Coldplay Second Most Downloaded on iTunes

The Orchard, the world's leading distributor and marketer of independent music, and Fierce Panda Records, the legendary UK-based indie label, today announced that only weeks after signing their first-ever digital distribution deal and partnership with The Orchard, Fierce Panda artist Coldplay has hit the top of the charts on iTunes.

For two weeks, Coldplay's 1999 EP, "Brothers and Sisters," was iTunes' second most downloaded album and it has remained in the top ten for more than four weeks.As part of its digital marketing roll out for Coldplay, The Orchard worked with iTunes to offer the service an exclusive placement and promotion package for one month. As this exclusive period expires beginning September 6th, Coldplay will then become available to all other legal digital music services including eMusic, Napster, Musicmatch, Rhapsody and Buymusic.

Coldplay is the first artist from the catalog of Fierce Panda Records to be released by The Orchard, following their worldwide digital distribution partnership that was announced on July 29th, 2004. Other Fierce Panda artists include Ash, Supergrass, Placebo, Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Idlewild, Hundred Reasons, The Polyphonic Spree, Death Cab for Cutie and Keane.

"We are delighted and not the least bit surprised by the success of Coldplay's early work on iTunes," said Greg Scholl, Managing Director of Dimensional Associates and CEO of The Orchard. "This release perfectly embodies The Orchard's unparalleled capability to digitally distribute and creatively market the world's leading independent music across the globe. We look forward to similar success with other Fierce Panda artists and those of other leading independent labels such as Lookout! Records and multi-platinum artists like Roger McGuinn."

"The Orchard has very successfully developed and implemented a strategy to maximize Coldplay's digital exposure to fans worldwide," said Philip Ingles, Label Manager of Fierce Panda. "We'll be announcing other Fierce Panda artist releases through The Orchard in coming months and couldn't be happier with our partnership. The Orchard is delivering for us."

About The Orchard

The Orchard (http://www.theorchard.com/) is the leading distributor, marketer and promoter of independent music in the world, representing more than 2,500 labels and thousands of artists spanning over 50 countries and every music genre. The Orchard supplies their catalog of over 250,000 tracks to all of the leading legal digital music services throughout the world, and also offers traditional retail CD distribution to both brick-and-mortar and online outlets in the United States. The Orchard is headquartered in New York, with operations in London, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Melbourne.

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