audiohighway.com , an online media destination, Wednesday announced it has signed a letter of intent to merge with nicheMusic.com Inc.
Under terms of the proposed transaction, audiohighway.com will merge with nicheMusic.com and its online and offline properties — World Entertainment Network and 75 Ark Entertainment — in an all stock transaction. The proposed merger is subject to shareholder approval and is slated for completion by the end of the year.
“One of the greatest values of this merger is that it will allow us to market our own artists directly to consumers so they can purchase our artists’ products online through our own properties, as well as through traditional retail channels,” said Nathan Schulhof, president and chief executive officer of audiohighway.com. “We believe that as the market for commercially downloadable music continues to grow, the sale of physical product — CDs, cassettes, EPs, and the like — both online and through traditional retail outlets, will continue to play an important role.
“Furthermore, 75 Ark Entertainment (an up-and-coming Hip Hop/Urban record label) has a distribution agreement in place with Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA), an affiliate company of the Warner Music Group, one of the world’s largest distributors of CDs for independent record labels, allowing us to place CDs in thousands of retail stores nationwide. At the same time, World Entertainment Network is one of the top online destinations for consumers interested in world music. Put it all together with what we have already built at audiohighway.com and we believe that our companies will be much stronger in combination than as individual firms.”