[JPL] NEW "NPR MUSIC" MULTIMEDIA SITE LAUNCHES TODAY

[Ed Trefzger]

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*NEW “NPR MUSIC” MULTIMEDIA SITE LAUNCHES TODAY*

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*NPR and NPR Member Stations Introduce *

*Premier Online Destination for Music Discovery*

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*Site Offers Concert and Studio Performances, Interviews, *

*News, Reviews, Blogs, Podcasts and Artist Index*

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*Launch Includes Exclusive New NPR.org Media Player with Playlist 
Capacity***

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November 5, 2007; Washington, DC – From rock to jazz…classical to 
urban…folk to world…NPR and NPR Member public radio stations, on-air and 
online, have been leaders in music discovery and arbiters of musical 
tastes and artists. Today, NPR and 12 NPR Member stations recognized for 
music programming are launching *NPR Music*, a new, free, comprehensive 
multimedia music discovery Web site. Featuring on-air and online content 
aggregated from NPR and the participating stations as well as 
original-to-*NPR Music* materials such as interviews, reviews, blogs and 
live performances, www.NPR.org/music <http://www.npr.org/music> permits 
users to explore, experience and enjoy all the music genres that are 
found on public radio.

*NPR Music* is a collaboration between NPR and KEXP and KPLU Seattle; 
KUT Austin; WBGO Newark; WDUQ Pittsburgh; WFUV and WNYC New York; WGBH 
Boston; WGUC Cincinnati; WKSU/Folk Alley Kent, Ohio; WXPN Philadelphia; 
and American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio. All partners will 
provide content including live concerts, studio sessions, features and 
reviews. *NPR Music* also links to the live broadcast music streams of 
all participating stations. Additional stations and producers will join 
in the coming months.

Specific sections of the site are dedicated to rock/pop/folk, classical, 
jazz/blues, world and urban music. In each genre, program and subject 
area, users can explore NPR’s and the stations’ renowned music 
journalism; intimate interviews and studio sessions with artists and 
bands; NPR’s and stations’ popular national and regional web concerts; 
reviews and news; original blogs from critics, experts and artists; and 
podcasts. The site culls from NPR’s and the stations’ extensive music 
archives to present thousands of features; at launch, the site’s Artist 
Index alone, an A to Z artist directory, offers content about more than 
2000 performers. More than 200 new features will be added from NPR and 
the stations monthly, joining thousands of hours of archived concert, 
story, review and interview pieces.

*NPR Music* also offers original video and audio features. Along with 
the Artist Index, some of the new elements are:

“Project Song” – a video feature challenging songwriters to write and 
record an original song in two days at the NPR studios. The first 
participant is songwriter Stephin Merritt, to be followed by indie band 
Georgie James

“Studio Sessions” – in-studio video performances recorded at NPR and 
Member stations

“Discover Songs” – audio stories about, and recommendations for, 
individual songs

“Music Lists” – five-song listening sets curated by musicians and public 
radio music personalities

The site also features two new blogs. The “All Songs Considered” blog, 
written by the weekly music show’s producers Bob Boilen and Robin 
Hilton, goes behind the scenes. “Monitor Mix” offers music picks and 
industry news from writer and musician Carrie Brownstein, formerly of 
the band Sleater-Kinney.

Coinciding with the launch of *NPR Music* is a media player exclusive to 
NPR, available across www.NPR.org <http://www.npr.org/> The player 
allows users to create a playlist for video and audio (dating from 2004 
to present) on the site and makes dynamic recommendations for related 
content depending on a user’s selections. The playlist also offers links 
to NPR’s 24-hour stream and the NPR News Summary.

“Since its inception, public radio has played a vital public service 
role in bringing all genres of music – and non-mainstream artists – to 
its listeners. The new *NPR Music* evolves the high-quality music 
journalism, performance and presentation that have been the longtime 
trademark of NPR, our 12 launch partners and public radio overall,” said 
Maria Thomas, Senior Vice President, NPR Digital Media. “With this site, 
we can serve millions of music fans through a content-rich single 
destination that not only unifies the breadth of music programming 
produced by influential public radio producers around the country, but 
also acts as a launchpad for original audio, video and expert opinion.

“NPR and a strong network of public radio music stations have engaged in 
a variety of collaborative content projects over the past year that were 
well-received by listeners and served as the foundation for a larger 
shared effort. The new *NPR Music* service is the latest expression of 
that partnership and we’re delighted to be associated with these 12 
station leaders.”

The *NPR Music* service enables partner stations and other NPR Member 
stations to incorporate a variety of modular content offerings, 
including RSS feeds and Javascript modules, into their own Web sites.

*-NPR-*

*NPR Media Relations: *Anna Christopher 202.513.2304 / 
achristopher at npr.org <mailto:achristopher at npr.org>