eMusic Sales Surpass 200 Million Downloads

NEW YORK, NY (Top40 Charts/ By Cathy Halgas Nevins/ eMusic) - eMusic, the world's largest digital retailer of independent music and the world's second-largest music service after iTunes, today announced that it has sold more than 200 million downloads since establishing its current subscription model in November 2003. The total comprises music downloads sold in the U.S. and the E.U., where eMusic has been available in all 27 E.U. nations since September 2006.
The company is now selling more than 7 million tracks a month across all territories. The 200 millionth track downloaded was "Fiery Crash" from Andrew Bird's "Armchair Apocrypha" (Fat Possum Records).

eMusic also reports that it has sold 40 million downloads since the launch of Amazon MP3 on September 25, 2007.
"As more choices emerge for consumers in the digital music space, eMusic continues to grow, attracting new customers and selling more music every day," said eMusic President and CEO David Pakman.
"We've been ahead of the curve on DRM-free formats and price since day one, and we believe these numbers show that eMusic continues to sell more digital music than any other service apart from iTunes.
"Most importantly, we are doing a great job satisfying customers' needs, helping them discover music they otherwise would not have found, and giving them a reason to spend money on music," he added.

The company reached the 200 million download mark in less than a year and half since hitting 100 million downloads in December 2006 - less than half the time it took to reach 100 million downloads. These royalty-bearing downloads reflect how eMusic is helping independent labels gain market share by selling albums and songs that wouldn't have sold otherwise to customers interested in music outside of the mainstream.

eMusic offers the serious music fan a place to find the best online music in all genres, including indie rock, classical and jazz. With deep relationships with the world's top independent labels, guidance from the best music editorial experts and a passionate music community, eMusic caters to music fans aged 25+. It provides all tracks in the universally compatible MP3 format at prices as low as 27 cents (17p/ 23c) a track.