The Orchard Places 25,000th Preferred Promotional Spot and Notches One Million Downloads on eMusic in the Second Quarter

The Orchard Places 25,000th Preferred Promotional Spot and Notches One Million Downloads on eMusic in the Second Quarter

Orchard's Marketing Team Allows Independent Record Labels to Compete With the Major Labels

- Art Brut on Napster UK is the 25,000th Placement -

NEW YORK, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Orchard, the world's leading distributor and marketer of independent music, today announced two major achievements stemming from its marketing efforts. First, the distributor notched its 25,000th successful promotional placement in a digital music store. The Orchard achieved this milestone with its placement of Art Brut's full length debut album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll (Fierce Panda), on UK Napster. Second, the company achieved sales of over one million digital downloads on independent music retailer eMusic.

Securing prime positioning in a digital music store leads to exponentially increased sales of a product -- just as with bricks-and-mortar retail -- so this milestone is especially significant for the record labels that distribute music through The Orchard. With this achievement, also, The Orchard has firmly established itself as the pioneering expert in digital music marketing, merchandising and promotion, and is rivaled only by the marketing departments at major labels. The Orchard leverages their marketing expertise on behalf of the thousands of independent labels and artists and labels -- spanning 72 countries and all music genres -- that it represents to more than 125 digital music stores and to over 200 mobile phone carriers globally.

The Orchard's marketing is internationally focused, as over half of The Orchard's client labels and retail partners are outside of the United States. For example, last week, The Orchard successfully had 106 promotions running on iTunes France alone, of which half were for European artists and labels.

The Orchard draws on its network of 15 regional offices across the globe to maintain direct local relationships with digital music stores and services in each country. With expertise in the local repertoire, the regional offices also provide valuable insight into regional trends.

The Orchard has brought the concept of "windowing" to the digital music world. For priority titles, the company develops a detailed sales strategy that includes different exclusives in different services, and making content available across global digital retailers and mobile operators in a coordinated fashion. The Orchard also excels at innovative programming, such as follow-up EPs of remixes or rare tracks, in-studio live performances, album re-releases with extra tracks, and more. Unique ringtones are added into the mix for some Orchard clients.

The Orchard has also raised the bar on reporting their extensive marketing efforts to record labels. The company tracks every merchandising placement and makes them available for their record label clients to view at anytime through an online interface. The Orchard also compiles this information quarterly to present in a printed report, as companion material to the actual sales and accounting statements.

Also, The Orchard announced that its artists and labels sold over one million songs on eMusic during the May to June timeframe, making them the largest supplier in that service by a significant margin -- over three times larger than all of the other independent aggregators combined. eMusic is the leading digital retailer for independent music and the only major music service selling exclusively independent artists and labels. eMusic is second only to iTunes in the total number of tracks of music sold to consumers each month.

David Pakman, CEO of eMusic added, "The Orchard's catalogue clearly adds significant depth and breadth to our already diverse music offering. But it is their keen ability to assist our merchandising team sort through their extensive catalogue -- highlighting the newest and most interesting music -- that really makes them shine. It has helped us both in selling more music in our store, and has also allowed Orchard-distributed record labels to make more money overall."

"In this rapidly changing digital landscape, investing in innovation is key. Our merchandising tools and systems lead the industry, and merchandising is a primary focus of our company," 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. "Our view is that smart and targeted marketing is required if music is going to stand out from the clutter in a world where millions of tracks are all available in the same stores. We've built an unprecedented marketing 'machine' that's very successfully selling the music of independent artists and labels, and opening new markets for them."

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 600,000 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, and Ramallah.

About Dimensional Associates, Inc.

Dimensional Associates, Inc. is the New York-based private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc. Its portfolio companies include eMusic, The Orchard and Dimensional Music Publishing (formerly DreamWorks Music Publishing).

Media Contact:

Andy Morris Andy Morris & Company (212) 561-7465 andy@amc-pr.com

Source: The Orchard

CONTACT: Andy Morris of Andy Morris & Company, +1-212-561-7465, or andy@amc-pr.com, for The Orchard

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

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