Rainmaker Publicity Signs The New Orchard Having Undergone a Rebirth in 2003, Fueled by New Investors, New Management, and a Renewed Commitment to Fostering and Nurturing Up-and-Coming Bands

The New Orchard is the only company of it's kind thats offering a non-exclusive physical and digital distribution model.

New York City, NY February 13, 2004 -- In the not-too-distant past, aspiring musicians who wished to distribute their music did not have many palatable options: they could either sell their music at concerts, or beg independent shop owners to stock their albums. Both options offered limited exposure, at best. With the age of the internet, independent musicians could now post their music on a website fairly easily, but the problem of exposure remained.

That problem has been solved by The New Orchard, which not only posts music on the internet for musicians, distributing it to all the major online digital portals such as ITunes and Napster, but offers physical distribution as well. Founded in 1998, The New Orchard has undergone a rebirth in 2003, fueled by new investors, new management, and a renewed commitment to fostering and nurturing up-and-coming bands. Brad Navin, Senior Vice President of Music & Programming, recently sat down and talked about the exciting happenings at The New Orchard:

Q: Why are you calling it The NEW Orchard? What is new and different?

A: We took on some investment last year from a private equity firm, and with that came new management, new personnel, and an overhauled website. Weve streamlined our offering so that we have a digital-only distribution model, as well as a Digital-Physical, which weve never offered before. We have a new customer service division, complete with an email address our artists can use to contact us with questions and issues, and well get back to them within 24 hours. We have a monthly newsletter that keeps our artists up to date on developments within the company. Were calling it The NEW Orchard because theres so many new and exciting reasons for bands to check us out again.

Q: Why should a band sign with you, and why should they do it NOW?

A: We are the only company of our kind thats offering a non-exclusive physical and digital distribution model. We have the means to get records into both the major stores and the mom & pop stores, and we also have deals in place with all the leading online retail partners--CD Now, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Nobody has the reach we do across the board for physical distribution, and theres also the whole digital distribution. We use Loud Eye, the industry leader, for digital encryption. We have deals in place with all the major leading legitimate online services in the country. Its not something thats hypothetical, its not something that were planning on doing; its something weve already been doing for many months already.

Q: Tell us about the on-line accounting system.

A: Its something that hasnt been out there before. Were building a completely integrated accounting system in which you can take all of the information from all of our partners--whether its physical distribution or digital distribution--and youll be able to see what albums shipped to where, and when. With our system, therell be a summary of your activity across all the services, as well as particular releases by track, detailing what type of activity has been going on: a stream, a download, etc. And that will all be available online, at peoples fingertips, updated constantly.

Q: How much do your services cost? Give me promotion details & code?

A: We offer three basic models, and theres a special deal in place from February 15 through March 15 for new bands and labels joining us: (1) World Wide Digital distribution, which is $39, down from $49. (2) the Digital and Physical distribution is $79, down from $99, which also gets you into the on-line retail stores. And (3) On-Demand manufacturing is $99, down from $129, which gives people both the physical and digital distribution, plus the ability to manufacture CDs when they are ordered. These are all one-time fees to join, and any artist or label can employ our services--we dont make any judgments. USE PROMO CODE: PROMO1

The New Orchard gives musicians without the benefit of major label support the chance to actually be heard, on a scale that could not have been imagined just a few years ago. Now, The company is putting out a call to all indie musicians to help open up the flood gates to all the fantastic music that we know is out there, and to help make music history.

Contact: Rhonda Kelley
Rainmaker Publicity
Tel: 617-266-1601
E:Mail: e-mail protected from spam bots

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