NEW YORK (The Orchard/ www.theorchard.com) - The Orchard, the world's leading distributor and marketer of independent music, today announced additional distribution partnerships with eight leading digital music stores: Virgin Megastores France, Yeahronimo Media Ventures, 7 Digital, Ruckus, Bollyvista, MusicNow, Soundbuzz and iMusica. These stores will carry The Orchard's unparalleled independent music catalogue that spans 72 countries and every subgenre and includes more than 300,000 tracks.
The Orchard already has digital distribution and marketing relationships in place with over 100 of the world's leading digital music stores, including iTunes, eMusic, MSN, MusicMatch, Real/Rhapsody and 24/7 MusicShop.
The Orchard's new partners include:
* Virgin Megastores France - Virginmega.fr offers 500,000 titles from major labels and various independents and leverages the Megastore's offline customer base of millions of shoppers. Virgin offers "no commitment" downloads at euro 0.99 and albums at euro 9.99. Downloaded tracks can be burned or transferred up to 7 times.
* Yeahronimo Media Ventures - Launched in June 2004, Yeahronimo was the first legal online music distributor in The Netherlands. It sells content direct to consumers, as well as to other businesses and licenses content from major music labels, sports outlets [football league, field hockey events] and pay-per-view music event coordinators. Yeahronimo has registered 380,000 music download customers and 42,000 event-streaming customers since inception.
* 7 Digital - Since 2004, London-based 7 Digital has delivered more than 250,000 digital products through 7 Digital powered services for clients including MetroTunes, Video Networks, Universal, EMI, Warner Music, Sony BMG and V2 and through partner sites including AOL, MSN, Lycos, Freeserve, Yahoo!, NME and XFM.
* Ruckus Network - Launched in 2004, Virginia-based Ruckus provides the most comprehensive digital media service available for colleges today. The Ruckus service includes a fully licensed music library that features hundreds of thousands of tracks from both major and independent labels, as well as movies, community features and a self-publishing tool. Ruckus is enjoyed by thousands of college students and is quickly becoming the brand of choice for higher education institutions across the U.S.
* Bollyvista - Catering to the South Asian audience, the largest entertainment market in the world, accounting for almost 20% of the world's population, Bollyvista.com is a destination website containing movie news, reviews, trailers and interactive content, in addition to audio clips of Bollywood music.
* MusicNow - Formerly known as FullAudio, this Chicago-based digital music store was founded in April 1999. It is currently owned by Circuit City and offers more than 40 channels of music programming from major labels [BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal, Warners] and independents.
* Soundbuzz - Soundbuzz is a digital music services provider with a focus on the Asia-Pacific markets. Based in Singapore, it is Asia's leading digital music service. Soundbuzz specializes in the promotion and legal distribution of International and local digital music content (music downloads, ringtones and true tones via on-line and wireless) with partners including Nokia, Creative Technology, Optus, Telstra, MSN, Singnet, Pacific Internet, Yahoo Australia and The Times of India Group. Soundbuzz's network spans Southeast Asia, India, Australia, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.
* iMusica - Founded in 2000, iMusica is Brazil's leading digital music store with music from 60 record labels, including Indie, Atracao and Trama. iMusica recently partnered with MSN Music to power forthcoming MSN stores in South America. In addition, iMusica will offer Brazilian music into Windows Media Player 10 throughout Latin Americaon the iMusica flagship.
"The addition of these leading digital music stores reinforces The Orchard's position as the world's pre-eminent distributor and marketer of independent music," 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.
"We look forward to working closely with our new partners to help promote and merchandise great independent music. As our catalogue continues to expand, we will continue to introduce the best independent music to a global audience and develop new revenue and promotion opportunities for our distributed artists and labels."
