Cologne/Hamburg/Munich, June 16th, 2009. Earlybird has today announced the completion of a financing round with the Cologne based marketer of live music Music Networx. Earlybird will invest approximately two million euro in this round, a further approximately 1.3 million euro will be invested by the existing shareholders, including DuMont Venture and Klaus Wecken.

Music Networx offers live acts, labels and other rights owners a seemless value chain from recording and production to on- and off-line marketing and distribution of live performances. For a majority of artists live concerts represent the most important source of income, as revenues from studio recordings continue to decline. Music Networx increases revenues from live performances through an innovative produkt portfolio. Concert goers can for example purchase a USB stick or mobile download of the concert they have just attended. The web based „Concert Online“ platform (www.concert-online.com) enables the distribution of recordings to a wide base of music fans.

„We have significantly increased our degree of popularity with bands, labels and concert goers over the recent months. International top-acts such as Simply Red, Franz Ferdinand and music festivals such as Rock im Park and Rock am Ring have already successfully partnered with us“, comments Gerrit Schumann, CEO and co-founder of Music Networx. „It is our aim to team up with many further high quality live acts and events in the near future. We will also be working hard on further developing our „Concert Online“ platform, to enable music fans even better access to information and music from their favourite artists. We are delighted to have Earlybird as a further strong investor in our growth.“

Earlybird Partner Dr. Hendrik Brandis is convinced of Music Networx’ significant growth potential: „ Live shows are again the key source of value creation for music artists. Music Networx offers distribution of and access to a very broad range of high quality live music and is therefore ideally positioned to benefit from this trend. We were also encouraged by the fact that Gerrit Schumann is a successful repeat entrepreneur and we already knew him well from our investment in element5, which was sold to Digital River.“

About Earlybird:

Earlybird Venture Capital was established in 1997 and is one of the most successful European venture investors. Currently, Earlybird manages over 400 million euros of assets for more than 20 international investors. Earlybird invests in innovative, fast growing companies with outstanding management teams and high growth potential on international markets.

Earlybird’s investment focus is on innovative companies within the sectors software, semi-conductor technology, information and communication technology, internet based services, cleantech (environmentally friendly technologies) and medtech. Earlybird’s portfolio currently includes more than 20 companies in seven countries (Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, UK, USA, Italy and France). Since inception Earlybird has invested in more than 58 companies.

Earlybird supports and accelerates entrepreneurial success. As one of the leading early stage venture capital investors in Europe, Earlybird offers entrepreneurs profound experience in setting up young businesses and supporting companies from the cradle to profitability: Earlybird only offers capital in the start-up-phase, but also supports financing in later growth phases.

Within two years, six of Earlybird’s technology companies have floated on four different European stock exchanges: Interhyp, Tipp24 and Wilex, Esmertec, Entelos and NoemaLife. Interhyp alone returned fifty times its original Earlybird investment. Additionally, Earlybird successfully sold its shareholding in element 5 to Digital River, its investment in Identify to BMC Software, Alantos to Amgen, AbaXX to Cordys, amaxa to Lonza and dooyoo to LeGuide. Further information is available at www.earlybird.com.


About Music Networx / Concert Online
Concert Online is the platform for live music on the Internet. Music lovers can visit concert-online.com to buy downloads of full-length concert films and audio recordings. The Concert Store program enables artists and licensors to increase their live recording revenue with digital sales to their target audience. Concert Online offers seamless service from planning and recording up to sales and promotion on-site and afterwards online. The Concert Stick allows fans to take their live experience home with them immediately after the show - as a perfect audio souvenir in MP3 format.
Music Networx, the company behind Concert Online, has developed and implemented innovative approaches to producing, showcasing and marketing live music since 2006, providing artists, labels and rights holders with new sales channels and markets.

Further info

Daniela von Wedel
vonwedel@earlybird.com

Earlybird Venture Capital
Van-der-Smissen Str. 3
22767 Hamburg
Telephone: +49 40 432941-0
Fax: +49 40 432941-29

www.earlybird.com