Media Contacts:
Cathy Halgas Nevins
eMusic
212-201-9201 or cnevins@emusic.com
For Immediate Release
INDIE RECORD STORE NOT DEAD:
NEW eMUSIC RECOMMENDATION ENGINE FROM MEDIAUNBOUND
OFFERS MUSIC FANS FINELY TUNED PICKS
NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2008 -- eMusic, the world’s largest retailer of independent music and
the world’s second-largest digital music service, today announces a home page redesign and
launch of a new recommendation engine. The eMusic experience now even more closely resembles a
trip to the corner record store, where expert music staff gets to know customers’ tastes
quickly and suggest music they might like. The new hybrid engine, created by MediaUnbound, a
leading personalization and recommendation technology company, combines human analysis with
computer algorithms to help music fans discover the hot new releases, legendary classics and
hidden gems in eMusic’s vast catalogue of 4.5 million tracks.
“For first-time eMusic customers, this means they get great music recommendations the minute
they arrive on the site,” said Deirdre Stone, eMusic VP of Product Development. “The
recommendations get better and better with every action the customer takes, encouraging true
music discovery and trust in the service. And the best part is – it doesn’t require you to
upload your entire music library like competing digital music services.”
eMusic’s new state-of-the-art recommendation engine builds a profile for each eMusic subscriber
based on their individual actions (searches, downloads, ratings, etc.), specific musical tastes
and overall usage of the site. To develop music recommendations, it applies multiple
algorithms on the profile along with global data culled from the internet (P2P, blogs, web
radio, etc.) to find correlations and patterns between artists, tracks, albums, eMusic
editorial content and even eMusic subscribers themselves. Then MediaUnbound adds high quality
data, tuning and input from its global team of human music analysts to ensure exciting and
accurate recommendations.
New members will see recommended album picks at the top of the page based on top artists and
genres they specify when joining the eMusic community. Existing members will be offered
recommendations based on their download histories, ratings, and other behavioral
characteristics. The customer’s real-time actions enable the recommendation engine to become
smarter over time, with immediate, relevant feedback for the user. eMusic editorial experts
are also able to adjust the engine’s recommendation parameters to best match the tastes of the
eMusic community.
The new home page offers eMusic subscribers an elegant look and feel with enhanced
functionality. The design allows subscribers to easily stream music and access album
information by simply clicking on or rolling over an album. Customers can view recommendations
for “Music You’ll Love,” “New & Noteworthy,” “New Arrivals,” as well as community “Best
Sellers,” “New Audiobooks” and “Freshly Ripped Today.”
“Notes from the Digital Underground” showcases eMusic’s award-winning editorial content,
including the Review of the Day, eMusic Dozen, Spotlights and Q&As correlated to subscribers’
individual tastes. “Today’s Buzz” features highlighted eMusic releases and allows customers to
view recent “Buzz” features as well. The redesigned home page also makes it easy for customers
to access the top genres for browsing, view the top five best-selling albums on eMusic and view
new upcoming releases.
About MediaUnbound
MediaUnbound builds and supports custom personalization and recommendation software for
companies that sell, distribute, and display media content. By combining the numerical power of
computer algorithms with expert knowledge from teams of human media analysts, MediaUnbound
helps people find, discover, and interact with large catalogs of diverse content. MediaUnbound
was founded in 2000 and is a privately-held company headquartered in Cambridge, MA with offices
in Germany and Japan. www.mediaunbound.com
About eMusic
eMusic (www.emusic.com) is a specialty digital
entertainment retailer that has been at the forefront of offering MP3 downloads and customer-friendly prices since its
inception in 1998. The company is focused on serving customers aged 25 and older by offering
independent music and audio books in
a universally compatible format at a great value. It is the world's largest retailer of
independent music and the world's second-largest digital music service after iTunes, with more
than four million tracks from 40,000 of the world's leading independent labels and thousands of
titles from top audio book publishers. To super-serve its more than 400,000 customers, eMusic
provides award-winning editorial content, a vibrant online community and unrivaled music
discovery tools. eMusic's subscription-based service offers free music downloads or one free
audio book at sign-up, giving consumers an inexpensive, low-risk way to explore great new music
and books they wouldn't find otherwise. The company's music download promotions help
world-class brands reward and engage with their customers. Based in New York with an office in
London, eMusic is available in the U.S., Canada and 26 E.U. nations. eMusic.com Inc. is wholly
owned by Dimensional Associates, Inc., the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc.
NOTE: eMusic is a registered trademark and eMusic.com is a trademark of eMusic.com Inc. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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