ATMs soon will be playing a different tune.

MILWAUKEE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 1996--TYME, one of the nation's largest electronic funds transfer (EFT) networks, and MUZAK have teamed up to offer audio capability at the ATMs and point-of-sale (POS) terminals of TYME's more than 500 participating financial institutions.

"We're the first network in the country to provide audio capability," said James H. Martin, president of Milwaukee-based TYME Corporation. "When you consider that TYME cardholders use ATMs and POS terminals more than 72 million times a year, the marketing potential for our participants is tremendous. Cardholders will hear product and service information that's important to them. So we're adding real value for our cardholders as well with this capability."

"This represents a significant opportunity for ATM owners to market themselves and their products directly to cardholders as they're actually using the ATM," said Mark Hill, MUZAK group sales manager. "It also will help financial institutions or perhaps other companies bring new products to market."

Financial institutions will have a variety of options to format the audio capability, but Martin said a typical scenario when the cardholder activates the ATM might include a few seconds of music leading into a promotion of the company's products and services. "The average transaction time for withdrawal is 30 seconds so we're talking about quick-hitting, succinct messages," he said.

The music and message can be changed as often as desired.

Because of the short time a cardholder spends at an ATM, Hill said the frequency with which the message is changed is more important than the number of messages per transaction.

Martin did not rule out the possibility of a company other than a financial institution making use of the audio capability. "It's up to our participating financial institutions how they want to use the service, but someone like a Coca-Cola or McDonald's is certainly a possibility," he said. "Something like that offers our participants another stream of revenue."

Hill said the audio capability will be provided via satellite or a tape-based download to a computer chip which will replay the "strategic audio messages" at the ATM or POS terminal. TYME, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, has more than 1,600 ATMs and 4,300 POS terminals in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois. TYME stands for Take Your Money Everywhere.

Seattle-based MUZAK is known as the world's largest provider of business music and communication services. Muzak subscribers number more than 200,000, with more than 60,000 of them receiving music and ancillary services such as data communications, business television, and in-store advertising via direct broadcast satellite. Its music is heard by an estimated 80 million people each day in the U.S. and 11 foreign countries. MUZAK is supported by a network of 163 independent and 35 company-owned sales locations.

CONTACT: TYME Corporation, Milwaukee

James Martin, 414/355-0300