SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 12, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- ARTISTdirect, Inc. (OTCBB:ARTD) today announced the appointment of advertising industry veteran Betsy Murphy as vice president of worldwide sales, a new position responsible for domestic and international advertising and sales initiatives for the company's Internet group and for managing ARTISTdirect's network of outside sales representatives.
Murphy will also advise the company's file sharing marketing business unit, MediaDefender, to enhance its marketing strategies and relationships with advertisers and agencies. She will report directly to Jon Diamond, chief executive officer of ARTISTdirect, Inc.
Murphy most recently served as the senior director of customer sales and marketing at ESPN/ABC, responsible for selling cross-platform opportunities for the channel -- including ESPN TV, ABC Sports, ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. Earlier, she served as director of East Coast sales for ESPN.com.
From 1999 to 2002, Murphy held numerous online media and advertising positions, including head of ad sales at Snowball.com (now known as IGN.com), where she increased advertising sales revenue from $500,000 to $24.0 million in a two-year period.
Murphy earlier served as vice president and associate publisher of US News and World Report, where she was also responsible for the launch of Fast Company magazine. Previously, Murphy served as the New England ad sales manager for Newsweek magazine.
"Betsy's extensive media experience will be a tremendous asset as we ramp up our advertising and marketing initiatives worldwide. In addition to global advertising sales across the ARTISTdirect Internet Group, we expect to leverage her expertise and professional relationships with agencies and advertisers to expand MediaDefender's marketing and advertising campaigns on file sharing networks that are accessed by an estimated 300 million monthly global users searching for and downloading billions of entertainment files," said Jon Diamond, chief executive officer of ARTISTdirect.
"ARTISTdirect operates one of the largest and most important music brands on the Internet today, representing a tremendous opportunity for advertising and sales initiatives. In addition, the company's MediaDefender unit, an established market leader for digital content protection on file sharing networks, is uniquely positioned to harness a significant number of users for marketing and advertising initiatives," said Murphy.
The ARTISTdirect Network (www.ARTISTdirect.com) is the third most-visited music destination on the Internet with approximately 15 million unique monthly visitors in the United States and approximately 40 million unique visitors worldwide. The company's MediaDefender subsidiary has an estimated 90 percent share of the expanding Internet-piracy-protection market. Latest estimates indicate that more than 300 million people worldwide are using the peer-to-peer networks to access digital media every month.
About ARTISTdirect, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, ARTISTdirect, Inc. is a digital media entertainment company that is home to an online music network and, through its MediaDefender subsidiary, is the leading provider of anti-piracy solutions in the Internet-piracy-protection industry. The ARTISTdirect Network (http://www.artistdirect.com) is a network of web-sites offering multi-media content, music, news and information organized around shared music interests, music-related specialty commerce and digital music services.
Forward-Looking Statements:
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