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Thursday, June 23, 2005

MediaBay Adds Over 400 Titles from BBC Audiobooks UK to its Digital Audiobook Library

MediaBay Adds Over 400 Titles from BBC Audiobooks UK to its Digital Audiobook Library

Library includes top Titles from Renowned Authors such as Michael Palin, Dylan Thomas, Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, Raymond Chandler, Ian Rankin, Dorothy Sayers and Philip Pullman

CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J., June 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MediaBay, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBAY) today announced that it has reached an agreement with BBC Audiobooks UK to offer digital downloads of its vast library of audiobook titles. The premium content library includes a wealth of popular lifestyle categories and literary genres, including Biography, Comedy, Drama, History, Quiz Shows and Travel. In addition, the collection includes the famous series Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, Monty Python, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

These titles will be offered via download to the millions of MSN(R) users in the United States on the MSN Music service (http://www.music.msn.com/) as part of MediaBay's exclusive agreement with MSN. MediaBay also plans to offer these titles on Larry King Audio (http://www.larrykingaudio.com/) and will distribute the content throughout its growing network of affiliate sites that MediaBay powers.

Jeffrey Dittus, MediaBay CEO, commented, "The agreement with BBC Audiobooks UK is another giant stride toward building the digital future of MediaBay. This is a one of kind library that we are pleased to make available to our customers. We have had a long, prosperous relationship with the BBC and are pleased that they are supporting our transition to digital distribution and the use of the Microsoft digital rights management solutions to protect their intellectual property."

Stephen Davies, Business Development Director, BBC Audiobooks UK, commented, "We expect downloadable audio to be a significant part of our overall business in the years ahead and we are pleased to be offering our titles to MediaBay and its partners."

By making premium BBC Audiobooks UK content available to the digital customer, MediaBay is expanding the market for its audio content and considerably reducing the cost of delivery. According to the Audio Publishers Association, downloadable audiobooks are the fasting growing segment of the publishing industry. The current market for audiobooks is quickly approaching $1 billion and MediaBay's longstanding leadership position as direct marketing cataloger makes it well positioned to participate in the high growth expected from the digital sales of its content.

About MediaBay, Inc.

MediaBay Inc. (NASDAQ:MBAY) is a leading digital media and publishing company specializing in spoken word and premium audio entertainment. The company maintains a library consisting of over 75,000 hours of content, including audio books from best-selling authors and the history of American Radio. Some of MediaBay's digital content partners include BBC, Blackstone, CBS Radio, Harper Collins, Hay House, Oasis, Penguin Audio, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Sound Room, Zondervan. In addition to its popular Audio Book Club, MediaBay distributes its content through proprietary web sites including audiobookclub.com and radiospirits.com as well as through partner channels including LarryKingAudio.com, Loudeye, MSN Music, Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio. For more information on MediaBay, please visit http://www.mediabay.com/

About BBC Audiobooks UK

BBC Audiobooks Limited is part of BBC Worldwide Limited, the commercial arm of the BBC. All profits generated by BBC Audiobooks are returned to the BBC for investment in new programming & services, supplementing the UK licence fee.

Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking" statements that involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause MediaBay's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any results, performances or achievements express or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release including, without limitation, statements regarding our future financial position, business strategy, budgets, projected costs and plans and objectives of our management for future operations are forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," or "continue" or the negative thereof or variations thereon or similar terminology. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations, include, without limitation, our history of losses; the success of our new digital media distribution strategy and new Larry King initiatives, our ability to anticipate and respond to changing customer preferences, license and produce desirable content, protect our databases and other intellectual property from unauthorized access, collect receivables; dependence on third-party providers, suppliers and distribution channels; competition; the costs and success of our marketing strategies; product returns; member attrition and other risks detailed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003. Undue reference should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Contacts: Elana Altshuler Tim Clemensen mPRm Public Relations Rubenstein Investor Relations 323-933-3399 212-843-9337 ealtshuler@mprm.comtclemensen@rubensteinir.com

Source: MediaBay, Inc.

CONTACT: Elana Altshuler of mPRm Public Relations, +1-323-933-3399, ealtshuler@mprm.com; or Tim Clemensen of Rubenstein Investor Relations, +1-212-843-9337, tclemensen@rubensteinir.com

Web site: http://www.mediabay.com/ http://www.music.msn.com/ http://www.larrykingaudio.com/

------- Profile: Ent

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