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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact:
Rob Goldstone / David Wilson
Oui 2 Public Relations 212 541 5698
Ground-Breaking
Digital Sheet Music Company Signs Contract
With Industry Giant Sony/ATV
Music Publishing:
FreeHand
Systems To Incorporate Beatles, Dylan, Hendrix Catalogs.
“This
truly is the iPod and iTunes for musicians!” – Phil
Ramone
NEW
YORK, NY / LOS ALTOS, CA, March 5, 2007 – FreeHand Systems,
Inc. today announces a licensing agreement with Sony/ATV
Music Publishing, one of the world’s leading music publishers
with a catalog that spans over 400,000 songs. With this agreement,
FreeHand customers will now be able to access digital sheet music
from some of the most influential artists and songwriters in
modern music, including the Beatles, Beck, David Crosby,
Bob Dylan, Everly Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Graham Nash, Willie
Nelson, Roy Orbison, Richie Sambora, Stephen Stills and Hank
Williams.
Kim
Lorz, President of FreeHand Systems, Inc. says: “We are
absolutely delighted to be partnering with Sony/ATV Music Publishing
on this new venture. Their catalog is one of the most impressive
in the world, with the jewel in their crown being the most influential
band in modern music, the Beatles. The impact of this deal will
expand our popular music catalog enormously, and will allow our
users to access sheet music from some of the greatest music writers.”
Charles
Koppelman, Chairman of CAK Entertainment, adds, "FreeHand's
technology, insight and vision are extraordinary. This Sony/ATV
music Publishing deal is just one more example that when FreeHand
says it wants to get the broadest and deepest digital
sheet music catalog to musicians around the globe, they mean
it. The integrity of the Sony/ATV catalog is yet one more validation
of FreeHand's own integrity. I expect Freehand to build
a world-class sheet music catalog." CAK Entertainment
advised FreeHand Systems, Inc. in connection with the Sony/ATV
Music Publishing partnership.
Sony/ATV
Music Publishing (www.sonyatv.com) (NYSE:SNE), (TYO: 6758) was
established in 1995 as a joint venture between Sony and trusts
formed by Michael Jackson. Sony/ATV Music Publishing has a catalog
of 400,000, and owns or administers copyrights and catalogs by
such artists as The Beatles, Beck, Brooks & Dunn, Leonard
Cohen, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, The Everly Brothers, Fall Out
Boy, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Mann, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, Willie
Nelson, Roy Orbison, Richie Sambora, Stephen Stills, KT Tunstall
and Hank Williams, among many, many others.
Freehandmusic.com is the Internet’s largest online sheet music catalog, with over
90,000 titles. Making physical deliveries and exhausting retail
searches a thing of the past, FreeHand online users are able
to digitally download music to their hard drives, printers or
to FreeHand’s music tablet in a matter of seconds.
FreeHand
Systems’ revolutionary music performance tablet, The
MusicPad Pro® Plus, is the world’s only digital sheet music tablet,
and can store literally a limitless number of sheet music pages.
The environmentally friendly pad allows the operator to download
from its online catalog or scan in any piece of sheet music, which
then converts to the pad’s template. The user is then able
to annotate or make corrections, including changing the key of
entire compositions in a matter of seconds. The pad additionally
contains a zoom-in/zoom-out feature, an extensive library of notation
symbols, a half-page turn option (for look-ahead viewing in portrait
mode) as well as a back-lit device (making external stand lighting
unnecessary). The MusicPad Pro is accessibly priced at US$899.
While
music revenues continue to decline (23% between 2000 and 2005,
according to trade group IFPI), global instrument and related product
sales have recently grown to $17 billion (says the National Association
of Music Merchants). In a recent Los Angeles Times article, it
was noted that the number of instrument players between the ages
of 18 to 34 grew from 24% in 1997 to 32% in 2006. This group
is, arguably, also the savviest users of new technology and the
internet. FreeHand redefines the usage, storage and distribution
of a musician’s most basic tool: sheet music.
The reception of Freehand Systems among professional
musicians has created an impressive list of early adopters, including
Herbie Hancock, Sting, Josh Groban World Tour, Andy Sommers,
Jon Anderson, Etta James, Michael Nesmith, along with orchestras around
the globe.
FreeHand
Systems, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of FreeHand Systems International,
Inc. (OTCO:FSYI) is the global leader in digital sheet music
publishing and is the manufacturer of the first digital music
performance and education tablet, the MusicPad Pro® Plus.
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