SESAC Represents First Major Performing Rights Organization to Implement CBID Technology

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — January 15, 2002 — SESAC, the fastest growing performing rights organization in the U.S., today announced a three-year, non-exclusive agreement with Audible Magic Corporation, a leading provider of digital audio identification technologies and services, to monitor terrestrial radio broadcasts utilizing Internet simulcasts. SESAC represents the first major performing rights organization to implement content-based ID (CBID), a technology that identifies audio content by electronically “listening” to it and generating unique digital fingerprints for items such as individual songs or advertisements. The agreement is specifically designed to assist in determining royalty distribution. The initial rollout, which began last fall, utilizes Audible Magic’s patented audio fingerprinting technology to monitor the simulcasts.

Under the new agreement, Audible Magic will monitor 34 radio stations, covering several genres of music including College, Contemporary Jazz, Traditional Jazz, Southern Gospel, Black Gospel, Christian Rock Music, and Americana. The stations are located across the United States.

“SESAC has a long history of serving our artists, utilizing new technologies that subsequently become industry standards,” says SESAC President and COO, Bill Velez. “Audible Magic has a state of the art technology that has been tested for the last seven years. They have survived intense scrutiny in the marketplace. Therefore, we feel confident that Audible Magic will be yet another example of our forward-thinking tradition.”

The audio fingerprinting technology behind the monitoring system has been in development for over seven years. Its extremely reliable, highly accurate performance is based on patented technology that can use a single fingerprint to identify a master recording under all compression levels and media formats including television, radio, Internet, terrestrial and satellite broadcasts. PlayGen™, Audible Magic’s monitoring system that utilizes CBID, generates real time playlists for webcasters and traditional radio broadcasters. It can be deployed using off-the-shelf hardware and requires no installation or connection at the broadcast site.

Hunter Williams, SESAC’s Associate Vice President, Performing Rights, said, “We have a fiduciary responsibility to our writers, publishers and user clients to analyze and implement the best of breed technological tools available. This is in keeping with SESAC’s leadership position of creating and maintaining the most efficient, accurate and cost effective PRO on the planet.”

The SESAC/Audible Magic agreement follows a series of new announcements for Audible Magic. On January 7, Audible Magic announced a strategic alliance with Loudeye Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ NM: LOUD), a leading provider of services and infrastructure for the delivery of digital media and streaming content. The agreement with Loudeye has given Audible Magic access to one of the largest encoding databases in the world.

Established in 1930, SESAC is a service organization created to assist both the creators of music and music users through timely, efficient royalty collection and music licensing. The second oldest and fastest growing performing rights organization in the U.S., SESAC maintains a diversified repertory that includes the best of Adult Contemporary, Urban, Jazz, Rock, Americana, Contemporary Christian, Latin, Country, Gospel, Dance, Classical, New Age, and music for Film and Television. Headquartered in Nashville, the company also has offices in New York, Los Angeles, and London (www.sesac.com).

Audible Magic Corporation is the leading provider of content management and anti-piracy services. Its patented content identification technologies and extensive reference database of audio and video content enable the company to monitor, track, manage, filter and monetize multi-media digital content. The company’s core copyright-sensing technology, CopySense®, accurately identifies digital or broadcast media content based on the perceptual characteristics of the content itself. Built on a patented electronic fingerprinting process, the technology is robust, efficient, and massively scalable. Recognized throughout the music and video industry as the de factor leader in identification services, Audible Magic is headquartered in Los Gatos, California. Its customers include Web 2.0 websites, CD/DVD replicators, peer-to-peer networking companies, internet service providers and universities, which span the media and entertainment industries, major business, governmental and educational institutions markets.

For more information, visit Audible Magic’s website at www.audiblemagic.com or contact:

Audible Magic Media & Analyst Inquiries

Jay Friedman
Vice President of Marketing and Product Management
408-399-6405 x238
[email protected]