Samsung Electronics and Napster Partner on New Portable Music Device To Debut This Fall
An alliance between the leader in digital music and the leader in digital audio devices will provide unmatched
user experience to music enthusiasts
New York, New York - (September 16, 2003) - Samsung Electronics and Napster are forging
a technology and marketing partnership to improve the experience of consumers using digital music. The
partnership - announced today at Samsung's DigitALL Inspiration 2003 Showcase by Eric Kim, Executive
Vice President and Head of Global Marketing Operations and Digital Solution Center for Samsung
Electronics, and Chris Gorog, Chairman and CEO of Roxio (Nasdaq: ROXI), the parent company of Napster -
kicks off with the introduction of a new Samsung-Napster digital audio player that is designed to work
seamlessly with the Napster 2.0 music service launching in the U.S. by the holidays. The new device will
be available in retail stores this Fall.
The partnership will include joint engineering and co-marketing activities centered on a line of portable
music devices that integrate with Napster 2.0. The Samsung devices will be co-branded and identified as
"Napster compatible" on the packaging, helping consumers understand that the Napster service and Samsung
device work together seamlessly.
Napster 2.0 will offer music fans access to more than 500,000 tracks of the world's greatest music from
all five major record labels and hundreds of independent labels. Users of the service will be able to purchase
individual tracks or albums, which can be transferred to portable devices and burned to CDs. In addition, consumers
may select a premium version of the service that offers unlimited listening and downloading, radio and community
features, and unique content.
"The Samsung Electronics and Napster partnership is an example of our ongoing commitment to providing our
customers with innovative products that are simple for everyone to use," said Eric Kim. "Our partnership with
Napster enables us to offer our customers a seamless experience from selecting and downloading legal music
from Napster to enjoying that music on the Samsung player. The relationship with Napster enables us to develop
a line of offerings that will deliver an unmatched customer experience using our products with Napster content."
"Samsung and Napster share the vision that the digital music experience should be fun and very easy," said
Chris Gorog. "Combining the resources of this global leader in consumer electronics together with the most
recognized online music brand in the world, we will introduce a line of products that dramatically
enhances the digital music experience. We look forward to a rewarding relationship with Samsung that benefits
music fans everywhere."
About Napster
Napster® is the world's most recognized brand in online music. Napster has content agreements with the
five major record labels, as well as hundreds of independents. Napster delivers access to the largest catalog of online music
with more than 500,000 tracks spanning all genres and artists from Eminem to Miles Davis. Napster is a division of Roxio, Inc.,
(Nasdaq: ROXI), the Digital Media Company, provider of the best-selling digital media software in the world. Napster has offices
in Los Angeles and New York.
About Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, and digital convergence technology.
Samsung Electronics employs approximately 75,000 people in 89 offices in 47 countries. The company is the world's largest
producer of memory chips, TFT-LCDs, CDMA mobile phones, monitors and VCRs. Samsung Electronics consists of four main
business units: Digital Media Network, Device Solution Network, Telecommunication Network and Digital Appliance Network
Businesses. For more information, please visit http://www.samsung.com.
About Samsung Electronics America, Inc.
Headquartered in Ridgefield Park, NJ, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (SEA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung
Electronics Co., markets a broad range of award-winning, advanced digital consumer electronics and information systems
products. The SEA organization oversees the North American operations of Samsung Telecommunications USA, Samsung Electronics
Canada and Samsung Electronics Mexico. Please visit www.samsungusa.com
for more information.
About Roxio
Roxio, a division of Sonic Solutions, develops and markets the best-selling digital media software in the world. Roxio offers
award-winning software products for CD/DVD burning, photo editing and video editing and has an installed base of over 150 million
users. Roxio distributes its products globally through strategic partnerships with major hardware manufacturers, through leading
retailers, through Internet partnerships and through direct sales at www.roxio.com. Roxio's
parent company, Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC;
http://www.sonic.com) is the leader in digital media software and provides a broad range of software
tools and applications for creative professionals, business and home users and technology partners. Sonic's products range from professional
DVD authoring systems and interactive content delivery technologies that are used to produce the majority of Hollywood movies released on DVD,
to the award-winning Roxio- and Sonic-branded CD and DVD creation, playback and backup applications that have become the premiere solutions
for consumers and business users worldwide. Sonic's AuthorScript® is the de facto standard for CD and DVD burning and formatting and has
been licensed by major software and hardware manufacturers, including Adobe, Broadcom, Microsoft, Scientific-Atlanta, Sony, and many others.
Sonic Solutions is headquartered in Marin County, California.
Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press release, in particular matters related to future revenue,
customer demand for the Napster service, Napster's relationship with content providers, marketing partners and hardware manufacturers
are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties such as failure to attract new customers, slow
growth in demand for online music distribution generally and for the Napster service in particular, intense competition, failure
to maintain key corporate relationships, general economic conditions and undetected errors in the Napster software and service that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Additional information on these and other factors are contained
in Roxio's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as
filed with the SEC on August 14, 2003, copies of which are available at the website maintained by the SEC at
http://www.sec.gov. Roxio assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking
statements included in this press release. Copyright © 2003 Roxio, Inc. All rights reserved. Roxio, the Roxio tagline and Napster
are registered trademarks of Roxio, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks used
are owned by their respective owners.
Sonic, the Sonic logo, Sonic Solutions, Roxio, MyDVD, CineMagic, Plug & Burn, LiveShare, Roxio Easy Media Creator, and AuthorScript are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Sonic Solutions or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Dolby is a trademark
of Dolby Laboratories. All other company or product names are trademarks of their respective owners and, in some cases, are used by Sonic
Solutions under license. Specifications, pricing and delivery schedules are subject to change without notice.
Copyright © 2003 Roxio, Inc. All rights reserved. Roxio, the Roxio tagline and Napster are registered trademarks of Roxio, Inc.
or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks used are owned by their respective owners.