The Orchard Launches High-End Production Service for Distributed Labels, Digital Services

The Orchard Launches High-End Production Service for Distributed Labels, Digital Services

Orchard Offers Labels Innovative Way To Generate New Masters and Retailers Custom, Exclusive Music

eMusic To Launch Dedicated Programming Area To Promote The Music

NEW YORK, and AUSTIN, Texas, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Orchard, the world's leading digital distributor and marketer of independent music, today announced the launch of a new offering for its top distributed labels and the digital retailers and mobile operators that The Orchard services. This follows Orchard's recent investment in providing its labels a no-cost, high- quality solution to create digital masters for their out-of-print and limited- release vinyl for digital sale in its "Digital Wax" program, to be branded "When It Was Wax" at digital and mobile retail.

This latest program is the result of a collaboration between The Orchard and Paul Wolff of Tonelux. Wolff, a legendary audio designer and engineer and former owner of API, is widely known for his landmark designs, including API's Legacy and Legacy Plus consoles, and the Vision, a complete surround recording/mixing console.

The fully-portable recording and mixing solution is centered around a full-feature, 24-track Tonelux console -- a revolutionary approach marrying full-console functionality with state-of-the-art sonics in a modular and portable design. The console will track to a Radar V-Nyquist 24-track hard disk recorder, the leading and most "analogue" of all digital recording solutions (and easily exportable for post-production and mixing work in any digital workstation, including ProTools(TM)). Microphones range from multiple channels of the acclaimed Tracy Korby Audio KAT-4 large diaphragm system, vintage offerings from Neumann and Schoeps, and the unique SoundField Mark V microphone.

The system, located in New York, offers a fully portable, yet extremely high-quality tracking and mixing solution. Top Orchard labels will have access to the equipment and The Orchard will work to facilitate live recordings at New York venues, but also to broker access to unique New York spaces for innovative projects outside of the traditional "studio" environment. The program offers labels a way to generate new and interesting music for their artists' fans. For digital retailers and mobile operators, The Orchard will use the system to produce targeted, exclusive music for featured placement in their digital stores.

The initial and diverse group of artists scheduled for sessions in the program include breaking indie rock bands Art Brut and The Hold Steady; jazz guitar great Peter Bernstein (who plans to release his next album, on the landmark Xanadu jazz record label, through the program); the acclaimed Harlem Gospel Choir; and local Brooklyn genre-bending virtuoso Jeremiah Lockwood (a member of Balkan Beat Box), who plans to use the program to create a live recording that captures his unique country blues busking style familiar to New Yorkers through his ongoing participation in the Music Under New York program. Importantly, all artists and labels retain full rights for physical distribution-artists and labels own their masters.

"The Orchard is first and foremost a marketer, and they have helped Fierce Panda and Art Brut in ensuring that our digital efforts complement and are in sync with our larger promotional goals for the band. The Orchard is the most creative digital marketer in the industry, and no doubt, this has helped Art Brut. With this new program, they have made yet another innovation available to its labels that will lead to more and better music for fans, and more and better audiences for artists," said Philip Ingles, Label Manager of Fierce Panda.

eMusic, the world's largest and leading digital retailer focused exclusively on independent music, has agreed to create a dedicated programming section featuring music from this Orchard program. Live performances will be featured in a special programming area within eMusic's existing eMusicLive area, while other recordings will be merchandised as appropriate to the genre, and all retail branding will focus on the artists and labels themselves.

"Through this new program, our labels and retailer partners can capture great and unique music and make it available to their customers. New York's five boroughs are one of the creative hubs of the music industry, and we are fortunate to experience a regular flow of talent in and out of the city. We are excited to work with the labels that represent these great artists to produce and distribute new music from them," said Greg Scholl, chief executive of The Orchard. "Great work can be produced with blunt instruments, but we feel just because something is sold digitally doesn't mean the sound quality should suffer. Every year, resolution will improve and eventually, investments now in high-quality masters will pay off in the ears of consumers."

"The Orchard continues to be one of eMusic's largest and most valuable partners, in terms of the size and scope of its catalogue; and on an absolute basis, as-by far-our biggest-selling supplier. We are pleased that they continue to support the important labels they represent, and to invest heavily in programming highly desired by eMusic's customers," said David Pakman, President and CEO of eMusic.

"In the past, the concept of using an extremely high quality, yet portable recording system meant hiring a recording truck and its associated crews along with the expenses that came with it. In today's world of music recording, the issue becomes 'what can deliver the same quality and still capture the immediate mood of the artist and performance without sacrifice?' The idea behind Tonelux was created from my 30 years of recording and manufacturing of recording equipment experience. The Orchard's pioneering adoption of this solution to provide their label and retail partners with a new, flexible, cost-effective and creative way to capture unique artistic performances will be great for music fans," said Wolff.

Interested labels should contact Jordy Trachtenberg at Jordy@theorchard.com. Interested digital retailers and mobile operators should contact Jaclyn Ranere at Jaclyn@theorchard.com.

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 800,000 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, Vancouver, Kolkata, Johannesburg, Moscow and Melbourne, and local representatives in Paris, Milan, Berlin, Barcelona, Lausanne, Ramallah, Nairobi, and Sao Paulo.

About eMusic

eMusic (http://www.emusic.com/) stands alone as the only digital music service that is 100% focused on serving the needs of independent music fans and independent labels. Delivering more than 4.5 million downloads each month; eMusic is among the top digital music services, offering a diverse catalogue of 1,000,000 tracks from established and emerging artists in every genre from the world's top independent labels. eMusic was not only the first service to sell songs and albums in the popular MP3 format, it was the first company to launch a digital music subscription service. Unlike other services that severely restrict portability, eMusic allows members complete flexibility to burn CDs, transfer to MP3 devices and make multiple copies for personal use. eMusic also offers access to exclusive recordings from eMusicLive's network of premier music venues across the country.

About Tonelux

Tonelux (http://www.tonelux.com/) was created in 2003 after Paul Wolff, previous owner of API (Api Audio Products or Automated Processes, Inc) sold the company, then left the new company to explore a new direction in recording systems. Mr. Wolff purchased API in 1985 and through that period, designed and built more than 30 all discrete recording and mixing consoles, including the Legacy, Legacy Plus and the last console, the Vision, which was a complete surround recording/mixing console. Other innovative products included the 200 series outboard line, the famed 2500 bus compressor and one of the first external bussing mixers, the 8200 series. Wolff left those products behind as he saw a shift in the professional recording industry that called for a more compact, affordable recording product line with superior quality and tone. With the advent of the Digital Audio Workstation, recording was changing direction rapidly and the need to change direction in other areas was required. Having a visionary outlook at the industry, Mr. Wolff created a whole new product line with a whole new concept in design, which in only a few years has been used on many high profile recording and mixing projects and is rapidly becoming the go-to line for every aspect of recording. The Tonelux idea is to allow an artist or engineer the ability to custom build any size or format console like unit from 8 to 80 channels without any quality or tonal compromises. Paul Wolff began to see that with the change in recording direction, artists and engineers were re-inventing the process much like it was in the early days of recording where they were writing the rules as they recorded the band. This is why Mr. Wolff says, "It's like 1967 all over again". He also feels that the industry is not dying, it is growing from new roots into a whole new plant, and those of us who take care of the plant will reap the benefits of its fruit.

Media Contacts:
Andy Morris / Justin Kazmark
The Morris + King Company
(212) 561-7465 / (212) 561-7466
andy.morris@morris-king.comjustin.kazmark@morris-king.com

All other inquiries:
info@theorchard.com

Source: The Orchard

CONTACT: Andy Morris, +1-212-561-7465, andy.morris@morris-king.com, or
Justin Kazmark, +1-212-561-7466, justin.kazmark@morris-king.com, both of The
Morris + King Company

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