and highly successful digital consumer offerings. Virgin Digital has created an experience for passionate music lovers that is exciting, fun, dynamic, and the best of breed. Virgin Digital is the first true music-retail driven digital entertainment experience, featuring a massive download store, digital music club, integrated digital radio, music & portable device management tools and the most sophisticated customer service functions ever found in a music service.


Source: Virgin Digital

CONTACT: Karen DeMarco, kdemarco@mprm.com, or Ben Eckerson,
beckerson@mprm.com, both of mPRm Public Relations, +1-323-933-3399, for Virgin
Digital


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