CBS Corporation Establishes The CBS Interactive Music Group

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: CBS Corporation Establishes The CBS Interactive Music Group : CBS Corporation announced the establishment of the CBS Interactive Music Group. The new business unit within CBS Interactive brings together the Company's industry-leading digital music assets, including CBS RADIO's more than 100 music websites and online audio streams, and its various mobile applications, as well as Last.fm, a leading music discovery site, to form a single division that will create richer and more immersive experiences for millions of music fans around the world. At launch, the combined assets of the newly formed CBS Interactive Music Group reach almost 40 million unique monthly users worldwide. : Leading the new entity will be David Goodman who has been named President, CBS Interactive Music Group. A veteran of CBS RADIO since 2002, Goodman has served as President, Digital Media and Integrated Marketing for the division since December 2007. : The announcements were made by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. : "Today we are combining two industry-leading music properties to form a single group dedicated to music fans everywhere," said Moonves. "CBS is in a unique position to bring together the leading-edge technological resources at CBS Interactive with the content, promotional and sales assets at CBS RADIO to drive efficiencies into the business and create unmatched experiences for all of our customers. David is uniquely qualified to lead our efforts in the area, and I look forward to all he'll do to grow this new enterprise." : At launch, the new CBS Interactive music group will be comprised of the following: : * CBS RADIO streams of its music stations, and web only channels, available online and via various mobile devices, including the iPhone and select Blackberry models; : * The interactive websites for every CBS RADIO music station which offer extensive audio and video programming on-demand, embeddable song dedication and upcoming event widgets, and exclusive opportunities and promotions; : * Last.fm, a leading music discovery site, offers fans millions of tracks in every genre with radio streaming and free-on-demand offerings through partnerships with Universal, EMI, Sony BMG, CD Baby, independent aggregators The Orchard and IODA, and more than 240,000 independent artists and labels. The site also intelligently recommends its 25 million monthly users new songs based on their listening history and music tastes through its proprietary scrobbling technology. : "CBS RADIO and CBS Interactive have been moving down parallel paths to create a new media structure for the future that capitalizes on our unique strengths," added Quincy Smith, Chief Executive Officer, CBS Interactive. "The time is right to create a focused strategy that brings together the knowledge and expertise of both divisions so we can realize our true potential." : The CBS Interactive Music Group will complement CBS Interactive's four additional business units primarily focused on Technology and News; Business; Sports and Games; and Entertainment and Lifestyle. Neil Ashe serves as President of CBS Interactive. Goodman will report to Ashe and continue to work closely with Dan Mason, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS RADIO, to implement and monetize the division's ongoing digital initiatives. Goodman will continue to be based at CBS RADIO headquarters in New York. : "The unparalleled technology and operations expertise of CBS Interactive, combined with the power of CBS RADIO and Last.fm, allows this newly created vertical to develop best-of-breed sites and user experiences, and gives us a unique competitive advantage in the marketplace - not only with our worldwide audiences but with the advertising community as well," said Ashe. : CBS RADIO's recent agreements to power AOL Radio and Yahoo! LAUNCHcast Radio's combined 400+ stations have vaulted CBS RADIO to the No. 1 most listened to online radio service. In March, CBS RADIO logged more than 6.5 million unique listeners who streamed in excess of 83 million total listening hours. The division is also home to the nation's most listened to rock (KROQ-FM), country (WUSN-FM) and classic hits (WCBS-FM) stations, as well as some of the best music brands in the business, such as WXRT-FM in Chicago, Alice@97.3 (KLLC-FM) in San Francisco, WVEE-FM in Atlanta, B94 in Pittsburgh, and the recently launched AMP RADIO (KLSX-FM) in Los Angeles. : "David and his team have crafted an intelligent long-term digital strategy for CBS RADIO and provided our properties with resources and tools local radio stations could never have imagined would be in their arsenal," said Mason. "Our stations are better equipped than any of their competitors at delivering music enthusiasts a fully interactive on-air and online user experience. With the power of CBS Interactive behind our efforts we will only get better. No other radio company has the caliber of resources of CBS and no other interactive company can own local radio like we do." : "By forming the CBS Interactive Music Group, we are able to create richer content experiences, deeper targeted advertising opportunities driven by experts in local and national sales, increases in overall audience and time spent with our brands, as well as implement common operating systems and shared technology resources to realize cost efficiencies," commented Goodman. : Goodman joined CBS RADIO in July 2002 as Executive Vice President of Marketing where he played a pivotal role in developing multi-dimensional radio platforms for major clients. He was promoted to President of Marketing in February 2005. Most recently, his responsibilities included developing and overseeing CBS RADIO's online and mobile strategy, as well as creating new content partnerships and monetizing the division's digital inventory. : Previously, Goodman spent six years at the Warner Music Group, Warnervision Entertainment and Warner Bros. While there, he led the drive to produce more than 1,100 hours of original programming making the division one of the leading distributors of music programming in the world. He was responsible for creating VH1's long running "Hard Rock Live" series, and launched the series "Russell Simmons One World Music Beat," Telemundo's "Tu Ritmo" and the Emmy-nominated "An Evening with Michael Crawford" on Public Television.

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