todays KTEL Humor Me And You And A Dog Named Boo
K-tel International Inks Deal to Distribute Its Proprietary Music Library Through Rioport.com; K-tel to Make Available 5,000 Music Tracks for Digital Download to RioPort Customers
CALABASAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 1999--In a move to further expand its core licensing business onto the Internet, K-tel International Inc. (NASDAQ:KTEL) has reached an agreement with a leader in the digital download arena, RioPort Inc. to distribute 5000 of its proprietary music tracks.
Through this agreement, a significant proportion of K-tel's classic hit tracks will be made available through www.rioport.com to the growing audience of e-commerce consumers who are early adopters of technology as well as music enthusiasts.
"Licensing has long been a significant business for K-tel. By expanding this portion of our business onto the Internet we are capitalizing on a tremendous opportunity to create additional licensing revenues and promote the K-tel brand name," stated Mary Kuehn, Vice President of Licensing at K-tel International.
Randy Malinoff, General Manager of K-tel Online added, "At K-tel.com we are continuously striving to be a leader in adopting and commercializing new technologies. RioPort's digital audio platform offers tremendous functionality and ease of use that has become very popular with a broad range of consumers and particularly with a younger e-commerce savvy demographic. We are very excited about making further inroads into this customer base."
"K-tel brings a staggering number of classic hits from the 1950s to today to the RioPort.com audience," said J.D. Heilprin, Vice President of RioPort Inc. "Through our new relationship with K-tel we can offer our own listeners and those of our partners a huge selection of rock classics and great dance music that increase the appeal of digital music to people of all ages."
K-tel will make available to RioPort 5000 tracks from its proprietary library which is comprised of some of the biggest recording hits dating as far back as the 1950s. The following is a list of just some of the music which will be available for digital download:
Sh-Boom - The Crew Cuts
Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) - Looking Glass
Cool Jerk - The Capitols
Love Letters in the Sand - Pat Boone
Little Darlin' - The Diamonds
Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley
Good Golly Miss Molly - Little Richard
The Twist - Chubby Checker
Stand By Me - Ben E. King
It's My Party - Lesley Gore
Surf City - Jan & Dean
When A Man Loves A Woman - Percy Sledge
Hooked On A Feeling - B.J. Thomas
(Hey There) Lonely Girl - Eddie Holman
Treat Her Like A Lady - Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose
Me And You And A Dog Named Boo - Lobo
Sooner Or Later - Grass Roots
Undercover Angel - Alan O'Day
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About K-tel
K-tel International Inc. is a vertically integrated developer, marketer and distributor of entertainment and consumer products worldwide. The company markets its product lines through the Internet, and to retailers, wholesalers, distributors or licensees throughout the world. K-tel has two Internet Web sites, (www.ktel.com) in the United States and (www.ktel.de) in Germany. Ktel.com features 250,000 music titles, custom CDs and 35,000 home video titles, consumer products and an auction site. The company -- along with online music retailers such as CDNow (NASDAQ:CDNW) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Internet auction site eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) -- is a leader in Internet consumer products retailing. K-tel has active operations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.
About RioPort Inc.
RioPort Inc. is redefining digital audio by delivering an integrated, secure platform for acquiring, managing and experiencing music and spoken audio programming from the Internet. A pioneer in the digital audio market, RioPort partners with companies to provide them with an easy-to-use platform that includes access to a wide range of digital audio content, customizable software solutions and device design services. For consumers, RioPort provides easy access to a variety of popular and innovative music and word programming through its RioPort.com digital audio site.
In addition, RioPort markets the RioPort Audio Manager, an easy-to-use jukebox application for the acquisition, management and playback of digital audio content from the desktop or RioPort compatible portable appliances, which the company licenses to third-parties. RioPort also provides content companies with production services, including encoding and secure packaging, allowing them to easily get their content into the hands of digital audio enthusiasts. RioPort's investment partners include Vulcan Northwest, Oak Investment Partners, MTV Networks Online and S3 Inc.
RioPort's Web site is at www.rioport.com.
The statements in this news release may contain forward-looking statements relating to future results of the company (including certain projections and business trends) that are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results and performance may differ materially from expressed forward-looking statements because of certain risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, changes in political and economic conditions, demand for and market acceptance of new and existing products, the impact from competition for Internet content, merchandise and recorded music, dependence on strategic alliance partners, suppliers and distributors, market acceptance of the Internet for commerce and as a medium for advertising, technological changes and difficulties, availability of financing and other risks detailed in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements.
CONTACT:
K-tel Online
Randy Malinoff, 818/225-6160
rmalinoff@k-tel.com
or
Vision Corporate Consulting
Billy Hayes, 212/509-4565
billy@visioncc.net
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