MusiKube and Virgin to Deploy Portable Wireless Music Device

October 2003 – MusiKube, a leading developer of music recognition and discovery solutions, and Virgin Megastores, the world’s leading entertainment retailer, just announced plans to deploy MusiKube’s Personal Music Guide (PMG), a portable in-store wireless music discovery solution, at Virgin Megastore, Union Square. The pilot will run during the height of the holiday season when the Union Square Megastore will be at its busiest, from late November through late January.

MusiKube’s innovative PMG is a wireless music discovery system that uses a customized HP iPAQ, Wi-Fi connectivity and MusiKube’s Encyclomedia™, a powerful database encompassing licensed samples of over two-million songs, album reviews and related content, to give consumers a personalized and interactive music discovery experience while giving retailers the opportunity to increase revenue through improved customer satisfaction, increased customer traffic and time spent browsing in store.

Using the MusiKube PMG, customers at Virgin Megastore, Union Square can:

• Freely roam the store and listen to music clips from virtually any CD by scanning the barcode
• Discover new music through recommendations and reviews
• Maintain a personalized music library to help keep track of the music they like (personal wish lists)
• Maintain and check their personal music history to remind themselves about music they sampled from previous visits

“MusiKube’s PMG is a chance for us to offer the same kind of personalized, interactive services as online websites, combined with the in-person customer service only we at Virgin Megastore can provide,” said Glen Ward, CEO, Virgin Entertainment Group, North America. “MusiKube’s solution enables us to enhance Virgin Megastore customers’ experience, facilitate music discovery and turn music interest into increased music sales.”

MusiKube’s PMG is the first in a suite of services that help consumers capture their music interests, discover new music and convert all this into actual purchases. More advanced services will be launched in 2004.

“Virgin has established a unique music retailing environment that is the ideal complement to our advanced wireless music discovery service,” said Ashley Heather, CEO of MusiKube. “We are pleased to offer them a solution which will help them differentiate and build powerful, personalized interactive music discovery solutions into their brand.”

For more information, visit www.MusiKube.com.

For more information, or to check out the location of the nearest Virgin retail go to www.virginmegamagazine.com.

SOURCE MusicKube