PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 30, 2004
Berkeley, California

Internet record label Magnatune (www.magnatune.com) has partnered with community playlist site Webjay to feature Magnatune music at Webjay's site (www.webjay.org). Webjay is a free web service where visitors can make mp3 playlists of songs from legal music on the Internet, and then post the playlist to Webjay so that others can listen to their hand picked selection.

The popular site is showcasing Magnatune artists and albums on the top right of every page of the Webjay web site. The banner links to a song or artist from Magnatune, with the option to add the song to their Webjay playlist, or get more information about it from Magnatune.

"Since people come to Webjay to find new music, and Magnatune has the largest and widest selection of high quality music on the Internet, it makes sense to feature that music at Webjay so that my users have an easier time finding great music to add to their playlists," says Webjay founder Lucas Gonze. "Both our sites share a vision of promoting legal listening to entire songs as best way to encourage people to buy music," Gonze added.

"With the major labels cutting their marketing and promotional budgets to the bone, people are starting to discover music on their own rather than having it force-fed to them", says Magnatune founder and CEO John Buckman, "The teen-ager experience of playing music for your friends is now being replicated on a world-wide scale with sites such as Webjay and Magnatune, opening the door to new stars being born through grass-roots support, rather than command-and-control style marketing." Magnatune is an innovative internet-based record label that has carries the original work of over 170 musical artists from a variety of genres including Classical, Electronica, Metal, New Age, Rock to World.

Tools like Webjay which help users listen to and publish web playlists are becoming more common in the world of MP3 and are a highly effective way to acquire music legally. Anybody can be a DJ since Webjay users write the playlists and all the music is out on the Internet. Webjay checks playlists for unauthorized mp3s and disables playlists containing them. Besides keeping Webjay out of the guns-sights of major label's lawyers, Gonze says "Webjay promoting legal mp3s means giving a competitive advantage to those labels and artists who believe in the power of communities, who I believe will eventually prevail against the closed, copy-protection oriented mind-think of the current industry".

Playlists that link to web-based files are also portable. An MP3 player and an Internet connection is all that is needed to create and swap playlists without having to transfer the actual songs themselves. This means a user can email a small playlist file (actually a specially formatted text file) to another user, post the music on a web site, or download selections to an ipod, or just burn the audio file to CD.

Magnatune allows all visitors to listen to entire songs and albums at no cost, through an MP3 stream helping them decide which albums they would like to purchase. Once they find music they like, Magnatune visitors can buy the music as a download or a physical CD. "Magnatune's future lies in sites such as Webjay and it's users, who are discovering great music and telling others about it. I hope that one day this word of mouth will transform the music world, much as web sites such as MoveOn.org are transforming politics," writes Buckman.

With projects like this, Magnatune and Webjay are helping to build a culture around authorized music. In different ways both companies address recent music industry concerns about the illegal trade of copyrighted music. Magnatune offers an open music model and showcases the work of artists not always heard through traditional mainstream channels. Webjay exists to promote music authorized for distribution on the web and is adamant about its support of legal music. In fact, the company will go so far as to police links to unauthorized music that are posted to the community site.

According to Webjay founder Lucas Gonze, "Partnering with a fan-friendly vendor like Magnatune is key to getting past P2P. Technologists need to be selling music, not spyware." The challenge for us is not as much weaning listeners off file sharing as it is finding labels savvy enough to sell to sophisticated fans. Because Magnatune welcomes casual listening we can deliver playlists that just work, and that means our users can get to love Magnatune music."

While Magnatune and Webjay represent new approaches to song distribution and acquisition, ultimately it's about the music itself. "Playlists like Webjay are a fantastic way to discover new music, especially if you find someone whose playlist tastes you like" says Buckman "Magnatune supports what Webjay is all about -- finding good music and sharing your findings with others." Webjay's Gonze responds in kind "With a fan-friendly label like Magnatune it's a virtuous circle --the better Magnatune and Magnatune artists do, the better Webjay and Webjay fans do."

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Magnatune was formed in May of 2003 in Berkeley, California and is a growing internet record label where musicians can showcase and sell their own work. Music is available for listening or purchase in a variety of high quality formats, and the price range paid for the music is set by the buyer. The company takes its motto "we are not evil" seriously. To that end the purchase price is shared 50/50 with artists and Magnatune artists keep the rights to their music.