The Orchard Announces Major Gains In Russia, Securing Exclusive Digital Rights To Landmark Historic Russian Audio and Video Classical Catalogue Along With the Top Contemporary Labels

The 20th Century's Most Renowned Russian Musicians and Composers - Tchaikovsky, Rakhmaninoff, Schostakovich, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Rostropovich and Menuhin - Now Available From The Orchard

-- The World's Leading Marketer and Distributor of Digital Music Also Signs Five Leading Contemporary Russian and Ukrainian Labels, Providing An Unmatched Catalogue Spanning The Spectrum Of Russian Music--

NEW YORK, NY - January 23, 2006 - The Orchard, the world's leading distributor and marketer of independent music, today announced that they have secured the exclusive digital rights to access more than 400,000 hours of classical Russian audio and video recordings. This landmark digital distribution and marketing deal made in conjunction with Pipeline Music, provides The Orchard with the archive of the legendary Russian State Television and Radio Company, which holds one of the world's greatest cultural treasures: recently digitized tapes dating back to the 1930s spanning works by some of the most renowned classical musicians and composers in history, including: Tchaikovsky, Rakhmaninoff, Schostakovich, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Rostropovich and Menuhin.

"We are honored to be entrusted with the exclusive digital distribution rights for this historic catalogue Russia's most beloved composers and artists," said Greg Scholl, chief executive of The Orchard and managing director of Dimensional Associates, Inc, the private equity fund that owns The Orchard, eMusic and Dimensional Music Publishing. "Our commitment to sharing the world's musical legacy continues with these treasured classical works, and also the leading contemporary Russian music we now distribute."

The Orchard will make these catalogues available across its global distribution platform, which encompasses more than 125 of the world's leading digital music stores globally, including iTunes, eMusic, Napster, MSN, MusicMatch, Real/Rhapsody, and Yahoo! In addition, The Orchard will supply the content through its distribution partnerships with over 200 leading mobile phone carriers around the world, including Sprint, Dwango Wireless, Zingy, 9 Squared, HIFI Ringtones, IAM Mobile, Securycast, Arvato Mobile and Hudson Soft.

Interestingly, many of the tapes in the archive of the Russian State Television and Radio Company were previously banned from the public for decades by authorities of the former Soviet Union as musicians like Schostakovich and Rostropovich were branded as "too intellectual" by Stalin. When these recordings were finally released publicly, they were transferred from tape to digital audio files using technology that was reportedly developed by the KGB for cleaning up surveillance tapes.

The extensive Pipeline collection joins an impressive roster of modern Russian music that The Orchard has recently signed for distribution, including top Russian and Ukrainian labels including Kvadro-Disc, Familia Entertainment, Bomba-Piter, Oberig and Ukrainian Records. These catalogues include modern composers and cutting-edge artists such as Alexander Shulgin, Nogu Svelo and Egor Letov & Grazhdanskaya Oborona.

About The Orchard
The Orchard is the leading distributor and marketer of independent music in the world, representing thousands of labels spanning 73 countries and every music genre. The Orchard supplies its catalogue of more than 700,000 tracks to all of the leading legal digital music retailers and mobile operators throughout the world. The company is headquartered in New York and London, with operations in Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Toronto, Kolkata, Johannesburg, Moscow and Melbourne, and local representatives in Paris, Milan, Berlin, Barcelona, Lausanne, Ramallah and Nairobi.

About Dimensional Associates, Inc.

Dimensional Associates, Inc. is the New York-based private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc. Its portfolio companies include eMusic, The Orchard and Dimensional Music Publishing.