Musictoday’s Accomplishment in the Artist Goods and Services Arena Illustrates Live Nation’s Successful Strategy to Grow Important Ancillary Live Concert Businesses

LOS ANGELES, April 25, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — The critically lauded rock band Gov’t Mule has sustained and continues to develop a very successful career, playing nearly 100 gigs a year, recording and releasing studio albums. Mule frontman Warren Haynes has been ranked by Rolling Stone as the 23rd Greatest Guitarist of All Time and the magazine has most recently ranked him among the few top Guitar Gods. Haynes is a Grammy winner and seven time nominee for his work with Gov’t Mule and The Allman Brothers Band. He’s been called an “American treasure” and a “legend in the making” by his peers.

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As if all of these accomplishments were not enough, Gov’t Mule has now sold a million downloads of their live recordings on their own website through hard work and a fierce dedication to its fanbase. Gov’t Mule has enough responsibilities, so manager Stefani Scamardo found a partner for the massive volume of downloads in Musictoday, a Charlottesville-based artist-fan company that built and maintains the e-commerce infrastructure used to process all of the artist-to-fan transactions that occur through Gov’t Mule’s high traffic website www.Mule.net. Since October 2004, Musictoday has worked with Gov’t Mule to develop their franchise, creating a monetized relationship directly between the band and their fans.

Recently the band sold their One Millionth download to longtime fan Jay Schultz who lives in Phoenix, AZ. Each of the one million high-quality live recordings were delivered by Musictoday in MP3 or FLAC loss-less (CD quality) formats, without any digital limitations imposed by the band, through the place where Mule fans congregate on the web: www.MuleTracks.com.

And while the homespun content and overall feel of Mule Tracks is fully created by the band, Musictoday provides the technical know-how and distribution infrastructure to fulfill millions of downloads of every concert Gov’t Mule has performed since October 2004. Musictoday also operates an extensive mail-order system to accommodate thousands of orders from the band’s merchandise catalogue available through Mule.net.

“This millionth download is a testament to the strength of Gov’t Mule’s relationship with their fans,” said Nathan Hubbard, CEO of Musictoday. “Musictoday is honored to be their partner in this accomplishment. Gov’t Mule have proven an important point to the rest of the industry — artists can sell live MP3s with no DRM, and their studio recordings and live shows will not suffer, but rather can flourish.”

Musictoday’s involvement in Mule Tracks is behind the scenes, invisible to Gov’t Mule fans. The employees fulfilling Gov’t Mule orders are fans of the band themselves, which adds to the level of service customers have come to expect.

Founded in 2000 by Coran Capshaw, Musictoday was born out of the need to create direct artist-to-fan e-commerce tools for artists he managed. In a very short time, Musictoday’s roster has grown to over 500 clients, including Dave Matthews Band, the Rolling Stones, John Mayer, Kenny Chesney, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Christina Aguilera, and AC/DC. Musictoday is a world leader in connecting artists directly to their fans through online fan clubs, artist e-commerce and fulfillment, VIP packaging and artist fan club and secondary market ticketing.

Live Nation acquired a majority stake in Musictoday in July of 2006.

About Live Nation

Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s largest live music company. Our mission is to inspire passion for live music around the world. We are the largest promoter of live concerts in the world, the second-largest entertainment venue management company and have a rapidly growing online presence. We create superior experiences for artists and fans, regularly producing tours for the biggest superstars in the business, including The Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, Madonna, U2 and Coldplay. Globally, we own, operate, have booking rights for and/or have an equity interest in more than 160 venues, including House of Blues(R) music venues and prestigious locations such as The Fillmore in San Francisco, Nikon at Jones Beach in New York and London’s Wembley Arena. Our websites collectively are the second most popular entertainment/event websites in the United States, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. In addition, we also produce, promote or host theatrical, specialized motor sports and other live entertainment events. In 2006, we connected nearly 60 million fans with their favorite performers at approximately 26,000 events in 18 countries around the world. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Live Nation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol “LYV.” For more information regarding Live Nation and its businesses or concerts near you, please visit our website at www.livenation.com.

SOURCE Live Nation

John Vlautin, +1-310-867-7127, [email protected], or Uri Bogler,
+1-310-867-7121, [email protected], both of Live Nation

http://www.livenation.com