450 U.K. Indie Record Labels Take Collective Leap into e-Commerce; DigMedia and MusicIndie.com to Provide U.K. Indies with Secure e-Business Services.

Business Editors/Music Industry Writers

Webnoize 2000

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2000

In the wake of German media giant BMG's surprising new alliance with Napster, technology infrastructure company DigMedia today announced a partnership with the Association of Independent Music (AIM) to provide a scaleable secure e-commerce infrastructure to 450 British independent record labels.

Specifically, DigMedia will provide its e-commerce tool kit and hosting services through AIM's commercial subsidiary MusicIndie.com, which assists the U.K.'s independent record industry to do business in new media. Each member label will retain their individual Web sites but will use DigMedia's back end -- a powerful combination of secure shopping cart functionality, credit card payment gateways, and a Digital Rights Management database system.

"The MusicIndie / DigMedia partnership is the largest U.K. music-related e-commerce venture of its kind," said Pedro Vargas, a former 12-year business development veteran with Intel and current chairman and CTO of DigMedia "The 450 independent record labels represented by AIM make up 26% of music sales in the U.K."

A unique, community-based e-business solution, DigMedia and AIM are enabling independents to compete globally with major label competition from BMG, EMI and Warner Music.

"We have entered into a partnership with DigMedia to build a world-class e-commerce tool to support, develop and empower the British independent music industry's e-commerce activities," added Gavin Robertson, managing director of MusicIndie. "We chose to work with DigMedia because they had the right combination of extensive hosting capabilities, flexible Digital Rights Management Systems (DRM), and easy connectivity to our members' existing Web sites."

About AIM

AIM is the Association of Independent Music, an organization which represents the U.K. independent record sector. AIM promotes the use of its members' music and protects the interests of its members in relation to the recorded music market. AIM has 450 members, accounting for 26% of the U.K. music market at retail, but a higher percentage of contemporary and genre-specific music. 40% of new British Artists whose albums go gold and 30% whose albums go platinum are sourced by independent record companies

About DigMedia Inc.

DigMedia Inc. is an end-to-end, digital media distribution company and manufacturer of Internet audio appliances providing secure streaming media, hosting and e-business services to record labels and other music content providers. DigMedia strategic allies include: Intel (Web hosting, streaming media), Intertrust (Digital Rights Management), and Loudeye (Digital Media Encoding). DigMedia Inc. is based in San Diego, Calif., with offices in Edinburgh, Scotland. For more information about DigMedia, Inc., visit the company's Web site at http://www.digmedia.cc.