eMUSIC ADDS LENNY KAYE AND MICHAELANGELO MATOS TO EDITORIAL STAFF

EXPANDS REACH WITH SENIOR PR, MARKETING HIRES

NEW YORK, April 12, 2006 –eMusic, the world’s largest digital retailer of independent music, announces several key staff additions as it continues to expand its visibility and customer base. The eMusic editorial team adds the legendary Lenny Kaye as Rock/Pop Columnist and accomplished music journalist Michaelangelo Matos as Managing Editor. To support its increased marketing efforts, eMusic also adds Cathy Halgas Nevins as Senior Director, Corporate Communications, and Matt Gately as Senior Director, Acquisition Marketing.

“eMusic is more than just another plain Jane download site. It’s staffed with people who are passionate and knowledgeable about great music and know how to reach and communicate with customers who care,” said David Pakman, President and CEO of eMusic. “We know that Cathy, Matt, Lenny and Michaelangelo will make valuable contributions toward further increasing our visibility, our customer base and delivering the best digital music experience in the world.”

Kaye is co-founder of the legendary Patti Smith Group, and has had a long and successful career as musician, music journalist and producer. Kaye helped compile the influential Nuggets garage rock collection, and has produced multi-platinum albums for Suzanne Vega and Soul Asylum. He was also one of the very first rock critics, writing for Creem, Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, and other magazines. Kaye also wrote You Call It Madness: The Sensuous Song Of The Croon (Villard, 2004) and co-authored Waylon: An Autobiography (Warner Books, 1996). Kaye replaces Ann Powers as eMusic Rock/Pop Critic, who recently took the chief music job at the Los Angeles Times.

As Managing Editor, Matos will be responsible for assigning and editing reviews and contribute ideas for eMusic’s popular “Dozens” features. Matos was previously Music Editor at Seattle Weekly, which called him “the definitive arbiter of musical taste,” upon his recent departure. Several of his Seattle Weekly pieces appeared in Da Capo Best Music Writing 2004, and he has written a book about Prince’s Sign ‘O’ the Times for Continuum’s 33 1/3 series of monographs on classic albums (2004). Matos has also written for Spin, Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Nerve.com, Nylon, City Pages, Decibel, Chicago Reader, Baltimore City Paper, The Wire, and Request.

Kaye and Matos report to eMusic Editor in chief Michael Azerrad. The editorial team also recently added contributing writers WNYC host John Schaefer, underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar, and accomplished music writers Ira Robbins, Simon Reynolds, Michael Corcoran, Ed Ward and Anastasia Tsioulcas.

Nevins will helm a comprehensive communications strategy, including corporate communications and consumer PR. Nevins was mostly recently V.P. Communications and Publicity for U.K.-headquartered independent DVD and record label Eagle Rock Entertainment where she was responsible for corporate communications and product publicity. She has also worked with online retailer Bluefly.com and digital music locker company Myplay, Inc. Nevins started her music business career as principal of independent publicity firm Melomania Publicity, working with artists such as Ben Folds Five and Tracy Bonham. She reports to eMusic President and CEO David Pakman.

Gately will work to expand customer acquisition through direct marketing opportunities with an emphasis on growing online acquisition. He joins eMusic after a 15-year stint at sweepstakes giant Publishers Clearing House and pch.com, where most recently he focused on online customer acquisition and business development. At pch.com, Gately was responsible for doubling the number of new opt-in customers in the last year, and diversifying the marketing mix through direct buys on the larger portals such as AOL, Yahoo and MSN. He reports to eMusic Senior Vice President of Marketing Chris Hoerenz.

About eMusic
eMusic (http://www.emusic.com) is the world’s leading digital retailer of independent music, and the #2 digital music service overall, second only to iTunes in number of downloads sold. Delivering more than 4.5 million downloads per month, eMusic features over 1.2 million tracks from established and emerging artists in every genre from the world’s leading 4,000 independent labels. A subscription-based service that offers 25 free downloads at sign-up, acclaimed editorial content, a vibrant online community and unrivaled music discovery tools, eMusic gives consumers an inexpensive, low-risk way to explore great new music they wouldn’t find otherwise. Unlike other download services, eMusic’s universally compatible MP3 files play on any device including the iPod. Based in New York, eMusic.com Inc. is wholly owned by Dimensional Associates, Inc., the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc.

NOTE: eMusic is a registered trademark and eMusic.com is a trademark of eMusic.com Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.