Mindawn - the Latest Music Download Service

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. - Dec. 14, 2004 - Mindawn, a revolutionary new online music service, has opened its doors for business. Mindawn is a new entry on the online music distribution market that differs from the competition in three major ways: cross-platform compatibility, CD-quality song files, and virtually no digital rights restrictions (DRM).

Most online music services tie the user to one or, at best, two computer platforms: iTunes is only for Mac OS X and Windows; Napster is Windows-only. Mindawn, on the other hand, works with all three major platforms -- Windows, Mac OS X and Linux -- and is fully compatible with all three. With Mindawn's cross-platform client software, you can even hear a full preview of the entire song, unlike competing services, which only offer brief excerpts.

Competitors also normally only offer music files that are reduced in quality through what's called "lossy compression." The more compressed a file is, the greater the loss in sound quality. By contrast, Mindawn offers its files in both Ogg Vorbis and FLAC formats. Ogg Vorbis, unlike MP3, is a totally free and open sound format, and offers superior sound quality compared to MP3 and other compression techniques. Meanwhile, FLAC is full CD-quality and, while 50 percent smaller, can easily be converted to AIFF or WAV files for use in standard CD players or converted to virtually any other lossy format for use on any portable media player.

Mindawn is the only online music service to offer FLAC and Ogg Vorbis as its standard music file formats, and is the only service to offer music in both "lossy" and "lossless" forms.

Competing online music services such as Napster or Apple's iTunes only offer their music in a highly restricted form, commonly known as "digital rights management." Essentially this is a means of stopping the user from listening to their purchased music in any way they see fit. By contrast, for private users, Mindawn does not restrict the use of music files purchased from its service. Users may copy them to any number of devices and convert them to other formats as they wish.

Mindawn also offers a simple and attractive royalty system for artists, and is ideal for young artists looking for a simple and easy way to sell their music online. All you artists have to do is sign up, upload your music, and start selling; there is no approval process involved, you can be live in the time it takes to rip and upload your material. Royalties are paid monthly via our partnership with PayPal.

A number of labels have already signed with Mindawn to offer their artists' music through its service. These include DVS Records, UBP International, OtterSong Records, ProgRock Records, Lion Music, Record Heaven, Big Balloon Music, Fading Ways Music and more. More labels are in the pipeline, and Mindawn is actively attracting other labels to join its service with its simple licensing and royalty scheme.

About Mindawn
Mindawn ( www.mindawn.com ) is a division of theKompany.com ( www.thekompany.com ), a California-based software company with developer teams in North America and Europe, and a sister company of ProgRock.com ( www.progrock.com ), the first name in progressive rock on the Internet. theKompany.com's products are marketed both online and through B & M channels such as Microcenter and Fry's Electronics.