"Hey There Delilah" Songwriter and Publishers Receive 2007 Musicnotes Song of the Year Award

Madison, WI – May 1, 2008 – Musicnotes, Inc., the market leader in downloadable sheet music, announced today Plain White T’s lead singer and songwriter, Tom Higgenson, WB Music Corp. and Alfred Publishing are the recipients of the sixth annual Musicnotes Song of the Year Award for the song "Hey There Delilah."

The Musicnotes Song of the Year Award is presented each year to the songwriter and publisher of the best-selling sheet music for a song made popular in the previous calendar year.  In 2007, this song was "Hey There Delilah," the breakthrough hit by veteran Chicago band, Plain White T’s.

The award was given to Tom Higgenson, the songwriter for "Hey There Delilah," WB Music Corp., Higgenson’s publishing administrator, and Alfred Publishing for their work on the arrangement of the song’s sheet music and guitar tablature.

"Thank you so much for this!  The fact that so many people wanted to learn "Delilah" is a huge honor," said Higgenson.  "I hope that it continues to touch more people when they play it."

Featured on both their third and fourth albums, All That We Needed and Every Second Counts, the song was also a number one Billboard hit, the most-played radio song in July 2007, and the most-downloaded song in iTunes history, before being replaced by Sean Kingston’s "Beautiful Girls."

"Alfred Publishing is excited to be part of the process of getting sheet music like this into the hands of fans everywhere," said Ron Manus, Executive Vice President of Alfred Publishing.  "The Plain White T’s hit 'Hey There Delilah' has been a longtime favorite here at Alfred, and we are privileged to be able to work with Musicnotes, Tom Higgenson and WB Music Corp. to make this hit a best-seller.  It’s an honor to know that partnerships like this can be utilized to further our goal of helping individuals to learn, teach, and play music."

Musicnotes, the leading online digital sheet music publisher and reseller, has previously presented awards to Vanessa Carlton ("A Thousand Miles"), Linda Perry (Christina Aguilera’s "Beautiful"), Evanescence ("My Immortal"), Marcus Hummon, Bobby Boyd and Jeff Hanna ("Bless the Broken Road") and Daniel Powter ("Bad Day").

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an online catalog of nearly 80,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Publishing, BMG/Universal, Disney Music Publishing, peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and many others. Musicnotes was also recently selected as one of the Top 500 Online Retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine.
On the Web: http://www.musicnotes.com.

About Alfred: Since its inception in 1922, Alfred Publishing remains dedicated to helping people experience the joy of making music. With hundreds of expert authors and composers backed by a talented staff in seven offices worldwide, Alfred publishes educational, reference, pop, and performance pieces for teachers, students, hobbyists and performers spanning every musical instrument, style, and difficulty level.

Alfred currently has over 45,000 active print, DVD, software, general MIDI, audio CD and enhanced CD titles in circulation throughout the world. Titles represent a full range of musical tastes and styles, including the works of George and Ira Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Henry Mancini, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, Madonna, Green Day, and hundreds more. In addition to its own titles, Alfred distributes works from the National Guitar Workshop, the Dover Music catalog, and Faber Music.

Musicnotes Media Contact:
Bill Aicher
Director of Marketing
aicher@musicnotes.com or 608-662-3660

April Free Sheet Music, Tab and Guru Downloads

It's April 1st, which means a new month, which means new free downloads.  This month we've selected a "Spring-y" song with "Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two)."

You can download the free sheet music, tab and Guitar Guru Sessions at our free page.

And if you're trying to remember the song... check out this rendition for a refresher course.

MXTabs.net Open at www.mxtabs.net

Last March Musicnotes announced that it would be re-launching the popular guitar, bass and drum tab website, MXTabs.net as the first free and legal guitar tab community.  Since then we've been hard at work securing licensing and building out a brand new site and experience.

Several months ago the site opened in a closed alpha test, and about a month ago this alpha was opened to the public.  Yesterday the alpha version of MXTabs opened at www.mxtabs.net.

The site is still in an alpha mode as we continue to add and test features, as well as secure additional licenses.  You can, however, now visit it and get an idea of what we're doing there.  It's quite a bit different than Musicnotes, but we're confident that it will maintain the same level of quality that Musicnotes is known for.

You can also get updates on MXTabs at our official MXTabs blog, available at http://blog.mxtabs.net

December Free Sheet Music and Guitar Guru

Another month, another batch of new free sheet music and Guitar Guru / TAB offerings.  This month we've added free piano/vocal/chords sheet music for "Up on the Housetop" and a free Guitar Guru (or TAB, if you're on a Mac) for "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear."

Get 'em here.

Enter to Win a $50 Musicnotes Gift Card: The Rate, Review and Win Event

This November Musicnotes will be giving away five $50 Musicnotes.com gift certificates each week to randomly selected customers who've written reviews of Muscnotes.com digital sheet music.

To enter for your chance to win, simply make sure your Musicnotes preferences are up to date and then review any digital sheet music title you’ve previously purchased at Musicnotes. Every review written qualifies as another chance to win!

You can learn more about this contest here.

Musicnotes.com Adds One-Millionth Customer, Sells Three-Millionth Download

Our latest news release....

MADISON, WI - November 6, 2007 - Musicnotes.com, the online leader in downloadable sheet music and guitar tablature, announced today it surpassed the one million customer mark in early September and also sold its three-millionth download on October 26.

Download number three million was the song "Thankful" performed by Josh Groban from his new holiday CD 'Noel.' The song "Thankful" is written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager and Richard Page and is published by leading independent music publisher, peermusic. Sheet music for the song is currently available exclusively at Musicnotes.com.

Peggy Blair, upon learning she was the purchaser of the three millionth download stated, "I've been able to locate the words and music for songs requested for weddings for which I'm asked to play piano. I'm also the pianist for a small church and occasionally someone will ask for a certain song I may not have in my library. It's very nice to be able to locate these songs without having to run from one store to the next, especially with the gas prices so high. Thank you for providing this service!"

Now entering the busiest part of its season, Musicnotes.com sold over 100,000 downloads in October alone and expects to do so in November and December as well. The site sold its first digital download in late 1999.

"Musicnotes.com continues to focus on the customer experience in helping site visitors find and learn to play the world's great songs" said Musicnotes CEO Kathleen Marsh. "We believe this approach serves everyone well, including our publishing and songwriting partners to whom we will have paid over $6 million in royalties through 2007."

New Features: Product Reviews and New Product Info Pages

If you're a regular customer at Musicnotes, you may have noticed a change to our product information pages today.  Over the last few months we've been hard at work looking at what information our customers find most important about a product and making this information easier to find on our product display pages.  This is why you'll notice that we now have a "tabbed" product information section on each product display page.

Along with this change you'll also notice that there is a new area called "reviews."  That's right - Musicnotes now offers the ability to write product reviews.  We've taken a slightly different approach to this feature, however.

Since the majority of digital sheet music products available on Musicnotes.com are available exclusively on our site, you must have previously purchased a digital product in order to be able to write a review.  This is done to ensure that all reviews are relevant to the actual arrangement, print out and downloadable file included in the product.

One other requirement for writing a review is that you must have a user public user profile on the Musicnotes site.  This is a free service at Musicnotes and is required so customers can more easily relate to a review.  Since sheet music and terms such as “difficulty” can be very subjective, knowledge of the reviewer as well as the instruments they play and their skill level can be very useful.

So, if you've recently made a purchase, we encourage you to try out our new product review system and give us your feedback (leave a comment below).  To write a review, just find the product on the Musicnotes site and click the "Reviews" tab in the product information area.  If you've purchased the product, you should see a link to write a review.  (You may have to sign in first).

If you have additional questions about this new functionality, please see the "Product Reviews" section in our online help system.

New Sheet Music RSS Feeds Now Available

If finding out what's new in digital sheet music each week at Musicnotes is on your priority list and you're a fan of RSS feeds, Musicnotes has a present for you.

Effective today Musicnotes offers RSS feeds of all the new digital sheet music added to our site each week.  Feeds are available for everything added during the week, as well as for each of our existing "What's New" page subcategories (Piano, Easy Piano, Christian, Country, Guitar Tab, etc.)

The best way to determine which feeds you want to subscribe to is to simply visit our "What's New" page and click the RSS icon next to the feed you want:(the one that looks like this: )

Of course you can also use regular feed discovery tools like those included in Internet Explorer 7, etc.

We'll be adding several additional feeds soon featuring our featured new selections and top downloads in each category (and a few other cool little tools) - so check back soon for more news.

Musicnotes.com Offers Sheet Music Downloads for Summer's Biggest Movies: Hairspray, Harry Potter, The Simpsons, Pirates of the Caribbean & High School Musical 2

New Musicnotes Press Release:

MADISON, WI – July 27, 2007 – Movie fans looking to learn to play and sing music from this summer’s most popular movies need look no further than their nearest computer, a visit to Musicnotes.com, and a printer full of paper.

Over the past month, Musicnotes.com has added downloadable sheet music for several of the summer’s hottest films including Hairspray, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Simpsons Movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and Spider-Man 3 to its online sheet music catalog of over 60,000 titles.

Sheet music for the single “What Time Is It” (from the upcoming Disney Channel movie High School Musical 2) is also available. Additional sheet music from High School Musical 2 will be available for download on August 17, 2007, in conjunction with the movie’s Disney Channel debut.

As part of this current push for movie sheet music, Musicnotes recently worked in conjunction with Alfred Publishing and New Line Records to incorporate a link to the Musicnotes web site in the recent Hairspray CD soundtrack release. Owners of the CD gain access to a web site link whereby they can receive a discount on selected sheet music titles from the film.

“The immediacy of the Internet has allowed us to offer movie fans the ability to learn movie themes while the film is still in the theater,” said Bill Aicher, Musicnotes Director of Marketing. “These songs strike chords with people when they see the movie. To be able to go home from the cinema and re-live those experiences by playing the songs can be extremely gratifying.”

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an impressive online catalog of over 60,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, BMG, Sony/ATV Publishing, Disney Music Publishing, Famous Music, Peermusic, Twentieth Century Fox Music Publishing, EMI Christian, Bug Music and others. Musicnotes was also recently selected as one of the Top 500 Online Retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine.

On the web: http://www.musicnotes.com

Musicnotes.com Passes $5 Million in Royalties Paid; Continues Drive for New Revenue Stream with Advertising Supported MXTabs.net Guitar Tab Initiative

Our latest news...

MADISON, WI – July 12, 2007 – Musicnotes announced today royalty payments to music publishers and the songwriters they represent recently passed the $5 million mark.  In 2007 alone, royalty payments on Musicnotes’ digital sheet music downloads should exceed $2 million. 

Musicnotes, the world wide leader in sales of downloadable sheet music, sold its first digital download in late 1999 and will sell its three-millionth download sometime this fall.

During the first half of 2007 downloads at Musicnotes.com increased 40% over the previous year.  Musicnotes has sold almost 600,000 sheet music and guitar tablature downloads year-to-date at an average price of $4.75 per download.

“At a time when the music industry is struggling to find new revenue streams our pay-for-content digital delivery model is coming into its own,” stated Musicnotes CEO Kathleen Marsh.   “Musicnotes continues to focus on adding content and enhancements to our award-winning website. We believe the digital market is still in its infancy as far as sales potential.”

In addition to the musicnotes.com pay-for-content site, Musicnotes hopes to re-launch a totally separate advertising-based guitar, bass and drum tab site, MXTabs.net.  Unauthorized guitar tab sites continue to operate and attract significant consumer traffic, generating meaningful advertising revenues that are not shared with publishers and songwriters.

Due to inefficiencies inherent in the traditional print music business, there is no legal alternative for 80% of the songs found on the unauthorized tab sites.  The MXTabs.net site is designed to provide musicians with the music they want in a format they are familiar with, while also providing songwriters and copyright holders with an additional revenue stream for their intellectual property.

“We believe pay-for-content and “free and legal” models can coexist in the music notation market,” said Marsh.  “Publishers and songwriters will maximize their income embracing both approaches.  It is disappointing that certain music industry forces oppose the MXTabs initiative, as we believe this is exactly the type of venture the industry needs to generate new revenue in an online world.  Although this opposition has slowed our progress, we intend to push forward.”

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an impressive online catalog of over 60,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, BMG, Sony/ATV Publishing, Disney Music Publishing, Famous Music, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and others. Musicnotes was also recently selected as one of the Top 500 Online Retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine.

On the web:
http://www.musicnotes.com
http://www.mxtabs.net

Executive Q&A - Walter Burt: Hitting right notes of online sheet music

The other day Musicnotes' own Head of Technology, Walter Burt, was the subject of a Q&A article in Madison's (our home town) newspaper The Wisconsin State Journal.

If you'd like to learn a bit of what happens in our technology department straight from the horse's mouth, be sure to check out the article at the link below:

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/biz/index.php?ntid=199611&ntpid=2

July Free Song of the Month - Now Includes Free Guitar Guru and Guitar Tab!

This month we've expanded our Free Song of the Month feature to begin including a free download for Guitar Guru and guitar tab.

Visit our redesigned "Free Sheet Music" page to download two great patriotic selections in celebration of the 4th of July: Battle Hymn of the Republic (piano/vocal) and The Star Spangled Banner (Guitar Guru & tab).

* Note: Guitar Guru is not available for Macintosh and will be a tab-only download for Mac users.

Disney Joins the Musicnotes.com Online Sheet Music Catalog

MADISON, WI – May 10, 2007 – “Ev’ry truly cultured music student knows, you must learn your scales and your arpeggios” – and with a newly announced licensing distribution agreement between Disney Music Publishing and Musicnotes.com, musicians throughout the world will enjoy learning the scales, arpeggios, lyrics and all the other notation necessary to play and sing all their favorite Disney songs.

Under this newly minted licensing agreement, online sheet music publisher and retailer, Musicnotes.com will sell downloadable digital sheet music from throughout Disney Music Publishing’s revered music catalog.

Disney Music Publishing joins an impressive list of music publishers and administrators already offering downloadable sheet music from their catalogs on the Musicnotes.com web site. These publishers include Alfred Music Publishing (encompassing the Warner/Chappell catalog), Sony/ATV, BMG, Zomba, Famous Music, Peermusic and dozens of additional publishers.

“We are excited about the opportunity to offer digital sheet music through Musicnotes.com, and expand the availability of Disney’s catalog in this growing format,” said Julie Enzer of Disney Music Publishing.

As a result of the agreement the Musicnotes.com web site will offer digital sheet music downloads from Disney Music Publishing’s various catalogs including songs from animated feature films (The Lion King, Cinderella, among others), Disney Channel hits (High School Musical, Hannah Montana), live-action feature films (Pirates of the Caribbean--Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man’s Chest, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardobe) and many new and classic songs.

Of course, the popular song and musician’s warm-up exercise “Scales and Arpeggios” from Disney’s The Aristocats (quoted in the opening paragraph) is available for download as well.

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an impressive online catalog of nearly 60,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, BMG, Sony/ATV Publishing, Disney Music Publishing, Famous Music, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and others. Musicnotes was also recently selected as one of the Top 500 Online Retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine.

About Disney Music Publishing: Disney Music Publishing acquires, administers and markets musical copyrights, including, but not limited to, those copyrights originating from the various Disney production units.  The division also publishes sheet music, and through its Seven Summits Music unit, manages a staff of exclusive songwriters who are responsible for original songs in every style from country, rock and pop, to R&B and gospel. 

Disney Music Publishing is part of the Disney Music Group, the recorded music and music publishing arm of The Walt Disney Company.

Daniel Powter and Famous Music Receive Musicnotes Song of the Year Award

Madison, WI – April 20, 2007 – Musicnotes, Inc., the market leader in downloadable sheet music, announced today Daniel Powter and Famous Music are the recipients of the fifth annual Musicnotes Song of the Year Award for Daniel Powter’s song "Bad Day."

The Musicnotes Song of the Year Award is presented to the songwriter and publisher of the best-selling sheet music for a song made popular in the previous calendar year.  For the 2006 year, this award was given to Daniel Powter, the songwriter and performer of "Bad Day," and Famous Music, Powter’s publishing administrator.

"It’s quite an honor to be recognized among such an elite group of songwriters," said Powter. "It's more flattering to me that I received this recognition on what was my first commercially available song."

Featured on his self-titled debut album, "Bad Day" quickly climbed up the charts and saw an additional boost in popularity from its use on Fox's American Idol television program. In July, when official sheet music was made available, the song quickly took the number one position on Musicnotes' sales charts and went on to be the best-selling new song for the year.

Musicnotes, the leading online digital sheet music publisher and reseller, has previously presented awards to Vanessa Carlton ("A Thousand Miles"), Linda Perry (Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful"), Evanescence ("My Immortal") and Marcus Hummon, Bobby Boyd and Jeff Hanna ("Bless the Broken Road").  The award for "Bad Day" marks the fifth award presented and the first Song of the Year made popular by a male singer/songwriter.

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an impressive online catalog of nearly 60,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, BMG, Sony/ATV Publishing, Famous Music, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and others.  Musicnotes was also recently selected as one of the Top 500 Online Retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine.
On the Web: http://www.musicnotes.com.
# # #

Musicnotes Media Contact:
Bill Aicher
Director of Marketing
aicher@musicnotes.com or 608-662-3660

PayPal Now Accepted at Musicnotes

Due to popular request from our customers, we've now added PayPal as a payment option at Musicnotes.  Obviously you can still pay directly through the Musicnotes payment system, but for those of you who would rather pay with PayPal - the option is now there.

To pay with PayPal just click on the "Checkout with PayPal" button in your shopping cart.  If you want to go to the regular Musicnotes checkout, click the red "Proceed to Checkout" button instead.

Musicnotes and Harry Fox Agency Announce Online Guitar Tab Licensing Agreement

Madison, WI and New York, NY – March 27, 2007 – Musicnotes, Inc. and The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA) announced today a licensing arrangement that will authorize  a newly launched Musicnotes guitar tab download website that utilizes the copyrighted music of HFA’s participating music publishers on a commission free basis.

Through this groundbreaking arrangement, which will be offered on a commission-free basis to HFA’s 31,000 music publishers, participating publishers will receive a percentage of all advertising revenue generated through views or downloads of tablature of their songs on the web site, while still retaining control over their song catalog in a robust online community.

“We are excited to have the technology and the expertise to assist publishers and songwriters in monetizing this burgeoning area of interest among musicians which, until now, has largely not been served in this way.  Our experience as the world’s leading digital sheet music company has placed us in a unique position to deliver this guitar tablature to millions of interested consumers,” said Kathleen Marsh, CEO of Musicnotes.

“Musicnotes proves the viability of a copyright-friendly, ad-supported guitar tab website,” said Gary Churgin, HFA President & CEO. “HFA has expanded its licensing and royalty distribution capabilities to support this kind of service, and we will continue to adapt to new licensing opportunities and models such as this to provide the most comprehensive service for our publishers.”

Musicnotes expects to launch its new guitar tab site in the summer of 2007.
   
About the Harry Fox Agency: Established in 1927 by the National Music Publishers’ Association, HFA represents over 31,000 U.S. music publishers for their mechanical licensing needs, issuing licenses and collecting and distributing royalties.  HFA also provides collection and monitoring services to its U.S. publisher clients for music distributed and sold in over 95 territories around the world. For more information about HFA, or to become an affiliate publisher or a licensee, see www.harryfox.com.

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc., the online leader in digital sheet music offers an impressive online catalog of nearly 60,000 digital sheet music titles. Musicnotes was also recently selected as one of the Top 500 Online Retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine.
On the web: http://www.musicnotes.com
# # #

Media Contacts:    
Laurie Jakobsen      
VP, Communications & Marketing
HFA
ljakobsen@harryfox.com    
(212)834-0133

Bill Aicher
Director of Marketing
Musicnotes, Inc. / MXTabs.net
aicher@musicnotes.com
(608) 662-3678

Musicnotes Announces First Free, Licensed Legal Guitar Tab Web Site

Madison, WI – March 27, 2007 – Musicnotes, Inc., announced today it has acquired and plans to reopen the popular guitar tablature website, MXTabs.net as the first site to work directly with music publishers in offering free, licensed legal guitar tab downloads.

Through agreements with music publishers, participating copyright holders will receive a portion of all advertising revenue generated through views of their tablature on the web site MXTabs.net, while still retaining control over their song catalog in a robust online community.

Many well-trafficked guitar tab web sites have recently shut down due to industry pressure for offering transcriptions of copyright-protected songs without proper licensing.  MXTabs.net was previously one of the most popular of these guitar tab web sites, before it voluntarily removed all guitar tablature in the summer of 2006.  The site and its assets have since been acquired by Guitar Tabs LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Musicnotes, Inc.

Guitar tabs (tablature) are transcriptions of music presented in a text-based format that has become increasingly popular with guitarists online.  The text format allows guitarists to transcribe music for guitar and easily post these transcriptions to MXTabs.net, without requiring advanced knowledge of computers or other notation software.

Similar to YouTube, Wikipedia and other user-generated content sites, the guitar tab arrangements offered on MXTabs were created, reviewed and edited by the site’s enthusiastic guitarist community.  With the new legal version of MXTabs, users will again be encouraged to participate in the MXTabs community to help build, grow and continually improve the MXTabs song catalog.  This includes creating guitar tabs for songs that are not popular enough to warrant the publication of a traditional song book.

However, unlike many other user-generated content sites, only songs that have received permission from participating copyright owners will be made available online.

MXTabs.net is expected to launch its new web site in summer of 2007.  For more information on how to participate, publishers and administrators are encouraged to visit www.mxtabs.net.

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc., the online leader in digital sheet music, offers an impressive online catalog of nearly 60,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, BMG, Sony/ATV Publishing, Famous Music, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and others.  Musicnotes was also recently selected as one of the Top 500 Online Retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine.

# # #

Media Contacts:

Bill Aicher
Director of Marketing
Musicnotes, Inc. / MXTabs.net
aicher@musicnotes.com or (608) 662-3678

Musicnotes Records 45% Growth in 2006; New Year Off To Even Stronger Start

2006 was a great year for Musicnotes, and we thank all of our customers for helping us continue to grow and fulfill your sheet music needs.  We also thank all of you in advance for your continued support throughout 2007.

Here's our latest press release, detailing our 2006 and early 2007 successes:

Madison, WI – February 14, 2007 - Musicnotes, Inc., the market leader in downloadable sheet music, announced today that 2006 sales increased 45% to more than $5.5 million. Musicnotes sold almost 850,000 downloads in 2006 and added 250,000 new customers.

The New Year has also started strong for Musicnotes. Year-to-date sales are up almost 50% with over 125,000 downloads already sold through mid-February. Recent highlights include music from the new Evanescence album The Open Door as well as music from several movies, including Music and Lyrics, opening in theaters today.

“The online music market is surging as musicians and music publishers continue to discover the clear advantages of downloadable sheet music,” said Kathleen Marsh, Musicnotes CEO. “Musicnotes continues to expand its online catalog with additional content and expects to announce licensing agreements with several additional music publishers in 2007.”

Musicnotes also posted its first full year operating profit in 2006. “It was a real milestone for us to record an operating profit last year,” said Tim Reiland, Musicnotes Chairman and CFO. “Musicnotes is in solid financial shape and well-positioned to pursue numerous growth opportunities in 2007 and beyond.”

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an impressive online catalog of nearly 60,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, BMG, Sony/ATV Publishing, Famous Music, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and others. Musicnotes was also recently selected as one of the Top 500 Online Retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine.

# # #

Tim Reiland
Chairman and CFO, Musicnotes, Inc.
treiland@musicnotes.com or 414-745-4232

Bill Aicher
Director of Marketing: Musicnotes, Inc.
aicher@musicnotes.com or 608-662-3660

Top 100 Sheet Music Titles of 2006

Late last week we posted our list of the top sheet music sellers of 2006.  If you pay attention to these kinds of things, one thing you'll find especially interesting is that 2006 was a year where some of the "older" standards took the top spots.  Songs like The Prayer and You Raise Me Up took some of the top spots, and the best-selling song of 2005 returned at the number one spot for 2006.  I guess this means that "Bless the Broken Road" is going to become a musician's standard over time, if it isn't already considered one.

If you missed the links in our newsletter, you can view the different lists (with links to the products), here:

Top 100 Digital Sheet Music Titles of 2006

Top 100 Music Books of 2006

Top 50 Guitar Guru Sessions of 2006 (remember, these Guitar Guru Sessions are all on sale for 50% off through January!)

Christmas, Christmas Time Is Here

Here's a little Christmas cheer from Musicnotes... and proof that when our production team gets their hands on a company photo, you never know what will happen!

Click to view (It's a large file, so be patient)

Also, quicktime is required.

AND If you want to learn to sing like the Musicnotes Crew, here's the sheet music.

Musicnotes.com Sells Two-Millionth Sheet Music Download

Well, over the past weekend we hit our latest milestone - we sold our 2 millionth sheet music download!  Thank you to all of our customers who've helped us get there.

The official two-millionth download was "My Grown-Up Christmas List."

Here's the official press release.

Musicnotes.com Sells Two-Millionth Sheet Music Download

Madison, WI - November 29, 2006 - Musicnotes, Inc. announced today it has sold its 2,000,000th sheet music download, approximately fifteen months after selling its 1,000,000th download. Download number two million was the popular Christmas song "My Grown Up Christmas List," written in 1990 by Linda Thompson Jenner and David Foster and performed by many artists including Amy Grant, Michael Bublé and Barbara Streisand.

Musicnotes sold its first download in November of 1999 and didn't hit the 100,000 download mark until August of 2002. Although growing rapidly, downloadable sheet music and guitar tablature sales currently represent a small percentage of the overall sheet music market, estimated at $1 billion worldwide.

"Selling our two millionth download is another major milestone in our development as a new music business," said Kathleen Marsh, Musicnotes' CEO. "There is still far to go, but our rapid growth tells us that we are filling a real need in the sheet music market."

"The combination of an unmatched song catalog, a first-rate new web site, and a constantly evolving customer experience has struck a major chord with musicians," said Bill Aicher, Director of Marketing. "We expect our next million-download milestone to come even sooner, as we continue to reenergize the sheet music business."

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an impressive online catalog of over 50,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, BMG, Sony/ATV Publishing, Famous Music, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music and others. Internet Retailer Magazine, who selected Musicnotes as one of the Top 50 Retail Web Sites for 2006, recently designated Musicnotes as one of the top 500 online retailers.

# # #

Tim Reiland
Chairman and CFO, Musicnotes, Inc.
treiland@musicnotes.com or 414-745-4232

Bill Aicher
Director of Marketing: Musicnotes, Inc.
aicher@musicnotes.com or 608-662-3660

New Musicnotes Gift Cards

If you're looking for a great gift for a musician (or looking for things to add to your own Christmas Wish List), we just updated our Gift Cards with brand new designs.

There are currently three designs available, with more coming soon.

Choose from Christmas, Guitar Guru or our new Standard design.  Remember you can also customize these gift cards with To, From and any dollar amount from $1 to $500.

You can preview and order Gift Cards here.

Expect more designs in the next few days... in the meantime, if there's a certain design you'd like us to add, please suggest it by leaving a comment below.

November Free Song and the Lack of New Blog Posts

As many of you probably already know, the free sheet music song for November is now available on the site.  If you haven't already downloaded your copy, head on over to our free sheet music page to get free digital sheet music for the Thanksgiving/Christmas favorite "Over the River and Through the Woods."

I apologize for not posting this to the blog sooner, but I was out of the country for the last week and a half for my wedding.  Among all the hustle and bustle there wasn't much time for Internet (plus it's a lot harder to come by Internet access in the Dominican Republic and St. Lucia than I thought).  As the main blogger for Musicnotes, sadly blog posts suffered due to my absence - but they are coming back full force now that I've returned.

Speaking of my wedding, here's a photo of my beautiful bride and me... you know, just to make sure you don't all think I'm making this up.

Oh, and you haven't experienced wedding music until the Dominican Republic "Musical Trio" from Melia Caribe does their Caribbean version of Mendelssohn's Wedding March.

New Look

As you may have noticed, www.musicnotes.com has a new look starting today.  We've kept all of the navigation and functionality that you've told us you like, but have updated our color scheme and logo.  Stay tuned for more exciting developments - there's a reason behind all this - which we think you'll like as well.

And if you have any comments on the new design, be sure to let us know by leaving a comment on this blog posting.

"Teddy Bears' Picnic (Halloween Edition)" - Most Popular Free Download Ever

As you may already know, this month Musicnotes.com is offering a free Musicnotes-exclusive arrangement of The Teddy Bears' Picnic.  Rather than offering a regular old arrangement, however, we've created a special "Halloween" version of the song, with a little bit of extra spookiness added in.

So far it looks like you all have been pleased with this new song, as this free download is our most popular free sheet music download to date.  It's been downloaded nearly 10,000 times already! 

Of course there are some of you who haven't downloaded your free copy yet.  We encourage you to do so soon, as this song will only be available for free through the end of October.  Once November begins we'll have a new free song of the month (and we think you'll like it... it's a classic that's never been available as a digital download before!) - but at the same time, Teddy Bears' Picnic will become a purchase-only selection.

To download free sheet music, just click here.

We also have a good selection of additional Halloween music, including music from 'Halloween' (the movie), Tales from the Crypt, The Munsters and other favorites.  You can find them here at our Halloween sheet music store.

“You Raise Me Up” Surpasses 20,000 Downloads

Press Release:

MADISON, WI - September 21, 2006 - Musicnotes.com, the online leader in digital sheet music, announced today that it has sold over 20,000 downloads of sheet music for the song “You Raise Me Up.”

Written by Brendan Graham and Rolf Løvland and made popular by a performance by Josh Groban, “You Raise Me Up” is the first song to break the 20,000 download mark for Musicnotes.

Sheet music for the song was first made available for download in October of 2003.  Musicnotes.com now offers the song in over 30 different downloadable arrangements, the most popular of which is a piano/vocal/guitar arrangement that sells for $4.95 a download.

“This is yet another amazing milestone for this timeless song.   Our thanks go to Musicnotes for their vision in providing such a valuable economic link between music publishers, songwriters and the general public,” said Kathy Spanberger, President & Chief Operating Officer, Peermusic, USA. 

“More and more consumers are discovering the joy of digital sheet music downloads,” said Musicnotes CEO, Kathleen Marsh.  “It has never been easier to find and learn how to play that special song.  We believe the day is coming soon where select songs will sell 100,000 downloads and generate significant incremental royalties for publishers and their songwriters.”

About Musicnotes: Musicnotes, Inc. offers an impressive online catalog of over 50,000 digital sheet music titles, built on the strength of content agreements with Alfred Publishing, BMG, Famous Music, Peermusic, Word Music, EMI Christian, Bug Music, Sony/ATV Publishing and others. Internet Retailer Magazine, who selected Musicnotes as one of the Top 50 Retail Web Sites for 2006, recently designated Musicnotes as one of the top 500 online retailers.
On the web: http://www.musicnotes.com

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Media Contacts:
Tim Reiland
Chairman and CFO, Musicnotes, Inc.
treiland@musicnotes.com or 414-745-4232

Bill Aicher
Director of Marketing, Musicnotes, Inc.
aicher@musicnotes.com or 608-662-3660

New Expanded Christian Store

Today Musicnotes launched our expanded Christian store. The new store features departments specifically dedicated to the most popular styles of Christian music: Contemporary, Praise & Worship and Gospel - as well as a link to our Christmas store.  (Even though you may not want to think about it, Christmas is coming in just a few months).

You can see it here: http://www.musicnotes.com/christian/

(There are navigational text links in the Christian header graphic).

Musicnotes Mentioned in The New York Times

Some of you may have already seen this (as it's a day old now), but Musicnotes was recently mentioned in an article in The New York Times regarding the recent controversy over free guitar tab sites online.

You can read the full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/technology/21ecom.html

And in case you were wondering, yes every piece of music on Musicnotes.com is licensed by the appropriate publisher.  All guitar tab and sheet music offered on Musicnotes is 100% legal and authorized for sale by the publisher/copyright holder.

Our New Wedding Sheet Music Store

If you're getting married, know someone who is, or are a wedding musician we've got a great new site for you.  This week we launched our completely redesigned wedding sheet music store at www.weddingsheetmusic.com.

Other than a new look, the site features updated song suggestions for weddings, tips for selecting the music for your wedding, access to our new search system, and improved navigation.

If you have any recommendations for how the site could be improved, please feel free to leave them as a comment on this posting.

Christian Sheet Music Downloads Up 125% at Musicnotes.com

A recent press release regarding Christian sheet music downloads in July...

MADISON, WI - August 3, 2006 - The online leader in digital sheet music, Musicnotes.com, announced today that downloads of Christian sheet music from its website have more than doubled in recent months.  For the month of July, Musicnotes sold a record 12,500 Christian downloads, an increase of 125% from July of 2005.  Most of Musicnotes downloads sell in the $4-6 range.

“July Christian sales really surprised us,” said Tim Reiland, Musicnotes’ Chairman and CFO.  “This is actually our slowest time of the year, so we look forward to the fall and winter months with a lot of excitement.”

The Christian category, which includes Contemporary Christian, Gospel, Praise & Worship and other genres, represents the fastest growing segment of Musicnotes’ business.  A year ago Musicnotes announced a content and distribution relationship with Word Music, which turned out to be a watershed event.  Musicnotes also has content deals with EMI Christian, Brentwood-Benson, Integrity Music, Maranatha!, Oregon Catholic Press and several others.

“Musicnotes.com receives over 50,000 unique visitors a day and has a market share of nearly 70% of the digital sheet music market,” Reiland stated.  “We will continue to work with Christian publishers and songwriters to extend the reach of their beautiful and inspirational music.”

Musicnotes’ Christian store can be seen on the web at: http://www.musicnotes.com/christian/

"Bad Day" = Record Day

It's official.  Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" now holds the record for most downloaded sheet music in a single day.  The previous record holder was the Christmas Christian favorite, "Mary, Did You Know?"

We'd like to tip our hats to Mr. Powter for writing a song that has had so much appeal to so many musicians.  This kind of song is a rarity, and he should be proud of his work.  We're definitely impressed.

If you haven't downloaded your copy of "Bad Day" sheet music yet, you can do so here:
http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0053679

Musicnotes Adds Sony/ATV to List of Publishing Partners

As some of you may have guessed based upon the recent burst of great music from the Sony/ATV Music Publishingcatalog (The Beatles, KT Tunstall, Sarah McLachlan, Oasis, Stevie Nicks etc.) over the past week or so, Musicnotes now has a direct licensing agreement with Sony/ATV to offer their music on our site.

We issued a formal press release regarding the agreement today.  To read more, visit this link:
http://www.musicnotes.com/press/sony.asp

A Recent Customer E-Mail

The following is an e-mail we just received from one of our customers. We thought it was very nice.

I have been a music teacher for over 15 years, and your musicnotes.com print music service is far and away the best sheet music service I have ever used.  I am so very grateful for the service you provide!

You have almost every song I've ever tried to find for a student or my own personal use; seldom do I ever stump your search engine.  More than finding the songs, though, I want to compliment you on the arrangements of the songs--they are almost always in the original key, and the transcriptions are as faithful to original recordings as I've ever found.

For instance, I just downloaded "I Feel the Earth Move" by Carole King, and your vocal inflections and combination of the two piano parts is simply remarkable.  Do you realize how often I've had to sit down with a recording and make my own transcription because there was none available?  The amount of time you have saved me alone is staggering.

I used to travel from my rural town 75 miles to find an, at-best, poor selection of outdated music that was usually simplified or a lousy arrangement.  With musicnotes.com, that is no longer the case.  I love your instant downloads, and I like that I can legally purchase the printed score to my favorite songs.  Your website is a breeze to use, the plug-ins work great on any computer I use, and the price you charge is so reasonable, I must confess that I've purchased more music than I can probably afford!

I don't often write 'testimonials' like this, but I wanted you folks to know that I truly appreciate your service, and I hope you keep up the good work.  I've really come to depend on your website over the past 3 years.

Well done!

Sincerely,
Perry Bekkerus
Vocal Music Director

PS:  I hereby give permission for you to use any and all of this unsolicited testimonial on your website and/or any other promotional material you publish or email.

Musicnotes.com Makes Internet Retailer's Top 500 List

Musicnotes is honored to be be part of Internet Retailer's Top 500 list for 2006.  Musicnotes was tied for the 485th spot, with 2005 sales of approximately $4 million.  The complete alphabetical listing of the Top 500, which ranks online retailers by 2005 sales, can be found here http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/list.asp

I am also personally honored to make my initial post on the new Musicnotes blog!  As Kathy notes, we have a lot talent on the Musicnotes team, and we know by your e-mails our customer base is loaded with knowledgeable and passionate musicians and music lovers.  We hope our blog becomes a highly "relevant visit" over time, providing interesting and insightful information as well as facilitating useful feedback and discussion. 

Great songs stir emotion and can bring out the best in people.  If the Musicnotes blog can help in that process it is serving a real purpose!    -Tim

Tim  Reiland, Chairman and CFO 

Musicnotes at Internet Retailer 2006

This week Internet Retailer Magazine is hosting their annual conference in Chicago, which we are attending for the first time.  Today was the first day of the conference and we attended quite a few interesting discussions regarding the current and future states of the online shopping world.

Anyway, there were quite a few interesting ideas that were presented that we think will allow us to better serve you, our customers, and our next step is to start deciding which of these will have the most positive impacts on both your experience with Musicnotes both as a customer and as a musician.  It'll obviously take some time, but basically I just wanted to let you know that we are committed to serving you as well as we possibly can.

Do you have any suggestions or ideas for how we can help make your experience better?  Is there someting we're not doing that you'd like to see?  Perhaps there's something you like that you'd like us to expand upon?  Feel free to leave any comments you might have - we'd love to hear what you have to say so we can continue moving forward as your sheet music store of choice.

Welcome

Hi All,

Welcome to our blog.  We came up with the idea of creating a blog so that we could share some of the interesting things we are doing at Musicnotes directly with our customers.  Every day here in the office we talk about music, and look for ways to share it with you.  I also spend quite a bit of time trying to keep a step ahead of our staff and usually fail! They always know about what's new and good before I do. They are so smart and talented. 

Here is a link to a piece of news that I read yesterday that our marketing staff did not see first.  It is a list of the greatest albums of all times as voted by music fans in the UK.  It is pretty interesting.  I know we have most of this music on our website so you may want to check it out.  Great stuff.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060601/D8HVFJ700.html

Talk to you soon,

Kathleen

Search Update Coming Soon

It's been just about a month now since Musicnotes launched our new search system.  In the time since we've been busy taking in customer and employee feedback to gather a list of additional upgrades we can make to improve the searching function of the Musicnotes site.

Within the next week or so we expect to be launching our first major update to our search functionality.  Most of this will be unnoticed by our customers, as these changes are all designed to make finding the sheet music you're looking for even easier still. 

One change you possibly will notice, however, will be that "Piano" and "Guitar" will now be easily accessible as instrument options in the left-hand "Narrow Results By" area.  As you may have noticed, Guitar and Piano are the most popular instruments on our site - and soon you'll be able to more easily narrow directly to either of these instruments than currently possible.

Thanks to everyone who sent us their feedback on the search system.  After the next upgrade in search we plan to continue making changes and fixes to help you all find your music easier - so feel free to comment on this blog with any additional suggestions you might have.

Welcome to Musicnotes' new blog

Musicnotes.com has launched it's new blog site and will be posting news, coupons, and more interesting information for you!