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Contact:
Clyde Beswick, VP Marketing, 310.275.9269, or email cbeswick@freehandsystems.com.
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FREEHAND
SYSTEMS, MAKER OF THE MUSICPAD PRO®, ACQUIRES SUNHAWK DIGITAL
MUSIC LLC.
Acquisition
positions FreeHand Systems as world leader in digital music technology
and largest distributor of digital song titles.
Purchase
taps vast market of 60 million musicians in the U.S. alone; provides
seamless experiences in searching, purchasing and downloading digital
sheet music.
LOS
ALTOS, Calif. – July 18, 2003 – Freehand Systems, Inc.,
announced today that it has acquired Seattle-based Sunhawk Digital
Music LLC, a privately held company with the world’s largest
collection of digital sheet music titles, for $2 million. The acquisition
places Freehand, a privately-held company with the mission of reinventing
how musicians read and perform music, as the world leader in digital
music technology and largest distributor of digital sheet music
song titles. It also offers musicians a seamless experience in searching,
purchasing and downloading digital sheet music.
Sunhawk’s
digital sheet music library consists of over 30,000 music titles.
Each title is MIDI-capable and uses Sunhawk’s proprietary
Solero notational software to enable users to play the selection
on an electronic device such as a computer or synthesizer. Sunhawk's
catalog includes a wide range of product from classical to Christian
to popular music due to its contracts with major publishers like
Warner Bros. Publications, Mel Bay, and EMI.
“Sunhawk
Digital Music has been a visionary company in the emerging market
for digital music. Its library of digitized sheet music titles is
truly a crown jewel and a great addition to Freehand’s portfolio
of digital music technology. With 60 million Americans who make
or play music, the market potential for this new enterprise is substantial,”
says Kim Lorz, CEO of Freehand Systems. “Over the next three
years, we expect this acquisition to generate $20 million in gross
revenue.”
“The
combination of these companies creates a formidable force in advancing
the early adoption of digital music technology,” says Marlin
Eller, Sunhawk’s CEO. “Our product line of digital music
titles is a perfect complement to Freehand’s premier product,
the MusicPad Pro. We are pleased to become a part of the Freehand
team and excited about the enormous prospects of the combined company.”
The
Sunhawk digital music library is on-line at www.sunhawk.com
and www.freehandsystems.com.
The
MusicPad Pro, the world’s first digital sheet music computer
tablet, makes teaching music much easier, learning music more enjoyable
and performing music more fun. Not only does it create a paperless
environment by providing storage capacity for an entire music library
of more than 5,000 pages of sheet music, it solves the age-old problem
of turning music pages by letting musicians simply touch the screen.
They also can mark up compositions and write reference notes on
the screen using Freehand’s proprietary annotation technology.
The
sleek new tablet computer is housed in a charcoal grey ABS polymer
enclosure not much larger than a sheet of paper. Weighing just under
five pounds, it is lightweight and easy to carry, although the MusicPad
Pro Plus, which comes with a rechargeable battery, weighs a little
more. Without the discounts, suggested retail price for the MusicPad
Pro is just $999. The MusicPad Pro Plus, with a battery life of
three hours on a single charge, is $1,199.
Both
models have an easy-to-read, low glare, backlit 12.1 in. TFT LCD
display. Key features include zoom in and zoom out capabilities
and on-screen color highlighters and pens to add or erase rehearsal
marks and notations. Digital music files in pdf, jpg and other popular
graphics formats can be directly imported into the MusicPad Pro
using the software provided with the device. Printed music can be
scanned into a computer and then imported.
Freehand
Systems, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Los Altos,
Calif., with the mission of reinventing the way musicians read and
perform music. The company is a world leader in the development,
manufacture, and marketing of electronic accessories to the music
industry, as well as a leading Internet-based provider of sheet
music and digital files. Its flagship product, the MusicPad Pro,
provides innovative technology and productivity benefits to arrangers,
composers, conductors and performers within the orchestral, choral,
studio musician markets, as well as music educators and amateur
musicians. Freehand Systems has been funded and mentored by KAL
Equity Capital Fund I, LLC.
Press
Contact:
Clyde Beswick, VP Marketing, 310.275.9269, or email cbeswick@freehandsystems.com.
NOTE
TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Freehand Systems’
website
( www.freehandsystems.com
).
Freehand Systems, Inc., MusicPad Pro®, MusicPad Pro® Plus
are trademarks of Freehand Systems, Inc.
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