Napster Contact:
Adam Howorth
+44 (0) 7931 176294
adam.howorth@napster.com
NAPSTER TARGETS EUROPEAN GROWTH WITH FIRST EUROPEAN APPOINTMENT
Leanne Sharman joins as first European exec
LONDON - (January 15, 2004) - Napster®, a division of Roxio
(Nasdaq: ROXI), has appointed Leanne Sharman as vice president of business
development. Based in London, Sharman is Napster’s first European executive
and will spearhead the company’s expansion into Europe. She reports to vice
president worldwide business development Brad Duea in Los Angeles, who reports
directly to Napster and Roxio CEO Chris Gorog.
"Since relaunching Napster in the US at the end of October we have achieved
tremendous market impact and awareness as a legal online music service among
both consumers and the business community," said Duea. "We’re delighted Leanne
has joined us at this time as we look to further develop the business outside
the US. She already has a proven track record in establishing a successful
online music business and her background in European sales and marketing leaves
her well placed as our person on the ground in Europe."
Leanne Sharman was previously VP of sales and marketing at MP3.com Europe where
she developed and launched the company’s European promotional platform for
consumer brands and record companies wanting to market their products to 8 million
music fans. Her responsibilities involved revenue generation, managing European
sales teams and agencies, devising creative revenue solutions both online and
offline, and organizing tie-ins with major artists and big name consumer brands,
including Reebok and X-Box. Prior to MP3.com Europe, Leanne spent three years as
head of marketing and sponsorship at Fox Kids Europe, and was previously at Disney
in Paris where she helped launch the local channel.
Napster 2.0 allows anyone with a Windows PC to enjoy the world's largest and most
diverse online collection of music, featuring more than 500,000 tracks. A user-friendly
interface allows people to quickly search for music, discover new artists, burn CDs
and transfer music to portable devices. Without spending a dime, any visitor to the
service can download Napster 2.0, watch music videos on demand, listen to 30-second
music clips, browse decades of Billboard charts, read Napster's online magazine, Fuzz,
email music to friends, browse other members' collections and take full advantage of
the most robust music recommendation engine ever created. Fans can purchase songs for
99 cents each or $9.95 an album. They also have the option to upgrade to Napster's
premium service, which offers all of the free features of Napster 2.0 plus unlimited
online and offline listening, over 40 commercial-free, interactive music programs and
additional community features, all for just $9.95 a month.
About Napster
Napster® is the world’s most recognized brand in online music. Napster has content
agreements with the five major record labels, as well as hundreds of independents. Napster
delivers access to the largest catalog of online music with more than 500,000 tracks spanning
all genres and artists from Eminem to Miles Davis. Napster is a division of Roxio, Inc.,
(Nasdaq: ROXI), the Digital Media Company, provider of the best-selling digital media software
in the world. Napster has offices in Los Angeles and New York.
Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press
release, in particular matters related to the launch of the Napster service,
net income (loss), relationships with certain corporate partners including
marketing partners and hardware and software manufacturers, relationships
with content providers, and product development, are forward-looking
statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties such as
decreased demand for our products, increased competition, failure to develop
new products or improvements to existing products, failure to maintain
business relationships with our partners and general economic conditions,
that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.
Additional information on these and other factors are contained in Roxio’s
reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including
the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as filed with the SEC on August
14, 2003, copies of which are available at the website maintained by the
SEC at http://www.sec.gov.
Roxio assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements
included in this press release.
Copyright © 2003 Roxio, Inc. All rights reserved. Roxio and Napster
are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Roxio, Inc. or its
subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other
trademarks used are owned by their respective owners.
* * *
Napster contact:
Adam Howorth
Napster Europe
Tel: +44 (0) 7931 176294
adam.howorth@napster.com
Lauren Karp
Roxio Inc
Tel: 408.367.4866
lauren.karp@roxio.com
