Available From Any Device. New appliance allows “beaming†of music to computers, home stereos,PDAs, and music stores and personal devices including iTunes and
iPod.
SAN DIEGO, February 24, 2005 – MP3tunes, a new San Diego-based music
company, today introduced a new music appliance called MP3beamer, which
organizes an entire music collection in one convenient location and then makes
the music accessible from almost any device or location. Users can quickly store
their CD collection and MP3 libraries and then organize the music and construct
custom playlists. Once stored to MP3beamer, the music is universally accessible
from computers, home stereos, PDAs, and portable devices including iTunes
software and iPod players via iTunes. MP3beamer is available for immediate
purchase in a $399 hardware version or a $69.95 software version at www.mp3beamer.com
“The MP3beamer is the jukebox in the sky, but it lives in your computer room,”
said Michael Robertson, CEO of MP3tunes. “It acts like your own personal digital
music recorder [DMR]. Just as a digital video recorder stores video and allows
you to play it back on TVs, a DMR lets you add a music track or album to
MP3beamer and immediately have it available on your home stereo, iTunes, PDA or
portable device – virtually any device with speakers or a headphone jack.”
MP3beamer makes it easy to combine computer files and CDs into an organized
library. CDs can be added by simply inserting them into the CD-ROM drive without
additional user interaction. It takes three to four minutes to rip a CD,
including automatic detection of artist, album and track titles. Tracks are
recorded in MP3 format at high-quality 192kbps. Once it is completed saving, the
CD is auto-ejected, making the MP3beamer ready to rip another CD. Individual MP3s
can be copied to MP3beamer over the Internet or be transported via USB devices
for import into a music library. Tracks purchased from online music retailers
such as MP3tunes and emusic can also be loaded into MP3beamer. Once music is
stored, songs can be sorted by genre, artist, and album, and users can construct
their own personalized playlists.
A wide range of software, hardware and music devices can connect to MP3beamer
with each playing different songs simultaneously. Users of the popular music
manager iTunes can stream music from MP3beamer on both Microsoft Windows XP and
Macintosh OS X computers by simply clicking on “MP3beamer” in the left-hand
column. MP3beamer also supports a powerful Web and Java interface, so virtually
any Internet connected device can connect and play music.
MP3beamer has several options for offline or remote music playback. For
Microsoft Windows users, MP3beamer comes with MP3beamer Sync, a unique program
that can be used to sync music on MP3beamer to laptop or desktop computers – making playback possible without an Internet connection. The Sync software also
enables iPod syncing via iTunes. Linux users can take advantage of Lsongs music
manager for streaming access to music as well syncing capabilities. Wireless
access to MP3beamer is possible using WinCE and Palm-based PDAs. For more
information about how to use different devices and operating systems with
MP3beamer, please visit www.mp3beamer.com.
MP3beamer can also play music in every room of the house over a WiFi or wired
network using a low-cost media receiver. These wireless devices connect to
MP3beamer without any special configuration, making it easy to connect to an
existing home stereo, entertainment center, or wireless boom box in any room of
the home or even outside. Each device can operate independently, and users can
select, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind, and mute different musical
selections simultaneously using the remote control that is included with the
receiver. MP3beamer supports more then a dozen popular media receivers, but
Linksys or SMC units are recommended. For information on recommended receivers,
go to www.mp3beamer.com.
MP3beamer uses the latest Linspire operating system (included with purchase of
MP3beamer) and uses Lsongs as the music manager program to add music. This
software handles all aspects of music collection, including importing existing
music files and automated ripping of CDs. MP3beamer, Lsongs and MP3beamer Sync
are all installed via Linspire’s CNR Warehouse with one click and can be updated
in a similar fashion.
MP3beamer can be purchased in two different ways. For $399, customers can
purchase a powerful, sleek MP3beamer machine that is one third the size of a
traditional PC and able to store approximately 1,400 CDs. For $69.95, users can
purchase a software-only version of MP3beamer that can be installed on most
modern PCs, turning the computer into a dedicated music machine. Orders for
MP3beamer can be placed online at www.mp3beamer.com for immediate fulfillment.
For more information, please contact:
Heather MacKenzie
Public Relations
858-587-6700, ext. 263
858-587-8095 Fax
pr@mp3tunes.com
About MP3tunes
MP3tunes (www.mp3tunes.com) was founded in 2005, three years after Robertson stepped down as the
CEO of MP3.com. San Diego-based
MP3.com was founded in
1997 and grew to nearly 300 employees, becoming the largest digital music site
on the Web, with more than 1,000,000 songs from 250,000 artists and hundreds of
thousands of unique daily visitors. Vivendi Universal purchased the profitable
company in 2001 for $372 million in stock and cash.
MP3tunes is the third venture for Robertson since he sold
MP3.com. In 2001, Robertson founded Linspire, Inc. (www.linspire.com), a company that produces
the Linspire desktop Linux operating system, which has been gaining market share
from the popular Microsoft Windows. In 2003, he founded SIPphone, Inc. (www.sipphone.com), a VoIP technology company
that competes with traditional phone systems.
MP3tunes is a trademark of MP3tunes. Other marks used herein may be the property
of their respective owners.”
