J. River Sees Napster, Raises $2 Billion
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 26, 2001--J. River today tripled Napster's bid by offering record labels $3 billion over a five year period for unlimited access to content. J. River plans to build a subscription service based on Media Jukebox(TM).
"Record labels recognized immediately that the Napster offer was not realistic," said John Norris, COO at J. River. "Napster may have undermined its credibility by underbidding. We are confident that $3 billion is a conservative estimate, and we believe that the actual five year payout could be closer to $10 billion."
"A subscription model will work only when a solution is acceptable to the labels and customers," said Brant Kingman, Director of Business Development. "We always achieve great user ratings for Media Jukebox at download sites like ZDNet."
J. River added peer-to-peer networking and streaming capabilities in its popular player several months ago, but limited its use to 3 simultaneous users to avoid following in Napster's ill-fated footsteps.
"There have been over 1,000,000 downloads of our Media Jukebox software. When we surveyed our users, 48% were willing to pay $10 a month for access to the music they wanted. We think the current potential is about 10,000,000 subscribers now and will grow to 50,000,000 over the next five years," says Kingman.
J. River's customer surveys indicate that music fans will pay $10 for a good subscription service. Also, record labels want the choice to distribute secure or open music as they decide, and they have an obligation to protect artists' copyrights. J. River is in a unique position to forge an agreement between the two parties. The company has the core components necessary to make a system work -- a world-class media player and organizer; a flexible, backend DRM and e-commerce system, combined with P2P capabilities for metered global networking.
J. River hosts an active "Interact" forum on its web site, and it often discusses these difficult problems. "We would welcome record label participation," says Jim Hillegass, CEO. "The forum is a good way to learn what users want. They seem willing to spend -- they've got their credit cards out -- but they haven't seen a system they like. If the labels will talk with users, we'll find out what it is. Until then, more than $100 million a month will go uncollected."
J. River is the developer of the popular Media Jukebox software, which plays all popular music formats, including MP3, QuickTime(TM), Audible(TM), Microsoft(R) Windows Media(TM), LiquidAudio(TM) and RealAudio(R). Support for secure MusicEx files allows e-commerce opportunities for owners of music and other digital media. For a free download visit www.musicex.com
About J. River
J. River develops DRM-compatible e-commerce solutions and network connectivity software. For more information about J. River's music products, visit www.musicex.com, e-mail music@jriver.com, or call 612.677.8200.
J. River's MUSIC EXCHANGE is the only DRM technology designed to serve the recording, video, software, and publication industries as an open standard for secure sales, distribution and licensing of digital files. This modular system provides a complete and flexible e-commerce solution, including simple and secure ordering, permanent content encryption, secure content distribution, and easy license management.
J. River MEDIA JUKEBOX and J. River MUSIC EXCHANGE are trademarks of J. River, Inc. Other marks are property of their respective owners.
CONTACT:
J. River, Inc., Minneapolis
Peter Sohal
612/677-8200 x248
peter@jriver.com
KEYWORD: MINNESOTA
BW0032 FEB 26,2001
3:01 PACIFIC
6:01 EASTERN |
