LET THE SYNERGY BEGIN

Wasting no time in getting the corporate synergy rolling, the Warner Music Group and AOL announced a new campaign to bring comprehensive online promotions of the music company's superstars and new artists to the 27 million subscribers of the online service, including users of Winamp.com and Spinner.com.

AOL will promote new releases from more than a dozen major artists from WMG labels, including Yolanda Adams, Barenaked Ladies, Bjork, Brandy, Tracy Chapman, The Corrs, Craig David, Depeche Mode, Missy Elliott, Jewel, Gerald Levert, Linkin Park, Natalie Merchant, R.E.M., Silk, Staind, Rod Stewart, Sugar Ray and Vitamin C. New artists are expected to include Jamie Hawkins, Hesher, Jaheim, Billy Jean, The Matthew Good Band, Debelah Morgan, Plus One, Ray-J, Sunshine Anderson, Taproot and Dante Thomas, among others.

The promotions will be located in AOL's Music and Entertainment Channels, and follow several already successful promotions for Madonna and matchbox twenty. They will include:
*30-day, timed-out, secure digital downloads of selected audio tracks from participating artists.
*30-second excerpts from music videos.
*Artist-branded custom "radio stations."
*Artist chats and bulletin boards.
*Links to artists and label websites, subscription mailing lists, fan pages and clubs and album pre-order capabilities.
*Bundling of software on artist CDs.

WMG New Media boss Paul Vidich stopped trying to download Jennifer Lopez JPEGS to state: "This new relationship will give us the opportunity to introduce AOL's millions of music fans to some of our most promising new talent as well as bring them great music from some of the world's best-known recording artists… That's funny, my quotes are every bit as boring as they were before we merged with AOL…"

AOL President Jonathan Sacks added: "We couldn't be more pleased to work again with WMG to bring our audiences some of the best and most popular music and artists today. You haven't lived until you've heard Steve Case singing, ‘Don't You Want Me Baby.'"