NAB2007 - SmartSound Leverages Technology Leadership to Offer BackStage, An Innovative New Music Library Service

New Automatic Cue Sheet service saves hours of tedious paperwork; SmartSound delivers unique and customized music to its customers in a variety of new offerings available exclusively to SmartSound customers SmartSound Software, Inc., the leading provider of music and scoring technology for film and video professionals, today announced the launch of BackStage, a new Web site open exclusively to registered users of Sonicfire ® Pro 4. BackStage leverages SmartSound’s unique technology leadership among music libraries to deliver creative new music content and automated solutions to production companies that have adopted this exciting new music library platform. SmartSound is highlighting BackStage at its booth at NAB 2007 at the Las Vegas Convention Center (SL #3710).The new Automatic Cue Sheet service in BackStage virtually eliminates the tedious and time-consuming task of creating accurate cue sheets from Edit Decision Lists (EDLs). Cue sheets are generated from user-imported EDLs which automatically include the cue name, length, composer and licensing information for any SmartSound track along with a growing database of more than 160,000 music cues from other libraries. “Traditionally, it could take up to four hours to create cue sheets based on EDLs,† said Kevin Klingler, President and CEO of SmartSound Software, Inc. “Our new Automatic Cue Sheet service slashes the amount of time needed to perform this task, saving production companies huge amounts of time and money. Our ability to recognize music cues from other libraries as well as from our own allows production companies to get a high level of value from our service regardless of the source of the music tracks used in their projects.† The Automatic Cue Sheet service is scheduled to be live on June 1, and will be available to all BackStage Pass holders for a yearly fee of only $995 for unlimited cue sheets. BackStage also presents several new options for customers who wish to expand their libraries to include unique music content. SmartSound has increased its monthly output of music since the launch of Sonicfire Pro 4 last year to meet the demand for content that works with the award-winning Mood Mapping ® feature. SmartSound will limit its public music releases to about one per month and make all the additional music available exclusively through BackStage at a cost of $199 per disc. “BackStage delivers music with the quality and exclusivity of more expensive libraries but with the key advantage of SmartSound’s technology,† said Klingler. “And with our flat-rate royalty-free licensing, post-production professionals can own our music without the hassles of annual license contracts or needledrop fees.† Customers who experience the power and efficiency of SmartSound’s music tracks increasingly want the same benefits from their own private music collections. SmartSound is making this possible for the first time through BackStage by enabling customer-owned music to have the same functionality as music in the SmartSound library. Starting at $250 per track, this service gives professionals the advantages of SmartSound’s level of customization and control through their own personal music libraries, greatly enhancing their creativity and productivity on every production. “This makes sense for producers who find that they are reusing certain tracks for a variety of reasons or projects,† said Klingler. SmartSound is also offering a custom-composing service that is unique to the industry. Customers can hire SmartSound’s composers to create a custom music track and SmartSound will enable that track to work with the customer’s Sonicfire Pro software. Delivering music in a SmartSound-enabled format gives the customer instant access to every possible length, variation and instrument mix for the track. Registered users of Sonicfire Pro 4 can sign up for a free BackStage Pass at www.smartsound.com/backstage. Every new BackStage Pass comes with free single-track download of your choice from SmartSound’s music library as the first benefit. All BackStage Pass holders enjoy the privilege of accessing the exclusive new premium music content and services.