Musicnotes Passes $5 Million in Royalties Paid; Continues Drive for New Revenue Stream with Advertising Supported MXTabs.net Guitar Tab Initiative

MADISON, WIS. (Top40 Charts/ Musicnotes) - Musicnotes announced today royalty payments to music publishers and the songwriters they represent recently passed the $5 million mark. In 2007 alone, royalty payments on Musicnotes' digital sheet music downloads should exceed $2 million.

Musicnotes, the worldwide leader in sales of downloadable sheet music, sold its first digital download in late 1999 and will sell its three-millionth download sometime this fall.

During the first half of 2007 downloads at Musicnotes.com increased 40% over the previous year. Musicnotes has sold almost 600,000 sheet music and guitar tablature downloads year-to-date at an average price of $4.75 per download.

"At a time when the music industry is struggling to find new revenue streams our pay-for-content digital delivery model is coming into its own," stated Musicnotes CEO Kathleen Marsh. "Musicnotes continues to focus on adding content and enhancements to our award-winning website. We believe the digital market is still in its infancy as far as sales potential."

In addition to the musicnotes.com pay-for-content site, Musicnotes hopes to re-launch a totally separate advertising-based guitar, bass and drum tab site, MXTabs.net. Unauthorized guitar tab sites continue to operate and attract significant consumer traffic, generating meaningful advertising revenues that are not shared with publishers and songwriters.

Due to inefficiencies inherent in the traditional print music business, there is no legal alternative for 80% of the songs found on the unauthorized tab sites. The MXTabs.net site is designed to provide musicians with the music they want in a format they are familiar with, while also providing songwriters and copyright holders with an additional revenue stream for their intellectual property.

"We believe pay-for-content and "free and legal" models can coexist in the music notation market," said Marsh. "Publishers and songwriters will maximize their income embracing both approaches. It is disappointing that certain music industry forces oppose the MXTabs initiative, as we believe this is exactly the type of venture the industry needs to generate new revenue in an online world. Although this opposition has slowed our progress, we intend to push forward."