Verve Announces Release of Rare Albums as Rhapsody Exclusives

Verve Announces Release of Rare Albums as Rhapsody Exclusives

Over 25 Classic, Out-of-Print Records to be Available Exclusively at Rhapsody for 90 Days

NEW YORK, May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The Verve Music Group has announced an exclusive program with Rhapsody(R), the award-winning online music service from RealNetworks(R), to make a number of its classic, out-of-print recordings available to consumers as digital releases.

Verve has had much success in bringing back titles that either had been deleted from its catalog or were never-before-available and making these titles available as digital-only tracks and albums. Verve and Rhapsody are making this exclusive content available in response to consumer interest.

"Today's consumer lives an on-demand lifestyle and The Verve Music Group is thrilled to have Rhapsody embrace the delivery of out-of-print music to meet the consumer demand for it," says Ron Goldstein, President and CEO of The Verve Music Group. "Verve can now achieve the full potential of its amazing catalog by re-releasing these classic recordings in the digital space."

The program will launch with 28 titles. These titles, which are currently unavailable for purchase anywhere in America, will be released to Rhapsody beginning on May 23rd and will be available exclusively through the service for three months. Consumers will be able to stream, download, or purchase these classic recordings via the Rhapsody service as well as transfer them to compatible portable devices. Rhapsody and Verve will support this exclusive relationship with a variety of album features and promotions as well as outreach to core music audiences.

"We're very excited to be adding nearly 30 out-of-print titles from Verve Records to Rhapsody," said Tim Quirk, GM of Music Content and Programming. "Rhapsody's infinite shelf space means there's always room for more great music from influential Verve artists such as Art Blakey, Ella Fitzgerald, and Oscar Peterson."

Verve titles coming to Rhapsody through the program include:

Albert Mangelsdorff, Jaco Pastorius, and Alphonse Mouzon "Trilogue" (Live)
Alphonse Mouzon "By All Means"
Anita O'Day "Anita"
Art Blakey "The Complete Art Blakey on EmArcy"
Art Tatum "I Got Rhythm Vol. 3 (1935-44)"
Baden Powell "Estudos"
Ben Sidran "I Lead A Life"
Ben Sidran "Puttin' In Time On Planet Earth"
Ben Sidran "The Cat In The Hat"
Ben Webster and Don Byas "Ben Webster Meets Don Byas"
Bill Evans "Symbiosis"
Clark Terry "Clark After Dark"
Dexter Gordon and Slide Hampton "A Day in Copenhagen"
Don "Sugar Cane" Harris "Fiddler On The Rock"
Don Ellis "Soaring"
Duke Ellington "Collages"
Ella Fitzgerald "Songs In A Mellow Mood"
Freddie Hubbard "The Hub Of Hubbard"
George Duke "I Love The Blues, She Heard Me Cry"
Helen Merrill and Ron Carter "Duets"
Jean-Luc Ponty "Sunday Walk"
Joe Henderson "Mirror Mirror"
Marlena Shaw "Out Of Different Bags"
Monty Alexander "The Duke Ellington Songbook"
Oscar Peterson "Bursting Out With The All-Star Big Band"
Stephane Grappelli and the Diz Disley Trio "Violinspiration"
The Eddie Davis-Johnny Griffin Quintet "Tough Tenors - Again N Again"
The Jan Hammer Trio "Maliny Maliny"

About Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is the world's largest music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 75 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, one of the industry's largest global music publishing operations.

Universal Music Group consists of record labels Decca Music Group, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Geffen Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Universal Music Latino, Universal Motown Records Group, and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, a new media and technologies division, and Universal Music Mobile.

Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.

ABOUT REALNETWORKS

RealNetworks, Inc. is the leading creator of digital media services and software including Rhapsody(R), RealPlayer(R) 10 and casual PC and mobile games. Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks' products and services to create and deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks' consumer software at http://www.real.com/. RealNetworks' systems and corporate information is located at http://www.realnetworks.com/.

www.vervemusicgroup.com www.rhapsody.com

Source: Verve Music Group

CONTACT: Regina Joskow of Universal Music Group, +1-212-331-2053,
regina.joskow@umusic.com, for Verve Music Group; or Ronda Scott of
RealNetworks, +1-415-934-2016, rscott@real.com

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

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

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

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

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Profile: International Entertainment