Madison, WI-January 24, 2002-Musicnotes, Inc., the Madison, WI based Digital Music Publisher www.musicnotes.com, today announced a significant distribution agreement with Musician's Friend www.musiciansfriend.com. The agreement encompasses Musicnotes' instantly deliverable library of digital sheet music, including titles from Warner Bros. Publishing, BMG, Famous Music, Mel Bay and other publishers. The agreement also covers the mail order distribution of hard goods. Musician's Friend is the world's largest online merchant of musical instruments and accessories. With annual sales of well over $100 million, Musician's Friend is a major business unit of Guitar Center (GTRC-NASDAQ), a publicly traded retailer with over $800 million in total sales. The Musician's Friend website will sell Musicnotes' sheet music directly to consumers, representing a major step in Musicnotes' "digital warehouse" strategy.

"We continue to be excited by consumers' acceptance of digital sheet music sold from our own website, but this new partnership represents a way to reach the huge number musicians who rely on Musician's Friend for their musical equipment," commented Musicnotes' CEO Kathleen Marsh. "Digital sheet music is an incredible product for the customers of Musician's Friend - without ever leaving home, they instantly receive the music they want, print a hard copy on their own printer, and also receive an interactive digital file on their hard drive that they can use as a learning tool. Consumers get all this for the same price they would pay for a piece of sheet music at the store - assuming it's even available - after driving many miles and spending precious time."

"Musicnotes is a clear leader in the digital sheet music arena," commented Eric Meadows, Internet Director of Musician's Friend. "We are happy to be associated with them and are pleased to introduce their innovative and extensive library of music to millions of our customers".

"We will continue to pursue content deals to expand our current digital library of titles," said CEO Marsh. "We expect to put up significant new content in the weeks ahead, and are in active discussions with other publishers to add their titles. As our distribution grows, we expect most publishers will want their music represented in the websites where we aggregate the world's best music."

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Musicnotes is the world leader in the online distribution of both digital and printed sheet music. Their library of 13,000 digital files, and over 200,000 mail order music books and more is the largest available online.
On the web: http://www.musicnotes.com

Media Contact: Kathleen Marsh, CEO
kmarsh@musicnotes.com or (608) 662-1680 ext. 272

Or:

Tim Reiland, Vice-Chairman
treiland@musicnotes.com; (414) 745-4232

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Musician's Friend: the world's largest catalog and Internet distributor of musical instruments and accessories. Currently, Musician's Friend offers over 24,000 products in its mail order catalogs and on its website, musiciansfriend.com. Products offered include guitars, basses, keyboards, percussion, amps, as well as recording, mixing, lighting, and DJ gear.
On the web: http://www.musiciansfriend.com

Media Contact: Eric Meadows, Internet Director
emeadows@musiciansfriend.com or (541) 774-5467

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