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Joint Industry Initiative Accelerates Access to Digital Music

The specification, adopted in draft by SDMI at its June 23-25 meeting, underwent a final technical review and was adopted at a meeting in Los Angeles on July 7-8. SDMI's members include more than 110 representatives of the music, consumer electronics and information technology industries.

``The portable device specification required tremendous collaboration by all parties. This specification is the strongest example yet that the music and technology industries can work together to benefit consumers,'' said Leonardo Chiariglione, executive director of SDMI.

``The specification represents a forward-looking approach that will accelerate the growth of the rapidly emerging market for digital music by stimulating business and technology innovation and enabling exciting new consumer choices,'' concluded Jack Lacy, chairman of SDMI's Portable Device Working Group.

SDMI-compliant portable devices will be introduced in two phases. Phase I begins now, with the adoption of the open standard. During Phase I, SDMI-compliant devices may accept music in all current formats, whether protected or unprotected. Phase II commences when a new screening technology is adopted to filter out pirated music. As Phase II begins, consumers will be able to easily upgrade their Phase I systems to enjoy newly released music in SDMI-compliant formats (as well as in existing unprotected formats). Throughout both phases consumers will be able to transfer music from their CD collections as well as from online sources.

The specification describes requirements for SDMI-compliant portable devices as well as for applications (including software players and home-library software) and licensed compliant modules (``LCMs'') which provide the necessary interface between SDMI-compliant devices and applications. The specification also describes requirements for secure, authenticated communications between applications and LCMs and between LCMs and portable devices. Together, these provide a framework for music creators (artists, labels, or any other distributors) and manufacturers of applications and devices to develop and implement products for digital music distribution.

ABOUT SDMI

The Secure Digital Music Initiative brings together the worldwide recording industry and technology companies to develop an open, interoperable architecture and specification for digital music security. The specification will answer consumer demand for convenient accessibility to quality digital music, enable copyright protection for artists' work, and enable technology and music companies to build successful businesses. Additional information about SDMI can be found at www.sdmi.org.

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SDMI MEMBER COMPANY ROSTER:

Adaptec - Milpitas, California

AEI Music / Playmedia - Seattle, Washington

American Federation of Musicians (AFM)- New York, New York

American Federation of TV and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
- New York, New York

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
- New York, New York

America Online - Dulles, Virginia

Audio Matrix - New York, New York

Aris Technologies, Inc. - Cambridge, Massachusetts

AT&T - Florham Park, New Jersey

Audible, Inc. - Wayne, New Jersey

Audio Explosion - San Francisco, California

Audiohighway.com - Cupertino, California

Audio Soft - Geneva, Switzerland

Aureal Semiconductor, Inc. - Freemont, California

Beatnik - San Mateo, California

BIEM - Paris, France

BMG Entertainment, Inc. - New York, New York

Bose Corporation

Breaker Tech. Ltd. - London, England

Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) - New York, New York

International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers
 (CISAC) - Paris, France

Canadian Audiotrack Services Corp. - Toronto

CDDB - Berkeley, CA

Cductive.com - New York, New York

CD World Corp. - New York, New York

Channelware, Inc. - Nepean, Ontario

Compaq Computer Corp. - Houston, Texas

Comverse InfoSys Limited - Tel Aviv, Israel

Creative Technology Ltd. - Milpitas, California

Diamond Multimedia - San Jose, California

Dentsu, Inc. - Tokyo, Japan

Deutsche Telekom - Bonn, Germany

Digimarc - Lake Oswego, Oregon

Digital on Demand - Carlsbad, California

Digital Theater Systems, Inc. - Agoura Hills, California

DIVX - Herndon, VA

Dolby Laboratories, Inc. - San Francisco, California

EAIC Corporation - (on behalf of Enso Audio Imaging)
- Seattle, Washington

EMI-Capitol Records - New York, New York

EMusic.com, Inc. - Redwood City, California

Encoding.com - Seattle, Washington

Federation of Music Producers Japan (FMJP) - Tokyo, Japan

Fraunhaufer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.
 for its Institut fuer Integrierte Schaltungen - Munich, Germany

Geidankyo (Japan Council of Performers Rights Admin) - Tokyo, Japan

Harry Fox Agency - New York, New York

Hewlitt Packard - Colorado Springs, Colorado

Hitachi Limited - Tokyo, Japan

HMV Group - London, England

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)
- London, England

I2GO.com - Atlanta, Georgia

IGUIDE - News America Digital Publishing, Inc.
- Los Angeles, California

Infineon Technologies - Munich, Germany

Intertrust Technologies Corp. - Sunnyvale, California

Iomega Corp. - Roy, Utah

J. River, Inc. - Minneapolis, Minnesota

Japan Digital Content (on behalf of Waveless Radio Consortium)
- Tokyo, Japan

JVWebb, Inc. - Houston, Texas

Kent Ridge Digital Labs - Singapore

LG Electronic - Seoul, Korea

Liquid Audio - Redwood City, California

Lucent Technologies - Atlanta, Georgia

Music Copyright Operational Services, Ltd. (MCOS)
- London, England

M. Ken Co, LTD - Tokyo, Japan

MAGEX - Montebello Vicentino, Italy

Micronas Semidcondutors, Inc. - San Jose, California

Macro Vision - Sunnyvale, California

Matsushita - Tokyo, Japan

MCY Music World, Inc. - New York, New York

Memory Limited - Midlothian, UK

Microsoft Corp. - Redmond, Washington

Mitsubishi Corporation - Tokyo, Japan

Multimedia Archives & Retrieval Systems
London, England

musicmaker.com (formerly The Music Connection Corporation)
- Reston, Virginia

MusicMarc - Jerusalem, Israel

Music Producers Guild of America - Los Angeles, California

National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM)
- Marlton, New Jersey

National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) - New York, New York

National Semiconductor Corporation (on behalf of Mediamatics)
- Santa Clara, California

Nippon Telegraphic & Telephone Corp. - Tokyo, Japan

Nokia - Tampere, Finland

NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc. - Tokyo, Japan

Philips Corp. North America - Briarcliff Manor, New York

Pioneer North America, Inc. - Long Beach, California

QPICT, Inc. - Saratoga, California

RealNetworks, Inc. - Seattle, Washington

Reciprocal, Inc. (Rights Exchange) - Buffalo, New York

Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA)
- Washington, DC

Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ)
- Tokyo, Japan

RPK Security - Preverenges, Switzerland

The SDMI Foundation, Inc. - Washington, DC

Samsung Electronics - Seoul, Korea

San Disk Corp. - Sunnyvale, California

Sanyo North America Corp. - San Jose, California

Seca (on behalf of Canal Plus) - Paris, France

Sharp Corp. - Osaka, Japan

Softlock Services Inc. - Rochester, NY

Solana Technology Development Corp.- San Diego, California

Sonic Solutions - Novato, California

Sonopress (BMG Storage Media) - New York, New York

Sony Corp. of America - New York, New York

Sony Music Entertainment Inc. - New York, New York

Sphere Multimedia Technologies Inc. - Hallandale, Florida

Supertracks.com - Portland, Oregon

ST & Hilo - Madrid, Spain

STMicroelectronics, Inc. - Carrollton, Texas

TDK Electronics Corp. - Port Washington, New York

Texas Instruments - Dallas, Texas

Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc. - Indianapolis, Indiana

Tokyo Electron Device Ltd. - Tokyo, Japan

Toshiba Corp. - Tokyo, Japan

Touch Tunes Digital Jukebox, Inc. - Montreal, Canada

Universal Music Group - Los Angeles, California

Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC) - Yokohama, Japan

Warner Music Group - Burbank, California

Wave Systems Corp. - Lee, Massachusetts

Yamaha Corporation - Hamamatsu, Japan

4C Entity (an LLC owned by Toshiba, Intel, Matsushita, and IBM)
- Washington, DC

Contact:

     The Weber Group
     Laureen McGowan, 617/520-7087