CHICAGO, March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- MusicNow today announced the launch of its new, highly-personalized digital music subscription service that includes user profile-based browse features, dynamically-updated Hotlists and Homepages, and "Scan My Collection" functionality, which populates members' MusicNow Collection with music that already exists on their computer.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050322/CGTU019 )

The service is entirely browser-based and requires no application download, which allows for ubiquitous access to member collections from any Internet-connected computer.

"To date, music subscription services have required that their members put in a lot of work, as if music was their vocation," said Gary Cohen, president of MusicNow. "MusicNow 5.0 represents an evolution. It's actually fun to use."

Key Personalization Features

Member-to-Member Connectivity allows users to quickly and easily discover and share music with other members who share similar tastes. Automatically generated user Profile Pages take advantage of the most exciting elements of taste networking to give users a virtual way to discover new music through other people.

Hotlists enable the automatic delivery of selected playlists to your MusicNow Collection so you always have immediate access to any chart or list of songs in MusicNow. Whether it's a new album from your favorite artist or the top songs from a particular genre, Hotlists update dynamically as lists change due to fluctuating popularity or the addition of new songs.

Each user's Homepage is personalized and automatically updated in real- time to allow for immediate access to the user's favorite music.

Member-Centric Innovation

MusicNow's enhanced browse capabilities, including member profile surfing, create impromptu music fan networks that push taste-makers' music flavors to a broader audience.

MusicNow is the first digital music subscription service that is entirely Web-based, eliminating the need for cumbersome software downloads and allowing users to access their MusicNow Collections from any Internet-connected computer.

When a new member registers, MusicNow's "Scan My Collection" functionality provides the option to search the user's hard drive for any pre-existing music files and automatically populates the user's MusicNow Collection with all available songs.

MusicNow Selection and Pricing

MusicNow offers more than one million songs -- including selections from the four major labels, EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and the Warner Music Group, as well as independent labels -- for a monthly fee of $9.95. Individual songs are still available for purchase for 99 cents each.

About MusicNow

MusicNow LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Circuit City Stores Inc., manages the software and systems that cover every aspect of music content aggregation and delivery, including content acquisition and management, media storage, secure delivery and digital rights management to ensure that all rights holders are fairly compensated for their work. MusicNow operates a legal online music store and service with more than 100 channels of original music programming and content from all four major labels- EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and the Warner Music Group-as well as hundreds of independent labels. Consumers have the option to either purchase tracks and albums a la carte via MusicNow's download stores or subscribe to MusicNow's subscription service, which provides unlimited access to the music in MusicNow's library for a monthly subscription fee. The company is headquartered in Chicago. For more information or to subscribe to MusicNow, please visit http://www.musicnow.com/ .

CONTACT: Greg Rudin of MusicNow, +1-312-663-9363, ext. 161,
grudin@musicnow.com, or Michael Beno of Ruder Finn, +1-312-329-3970,
benom@ruderfinn.com

Web site: http://www.musicnow.com/