The Orchard to Provide Vast Catalogue of Music to 40 Internet and Mobile Retailers in South Korea

The Orchard to Provide Vast Catalogue of Music to 40 Internet and Mobile Retailers in South Korea

-- Selected As Exclusive Independent Music Provider To Seoul Records / SK telecom --

The largest digital music catalogue in the world exclusively distributed into the #1 mobile music market in the world via Seoul Records/SK telecom

NEW YORK and SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The Orchard, the world's leading distributor and marketer of independent music, yesterday announced a landmark partnership with Seoul Records, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SK telecom, the leading broadband and wireless provider in South Korea. Seoul Records will act as the exclusive South Korean distributor of The Orchard's 700,000 song catalogue of independent music. As part of the partnership, The Orchard's marketing team will actively assist the South Korean music services in promoting, highlighting and merchandising independent music from around the world.

"This pioneering relationship expands our distribution into one of the largest digital music markets in the world, and further solidifies The Orchard as the industry leader, marketing the best independent record labels globally in new and innovative ways. Working closely with SK telecom, The Orchard will help to fuel the impressive digital music growth in South Korea and offer exciting new music to consumers there for the first time," said Greg Scholl, chief executive of The Orchard and managing director of Dimensional Associates, the company that owns The Orchard, eMusic and Dimensional Music Publishing.

Kyu Jeong, Chief Marketing Officer of Seoul Records, added, "In South Korea, more digital music is sold than music on CDs. We are proud to distribute such a deep and diverse catalogue of music throughout our country, and give consumers more variety in the music they can download. The Orchard's catalogue is so diverse; it will appeal to virtually every music fan. We are confident that The Orchard's expertise in helping the mobile retailers in South Korea understand and merchandise these diverse genres will prove invaluable."

As part of the partnership, Seoul Records will distribute The Orchard's catalogue through their existing South Korean digital distribution network, including among many others, the following brands:

-- MelOn
-- MSN
-- LG Telecom
-- Yahoo Korea
-- ... and about 35 more

The Orchard's catalogue will represent up to one third of the total number of tracks in each digital music service, and includes a diverse roster of music: landmark indie rock and punk from SST (Black Flag, Soundgarden) and Lookout! Records (The Donnas, Ted Leo), classic hip-hop from Delicious Vinyl (Tone Loc, Young MC) and Nature Sounds (MF Doom, Immortal Technique), classical music from Analekta and Qualiton, Bollywood hits from Saregama (Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar) and other top Indian labels, and much more. The Orchard catalogue also includes music from such multi-platinum acts as Green Day, Coldplay, and Ray Charles from their early years, before they were signed to major labels. Overall, The Orchard's catalogue encompasses music from thousands of record labels spanning 73 countries and every music genre.

The Orchard manages a growing catalogue of more than 700,000 tracks, which it markets and distributes to all of the world's leading digital music stores, including eMusic, iTunes, Napster, MSN, Yahoo!/MusicMatch, and Real/Rhapsody. The Orchard also distributes over 10,000 ringtones to the leading global mobile companies, maintaining the largest mobile network of any music distributor.

This agreement follows on SK telecom's announcement last month that their MelOn music service doubled in 6 months, to over 4 million subscribers, with the number of paying subscribers for the music subscription service increased to over 600,000. This indicates that the paid music subscription system is taking root in the Korean digital music market.

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 73 countries and every music genre. The Orchard supplies its catalogue of more than 700,000 tracks to all of the leading legal digital music retailers and mobile operators throughout the world. The company is headquartered in New York and London, with operations in Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Toronto, Kolkata, Johannesburg, Moscow and Melbourne, and local representatives in Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Lausanne, Ramallah and Nairobi.

About Seoul Records

Seoul Records (http://www.seoulrecords.co.kr/) is the nationally well-known Korean record company which holds the biggest market share in the off-line music market in South Korea. Seoul Records has become a subsidiary of SK telecom, the prominent market leader in developing new mobile technologies. SK telecom manages world's first ubiquitous music service "Melon", now. Seoul Records is quickly positioning as a major digital music service provider with strong supports from SK telecom. Seoul Records release more than 200 title a year including Korean Pop, Christian Contemporary Music, Korean traditional music, J-pop, Rock, World Music album with some licensed albums of JVC Victor, King Record in Japan, V2 in the U.K, Biscoito Fino in Brazil and Putumayo World Music in U.S.

Media Contacts:

For The Orchard: For SK:
Andy Morris Kyu Jeong
The Morris + King Company Seoul Records
212-561-7465 82-1-2280-7830
andy.morris@morris-king.comdesmond@seoulrecords.co.kr

All other Orchard inquiries: info@theorchard.com

Source: The Orchard

CONTACT: Andy Morris of The Morris + King Company for The Orchard,
+1-212-561-7465, or andy.morris@morris-king.com; or Kyu Jeong of Seoul Records
for SK, 82-1-2280-7830, or desmond@seoulrecords.co.kr; or all other Orchard
inquiries, info@theorchard.com

Web site: http://www.seoulrecords.co.kr/
http://www.theorchard.com/

-------
Profile: intent