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Napster contact: Adam Howorth Communications Director Tel: +44 (0) 207 1017281 adam.howorth@napster.co.uk NAPSTER UK APPOINTS JEFF SMITH AS PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR
Former Capital FM Network programme director and Radio 1 head of music joins UK team alongside new communications director and marketing manager LONDON - (March 23, 2004) - Napster UK, a division of Roxio (Nasdaq: ROXI), has appointed Jeff Smith as programming director for its new UK service, set to launch before the end of the summer. Smith will be responsible for sourcing and selecting all the music for Napster’s UK service from the major and independent UK labels spanning all genres, including rock, R&B, pop, alternative, and more. This will involve managing the programming of hundreds of thousands of tracks as well as identifying priority artists and records and highlighting new releases to reflect the diverse tastes of music consumers in the UK. Jeff Smith comes to Napster with over 18 years programming experience in the UK national radio industry, including CHR outlets 95.8 Capital FM, Capital FM Network and BBC Radio 1. His skills as a programmer will be valuable in aggregating content, formulating playlists and launching Napster UK online radio stations. Other additions to the Napster UK team include communications director Adam Howorth and marketing manager Rob Gotlieb - all three appointments take place with immediate effect and report directly to Napster UK general manager Leanne Sharman. "Jeff Smith is a tremendous hire for us and underlines the value we place in having the most exciting and widest choice of music available through Napster UK. He has proven experience in not only responding to, but shaping, consumer tastes. The fact he’s chosen Napster as the vehicle to cross over from mainstream radio to online music at this time should send out a strong signal to the rest of the industry that we’re about to experience a major change in how we consume music," said Leanne Sharman. "With Jeff Smith, Adam Howorth and Rob Gotlieb, we have cherry-picked the strongest team in the market to help establish the Napster service as the premium online music experience in the UK." "With its unlimited streamed content, Napster operates in a similar fashion to radio," said Jeff Smith. "The difference, and big advantage for users is Napster is interactive and isn’t restricted in any way by radio formats or genre. As a member you can pick the playlists, instantly see which track is playing and by which artist and listen to it, skip it, download it or burn a copy. The community experience also adds another important layer of value. I’m sold on Napster because it’s all about choice and it’s very exciting for me personally to be joining a start-up in this country that is revolutionising how we listen to music." Before joining Napster, Jeff Smith was a consultant to a series of high profile UK media organisations, including BBC Worldwide and Wise Buddah Creative. From 2002 to 2003, Smith was head of music and programming strategy for Capital FM Network where he managed the music policy across its seven UK stations reaching 6 million listeners. He took this role after spending two years as programme controller for London radio station 95.8 Capital FM. Prior to this Smith was head of music policy at BBC Radio 1 for three years where he sat on the management board alongside the station controller. His achievements at the BBC included founding the influential Evening Session programme and bringing current Breakfast Show presenter Chris Moyles to the station. Adam Howorth has over 10 years experience in corporate communications and was previously communications director at MP3.com Europe. He has written for The Times, Guardian, Independent and Billboard and has also released records on the Poptones label with the band Captain Soul. Rob Gotlieb joins Napster from BT.com where he was responsible for driving consumer traffic to the telecom provider’s commercial website and maximising its return on investment. He was also involved in managing BT’s media agency. Napster 2.0 creates an immersive music community where users can quickly search for music, discover artists, burn CDs and transfer tracks onto any portable device that supports the Microsoft Windows Media Audio codec, as well as access charts and messageboards and share playlists. 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.
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