ARTISTdirect Partners with Thumbplay for Mobile Content Downloads

Arrangement Brings Together Two Major Music and Entertainment Ventures 


NEW YORK, March 17  /PRNewswire/ -- Thumbplay (http://www.thumbplay.com/), the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., and ARTISTdirect Internet Group, Inc. (http://www.artistdirect.com/), the premiere online resource for music and entertainment news and information, announced today their partnership to offer ARTISTdirect.com visitors direct access to Thumbplay's extensive catalog of mobile content. Links to mobile content, powered by Thumbplay.com, are now available on hundreds of thousands of artist pages throughout the ARTISTdirect site.

With one of the web's deepest and broadest catalogues of content, covering every genre of music and film, ARTISTdirect.com has established itself among the top online destinations for 24/7 in-depth coverage of entertainment.  ARTISTdirect features one of the largest selections of free music content that ranges from over 10,000 music videos and 7 million albums, tracks and samples to millions of artist pages, as well as news that includes behind-the-scenes interviews, reviews and exclusive artist content with everyone from 50 Cent to Bruce Springsteen.

As the 5th largest Entertainment - Music network property on the Internet according to comScore, the ARTISTdirect Network attracts more than 12 million unique visitors per month. ARTISTdirect's user demographic is characterized as young, net-savvy and extremely mobile -- a highly desirable segment among national advertisers.

"This partnership with Thumbplay gives our visitors and fans access to the best and latest mobile content available," said Dimitri Villard, CEO of ARTISTdirect Internet Group, Inc. and its parent, ARTISTdirect, Inc. "Thumbplay has been at the forefront of providing first class content and we're delighted to be in business with them."

Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay's extensive and ever-growing entertainment library is accessible on more than 2,000 mobile phones among every major carrier in the U.S., reaching more than 230 million U.S. wireless subscribers.  The company has maintained and grown its leadership position by delivering an optimal user experience, which includes its live, "24/7/365," customer service and an unparalleled catalog of entertainment options. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

About ARTISTdirect Internet Group, Inc.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, Artist Direct Internet Group ("ADID") controls some of the Internet's leading consumer music and entertainment information properties. Its flagship website http://www.artistdirect.com/ is the premier destination for all things related to music and film and their artists. Through its rich, multimedia repository of contextually relevant information and entertainment, the company creates deep connections between artists and fans that deliver benefits to both the entertainment consumer and the entertainment industry.  ARTISTdirect.com receives over 3 million unique visitors per month while the ARTISTdirect Network, a family of related Web sites, draws more than 12.4 million monthly unique visitors. Featuring the latest hit videos, streams, free downloads, breaking news, in-depth interviews with musicians, actors, filmmakers and film score composers, a huge data base filled with biographies and discographies plus hard-to-find information, as well as CDs, concert and movie tickets for purchase, ARTISTdirect.com is the ultimate resource for anyone with an appetite for finding new and interesting content about their favorite artists and their music and films.  ADIG's other properties include the legendary Ultimate Band List, http://www.ubl.com/, one of the web's first music properties.

About Artist Direct, Inc.

ARTISTdirect, Inc. (OTC:ARTD) (BULLETIN BOARD: ARTD)  is a publicly-held holding company with two operating subsidiaries: ARTISTdirect Internet Group, Inc. operates one of the largest destination sites on the Internet for music and motion picture news, information and streaming music. ADIG also operates an ad network that is currently ranked 5 in comScore's ranking of music sites. MediaDefender, Inc. provides intellectual property protection and business information services to major motion picture studios, record labels, television networks, gaming companies and software publishers and Internet marketing services to advertising agencies and other clients.

About Thumbplay

Thumbplay's award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world's largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies.  Thumbplay's mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web's leading social music discovery services.  Moreover, based on Thumbplay's reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant's mobile content site.

The recently-launched Thumbplay Open provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers (open.thumbplay.com).

Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at http://www.thumbplay.com/ or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

  For more information, contact:

  For ARTISTdirect Internet Group:
  Harry Eshleman
  The Platform Group
  323.337.9042
  

  For ARTISTdirect, Inc. Financial Communications:
  Bob Beaty
  Trilogy Capital Partners, Inc.
  800.330.1860
  

  For Thumbplay:
  Brent Harney
  Bratskeir & Company
  212.679.2233
  

DATASOURCE: ARTISTdirect Internet Group, Inc.



CONTACT:  Harry Eshleman of The Platform Group, [phone],

, for ARTISTdirect Internet Group; or Bob Beaty of

Trilogy Capital Partners, Inc., [phone], , for

ARTISTdirect, Inc. Financial Communications; or Brent Harney of Bratskeir &

Company, [phone], , for Thumbplay



Web Site:  http://www.artistdirect.com/ 

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