Here ya go !
SoundworksInternational,Inc. Company symbol: SOWK - OTC
Current Price: 1.12 52 week Low .62 - High 2.50 (as of 2/9/99)
Gerald B. Dennon -CEO Contacts: Jerry Cornwell, Cliff Johnston
Office: (888) 259-8333 Fax (206) 533-1156
SEC reporting: No - will be by June, 1999 Email tcktsllc@gte.net
Outstanding Shares:
8.4 mil. (pre-dividend)
42 mil(post-dividend)
Float:100 K (pre-dividend)
500 K (post-dividend)
Company Web-site:http://www.soundworks.net Cusip#: 836112 10 2
The Company
SoundWorks USA, Inc. which is the wholly owned subsidiary of SoundWorks International Inc.(hereafter "The Company" or "SoundWorks"), a Washington corporation produces and markets spoken word and music products on audio compact discs and cassette tapes for targeted niche markets. These products are marketed under the brand names "Jerden", "SpeechWorks" and “The Nostalgia Company”, respectively. SoundWorks is an established player in the growing field of nostalgia recordings. SoundWorks' mission is to create and market nostalgia entertainment products - both audio and visual - for targeted niche markets. The Company is poised for rapid growth.
To fulfill its mission, SoundWorks' managers focus on product development, marketing, and sales, - areas in which Management has extensive and relevant expertise. The Company's products are designed for specific niche markets using copyrighted materials and other materials to which the Company has access. Manufacturing is out-sourced, enabling the Company to maintain its emphasis on product innovation.
Current Status
SoundWorks USA Inc. was founded in December 1992 by Mr. Jerry Dennon, a prolific recording industry executive and producer, for the purpose of realizing the inherent value of his proprietary library of master recordings, which originally cost $20,000,000 to produce and contains copyrighted recordings of more than 200 name artists of the 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's.
Since 1994 the Company has produced 21 highly marketable spoken word titles, including "JFK: The Kennedy Tapes", "FDR: Nothing to Fear", "Harry S. Truman: Give 'Em Hell Harry", "Martin Luther King: The MLK Tapes", and "Ronald Reagan: The Great Speeches, Vol. I". The Company has also produced 8 nostalgia music titles, including The Kingsmen, Don & The Goodtimes, and The Sonics. Early market exposure has proven demand and the Company is now ready to initiate a full-scale marketing effort. Despite a limited marketing budget of under $10,000, two of the spoken word releases - JFK and MLK - have sold, at retail, in excess of $450,000.
In late 1997, the Company produced its first Video product, "Victor Borge: The Radio and TV Years", designed to be sold on television via direct marketing. Scheduled for manufacture and marketing in 1998 are new nostalgia videos titled, “Frank Sinatra: Ol Blue Eyes In Black and White” and “The Greatest Speeches of All-Time”.
The Products
The Company has significant opportunity in three areas: Spoken Word Audio, Nostalgia Music, and Nostalgia Video.
The Company is currently focused on exploiting the opportunity which exists in the direct marketing on television of both audio recordings and videos.
SoundWorks' music titles are developed from its proprietary library of master recordings from the period 1940-1980, such as The Kingsmen, Jimmy Dorsey, Enoch Light, Martin Denny, The Duprees, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Hank Locklin, George Jones, Ian Whitcomb, Wes Montgomery, Pete Fountain, and many others, most of which are previously unreleased on compact disc. Marketed under the brand name Jerden Records, these titles are targeted at the nostalgia music buyer.
Beginning in 1998, the Company will design and produce products to be sold via Direct TV marketing. This selling method is ideal for reaching the typical buyer of the Company's products. This target group (over 40 years of age) is currently the fastest growing buying market. Mr. Dennon's extensive, award-winning television experience is exceptionally relevant to the Company's needs in this arena. Additionally, the Company will exploit key strategic alliances and joint venture partners who have a successful track record in TV direct marketing.
The attraction of marketing Company products via Direct TV is easy to demonstrate. Test marketing is relatively easy and accurate. The number of units that will be sold are predictable and sales volume can be very high if the marketing is executed correctly.
For example, in the music compilation category, USA Today reports that Roger Whitaker's Best Loved Ballads sold approximately 800,000 units through Direct TV at $24.95 each, translating to sales revenues of $20 million. Gross profits on such sales would be in excess of $10 per unit, or $8 million. Albums by the flute artist Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute, have sold more than 1 million copies. According to USA Today, Heartland Music sold over 600,000 copies of Stage Door Canteen - an album of hits from the 1940's. Jerden is ready to manufacture a sequel to this album of World War II hits from the period 1940-1945 called Juke Box Saturday Night.
SoundWorks International, Inc., closed out the end of 1998 by moving into a new 4,000 square foot facility for its new corporate headquarters near Seattle, Washington. This will enable the Company to manage future growth with the ability to increase its in-house floor inventory of finished products. This will also accelerate the digitization of its vast and mostly unreleased archived music master tape library with a new state-of-the-art recording facility. A new video-editing center also is part of this recording studio, which gives the Company the vehicle to ramp up its production of videos.
Sales were up in 1998 due partially to the new accounts added to SoundWorks repertoire, late in the year, including Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. The sales volume is still not what it will be in the future in terms of dollars, but significantly the amount of sales increases as each month goes by. The Company also will market its products directly over the Internet through its web-site: www.soundworks.net.
Other retail accounts that represented substantive increases in activity in 1998 were the high-end Los Angeles based educational chain store group, Store of Knowledge; The Smithsonian Museum Shops in Washington, DC, Sixth Floor Bookstore, Dallas, Texas, and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library.
New products scheduled for release in the first quarter of 1999 include what management expects to become a heritage video. “The Greatest Speeches of All-Time”, featuring video highlights of major speeches given by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, General Douglas MacArthur, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Richard M. Nixon, Robert F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.
Initial marketing for “The Greatest Speeches” Video will be done via a short-form 60-second direct response television commercial. Testing of this commercial commences in February in the western Washington state market on TCI Cable. If the test proves successful, the TV campaign will be rolled out nationally.
“The Internet and Direct Response TV are the major focus for us”, President Jerry Dennon states. “This is the home run ball that will propel the Company into a new stratum”.
On the audio side a new John F. Kennedy CD, “The JFK Wit” is also debuting along with Ronald Reagan, “The Great Speeches, Vol. II”.
On the music side, “The History of Northwest Rock, Vol. II” continues the Company's tapping into its vast and mostly unreleased music master tape archives, which include over 500 master tapes. Other music artists scheduled for release in the months ahead include Pete Fountain, Wes Montgomery, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Scott Cossu, Thelonious Monk, “Country Classics”, Duke Ellington, Diane Schuur, Danny O'Keefe, Dave Lewis, and Ray Anthony.
In pre-production for release in second quarter are three “exciting and dynamic” new releases, according to Company President Dennon. Not yet announced to the general public, this includes a new “audio tribute to basketball immortal, Michael Jordan” in CD format. Heard on this exclusive new product are Michael, Shaqueil O'Neill, Mrs. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, President Clinton, David Stern and other celebrities toasting the basketball great.
President Clinton gets two treatments by the Company as well. “President William Clinton, Highlights of His Major Speeches” debuts as both a Video and a CD product. “With President Clinton's approval rating in the 70% bracket, we feel we have a built-in market for this release”, Dennon states.
“Both the Clinton and Jordan products” are on “rush” status with us, Dennon concludes.
Other new releases in pre-production for marketing later in the year include music and/or audio products featuring “40 Big Band Hits”, Jimi Hendrix, General Douglas MacArthur and Frank Sinatra.
Finally, on the capital market side of the Company, because of the lack of sufficient shares to generate volume in the Company's trading market for its shares, the Board of Directors has authorized a stock dividend of four shares for each one share held, effective at the close of business Thursday 2/11/99. SoundWorks International, Inc., a Nevada corporation, formed on March 19, 1997, acquired SoundWorks USA, Inc., effective September 1, 1997. SoundWorks International, Inc. had 1,012,531 shares outstanding and issued 4,000,000 shares to the shareholders of SoundWorks USA, Inc. in exchange for 100% of the issued and outstanding stock of SoundWorks USA, Inc.
T.A.P. has found what it believes is a turn around situation in SoundWorks International.
This company has very unique, one of a kind products, which have already proven to attract the nostalgia/collector generation. With its own distribution through its own web-site soundworks.net plus direct ad TV commercials and recent distribution agreements with Amazon.com and Barnes&Nobles.com already adding to revenues, it has only begun to tap into this niche market. The best is yet to come for SoundWorks, not only will they aggressively step up production of new releases from their vast library, the company will roll out the Michael Jordan CD and President Clinton CD & Video. These two public figures are the two most popular people on the planet right now and with Michael Jordan in retirement and President Clinton on the borderline of Impeachment, the collectible attraction of these products increases greatly and are expected to be generate big revenue for SoundWorks. This is a ground floor opportunity to what could be the next CDNW or KTEL of the future, without the huge losses or debt that these companies currently have, yet trade at high multiples based on what they are expected to do in future years.
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