Filling iPods With LDS Content

Filling iPods With LDS Content

Free MP3 Downloads of the Book of Mormon and Christmas Songs Available at LDSAudio.com

OREM, Utah, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Sales of Apple's iPod and other MP3 players are expected to be brisk this Holiday Season and a Utah company hopes to ride the wave of the digital audio industry to success within the LDS community. LDS Media, a company that is tightly affiliated with Deseret Book, offers downloads of LDS audio books, talks and music from its website, LDSAudio.com.

For the holiday season, LDSAudio.com is offering FREE MP3 downloads of The Book of Mormon and two Christmas songs. To download the free audio programs, site visitors can click on the promotion link on the main page of the site.

"We started offering a free download of the Book of Mormon two years ago," explains Doug Smith, President of LDS Media. "Since then, we've made more than 600 LDS books, talks, and albums available in MP3 format. Our customers use them on their iPods, computers, and other compatible devices."

According to Mr. Smith, sales started slowly but have grown steadily. "When we started few people understood what 'digital audio' was, let alone MP3 files. But we now see that people are hungry for more LDS content to play on their computers and MP3 players."

To spur sales during the holidays, the company has launched its first-ever online Christmas sale at LDSAudio.com, providing a savings of 20% on all audio downloads. An online coupon code is available to anyone who visits the Web site. Even without the discount, prices for downloading audio programs typically run 15% to 30% below the same content sold on CDs in retail stores.

Behind LDS Media's growth is the rapid expansion of the digital audio market fueled by lower cost, higher-capacity players. Apple alone is expected to reach 37 million in unit sales of its popular iPod device according to Gene Munster, a senior analyst for Piper Jaffray as reported in Forbes.

"It's obvious people are buying these devices," says Smith. "The next question is: What will they be listening to on them? We have a service that helps answer that question for the LDS household."

LDS Media believes that Mormons will want to include uplifting titles by LDS authors and artists, such as Gordon B. Hinckley, Sheri Dew, Michael McLean, Jericho Road, and others, in their playlists.

"We've worked hard to assemble a compelling online experience with the best LDS audio content available," explains Jim Ericson, vice president of marketing for LDS Media. "It's gratifying to see how excited people are about being able to download music and audio books they can feel good about."

The company has received emails from customers as far away as Australia, Lithuania and Japan thanking them for the service they provide at LDSAudio.com. "We have thousands of customers in Utah, but I think the people who appreciate our site the most are those who live in far-flung cities and countries who have less access to LDS products and services," Mr. Ericson said.

The prices at LDSAudio.com are modest, starting at $.99 for a single song. Books, talks and albums can be downloaded at prices ranging from $4.95 to $29.95.

About LDS Media:

Founded in 2004, LDS Media is a division of Infobase Media Corp. focused on the LDS market. Infobase Media makes valuable text, audio and video content, in every field of human knowledge, available in digital format. Deseret Book is closely affiliated with Infobase Media for content, marketing and distribution of audio books and music in MP3 format, as well as electronic texts included in LDS Library 2006, LDS PDA Library and Lesson & Talk Builder software products. Other content providers include Brigham Young University, Excel Entertainment, Litchfield Associates, Prime Recording, Sounds of Zion and Sound Concepts, among others. The LDS Media Network includes LDSAudio.com and LDSLibrary.com as well as the LDS Audio Listener's Library of digital audio titles on CD ROM. Founded by Paul Allen and Dan Taggart, the co-founders of Infobases, Ancestry.com(TM) and MyFamily.com(TM), Infobase Media is a private company funded by private investors.

About LDSAudio.com:

LDSAudio.com is a Web property of Infobase Media Corp. dedicated to providing downloadable digital (MP3) audio books, talks and music primarily for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The company leverages the relationships mentioned above to convert and distribute LDS content provided by major publishers, authors and recording artists in digital audio format, specifically.

CONTACT: Jim Ericson

801-437-9691

Source: LDS Media

CONTACT: Jim Ericson of LDS Media, +1-801-437-9691

Web site: http://www.ldsaudio.com/

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