MP3.com Unveils Music InterOperating Technology

MP3.com will take the wraps off a
next-generation version of music compression technology later today,
when it launches its Music InterOperating System (IOS).

Plans call for Music IOS to be announced at MP3.com's "Next
Generation of My.MP3" event, which opens today in San Diego. The
technology has been designed, the firm said, to connect various
segments of the music industry for the first time.

MP3.com said that Music IOS will allow the music business to
interoperate in ways previously unavailable by connecting retailers,
labels, music players, and hardware and software tools.

Michael Tobertson, the company's chairman, said that Music IOS can
bring different segments of the music business together in entirely
new ways.

"For example, today the act of buying a CD, playing it on a stereo,
and then putting that music in an online locker consists of three
separate transactions," he said, adding that Music IOS changes that
process by connecting a music retailer with a device manufacturer and
an online locker service in a way that will make it one transaction.

Plans call for the Music IOS technology to be made available on the
company MP3 developer network site at http://developer.mp3.com later
today.

MP3.com's main Web site is at http://www.mp3.com.