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MUSICBLITZ SETS NEW STANDARDS FOR CONSUMER PRIVACY AND PERSONALIZATION

Personal Control Panel Lets Music Fans Set Their Own Privacy Standards; BLITZPicks Lets Consumers Customize Their Listening Preferences

LOS ANGELES, CA - March 14, 2000 - MUSICBLITZ, a consumer-oriented music company that is redefining the relationships between consumers, artists and record labels, today launched a major privacy control and customization initiative. With its new Personal Control Panel and BLITZPicks song recommendations, MUSICBLITZ gives music fans a new level of control over their privacy online, as well as the ability to proactively customize their MUSICBLITZ experience. Both features can now be accessed at http://www.musicblitz.com and an online demonstration is available at http://www.musicblitz.com/controlpanel.html.

MUSICBLITZ's Personal Control Panel gives consumers the ability to view and control the information that makes up their personal profiles and to specify the exact level of privacy they would like assigned to this data. Consumers can also access a list of the companies that advertise with MUSICBLITZ and choose whose ads and special promotions they want to receive and whose they don't.

MUSICBLITZ maintains a strict and up-front privacy policy and asks consumers to answer some brief questions before they download free music from its Web site. This information is aggregated to create profiles of the typical site visitor for advertisers whose products would likely appeal to this community of music fans. The Personal Control Panel makes all of this information completely visible to consumers and lets them specify privacy levels affiliated with their data.

"We create a better overall experience by giving consumers the ability to see all of the information we store on them and by letting them set their own privacy levels," commented Bret Moore, vice president of new product development at MUSICBLITZ. "Internet data collection does not have to be mysterious and secretive. Targeted advertising actually becomes more valuable to both our consumers and our advertisers when individuals have the ability to view and modify their preferences for it."

Another new feature within the Personal Control Panel is BLITZPicks, which lets music fans view all of their preferences and modify their download history in order to generate more meaningful and accurate song recommendations. BLITZPicks have a truly personalized feel to them because MUSICBLITZ's proprietary "expert mapping" technique does not attempt to reduce the music and artists to raw data and code. Instead of utilizing collaborative filtering, which relies on statistics and databases to drive song recommendations, MUSICBLITZ combines the musical expertise of its editorial staff with consumer-specified preferences and proprietary technology to provide timely, on-target and truly unique recommendations. These suggestions not only encompass the company's exclusive songs, but also any other free and legal music downloads on the Internet.

About MUSICBLITZ
Based in Los Angeles, MUSICBLITZ is a consumer-oriented music company that is redefining the relationships between consumers, artists and record labels. The company combines traditional record label artist development and off-line marketing practices with technology-enabled distribution. MUSICBLITZ funds established and up-and-coming artists to record new singles, which consumers can download for free at the Company's Web site (http://www.musicblitz.com) and in its genre-specific Web communities. MUSICBLITZ continues to promote its music, and the artists who create it, by licensing it for use in film, television, commercials, soundtracks and compilations. MUSICBLITZ's Web site also offers music fans the only critical guide to free and legal music downloads from anywhere on the Internet. For more information about MUSICBLITZ, please visit http://www.musicblitz.com.

 

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