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Warner Music Group & Cisco Announce Strategic Agreement to Deliver Social Entertainment Experiences to Online Audiences

August 13, 2009

Cisco Eos^TM Software Platform to Power Additional, New Warner Music Group Web Sites for Artists Paramore, Trey Songz, Halestorm, Sean Paul and More

NEW YORK and SAN JOSE (RPRN) 8/13/2009-- Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) and Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced the expansion of their relationship into a strategic agreement in which WMG will use the Cisco Eos social entertainment platform to power many of its artist Web sites. Eos will now be available to WMG to deploy an unlimited number of sites for their portfolio of artists and labels, and play a significant role within WMG's direct-to-consumer (D2C) initiatives. 

Cisco Eos is a hosted white-label "software as a service" platform that enables Media & Entertainment companies to create, manage and monetize social entertainment experiences built around their branded content.  WMG deployed Eos for four new sites: Grammy-nominated rock band Paramore; R&B singer Trey Songz; rock band Halestorm; and a redesigned Eos site for reggae singer Sean Paul.  WMG also announced that it intends to use the Eos platform to create approximately a dozen additional sites by the end of the year, including a brand new site for singer/songwriter and American Idol alum, Jason Castro, as well as for R&B songstress Estelle, and hip-hop phenomenon Lupe Fiasco.

Facts

• WMG artists can use the Eos platform to deliver highly customized social entertainment experiences for their fans.


• With its integrated administrative environment, Cisco Eos will help WMG labels deploy artist sites more rapidly, while preserving the unique look and feel each artist demands.


• WMG will be able to launch an unlimited number of artist sites on a single, integrated platform, with a unified administrative backend which makes it easier to manage the sites and deliver a more compelling fan experience.


• WMG plans to deploy approximately a dozen sites by the end of the year.


• WMG announced new Eos-powered sites including:
  
  
  
  • Paramore, (July 2009); Trey Songz (launched July 2009); Halestorm (August 2009); Sean PaulLaura Izibor (launched January 2009).
    
    (launched January 2009; redesigned July 2009);
  
  
  
  


• In the coming months, WMG will also deploy Eos-powered sites for artists such as:
  
  
  
  • Jason Castro; Estelle; Lupe Fiasco; Straight No Chaser and others to be announced later in the year.
  
  
  
  


• Media companies can use Cisco Eos to build, manage and monetize social entertainment experiences around branded content.
  
  
  
  • The new white-label Cisco solution integrates features from social networking, content management, and analytics into a single administrative environment that media companies can use to customize and manage experiences across multiple branded Web sites.
  
  
  
  

Supporting Quotes

• "Today's dynamic music industry environment requires us to radically transform the role we play in the music ecosystem and, at WMG, one of the most important ways we have been doing that is by developing powerful new approaches to enriching relationships between artists and fans," said Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Chairman and CEO of WMG. "Cisco has developed an excellent platform that we believe could become a key component of our digital consumer strategy."


• "Cisco is committed to helping the Media & Entertainment industry produce its next big hit − new, personalized and interactive experiences that add value in the relationship between fans and the entertainment content they love," said John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco.  "The entertainment industry is in a market transition, and the network is the platform upon which this industry can redefine itself.  Cisco is very pleased to work closely with visionaries like Edgar Bronfman and the Warner Music Group on how they can connect more closely with their fans throughout the world."


• "Having witnessed such a dramatic shift in the way consumers engage entertainment, we are constantly searching for new capabilities to address emerging digital behaviors," said Michael Nash, Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy and Business Development for WMG. "Cisco Eos provides the speed and flexibility our labels need to create the full-featured, robust sites that our artists require to embrace their increasingly sophisticated fans."

Supporting Resources

• Read more information about Cisco Eos on CMSG's home page


• Read the product data sheet and technology overview for Cisco Eos Check out these Web-based vignettes that further explain how Cisco Eos supports media companies and the executives/departments responsible for the delivery of digital and social entertainment experiences


• Follow Cisco's news and activities on Cisco's DigMediaRev Blog, DigItAll Consumer blog, CiscoEos Twitter account

About Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group became the only stand-alone music company to be publicly traded in the United States in May 2005. With its broad roster of new stars and legendary artists, Warner Music Group is home to a collection of the best-known record labels in the music industry including Asylum, Atlantic, Bad Boy, Cordless, East West, Elektra, Nonesuch, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Rykodisc, Sire, Warner Bros. and Word. Warner Music International, a leading company in national and international repertoire, operates through numerous international affiliates and licensees in more than 50 countries. Warner Music Group also includes Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's leading music publishers, with a catalog of more than one million copyrights worldwide.

About Cisco's Consumer Business

Cisco's consumer business includes home networking products, set-top boxes, media solutions and content delivery systems. Through collaboration with technology partners, service providers, content providers, retailers and consumer electronic device manufacturers, Cisco is expanding the Human Network to create an intelligent, end-to-end media-optimized network that extends from the content source to the consumer.

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