REDMOND, Wash. — April 14, 2006 — MSN is celebrating the return of the legendary New Orleans Jazz & Heritage musical event by bringing select performances into homes around the globe April 28–30 and May 5–7. MSN has entered into an agreement with the 2006 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to be the exclusive webcast provider of the first Jazz Fest following the catastrophic events of Hurricane Katrina and will donate all the advertising proceeds to benefit New Orleans Katrina Relief efforts. The webcast is scheduled to include concert performances by globally popular artists such as Jimmy Buffett, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and the Dave Matthews Band, as well New Orleans music legends including Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and Buckwheat Zydeco. Viewers can tune in to the festival coverage at http://msnvideo.com/jazzfest.
To enable an even deeper connection with the bands, MSN is planning to provide listeners with interactive and dynamic links from the webcast page to artist photos, interviews, feature stories and other content.
“The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is a landmark music and cultural event, and MSN is honored to be a part of this year’s festival and to give people everywhere a front-row seat to see their favorite artists and experience the rich culture of New Orleans,” said Rob Bennett, general manager for Entertainment and Video Services at MSN.
The 37th annual Jazz Fest will be held at its traditional home at the New Orleans Fair Grounds Race Course (a Churchill Downs Company) and is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of fans to the event.
“We’re inviting the world to come to Jazz Fest with the help of MSN,” said festival producer and director Quint Davis. “MSN is enabling a global audience to embrace the music and soul of New Orleans, bringing amazing musicians, culture and the goodwill of our great city into the homes of millions who continue to support our community following Hurricane Katrina.”
About Jazz Fest
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation Inc. is the nonprofit institution that oversees the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell. The Foundation uses proceeds from the Festival to develop and support special projects designed to preserve and perpetuate the area’s rich music and cultural heritage. For information on the Foundation and its programs, visit nojhf.org or call (504) 522-4786. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell is a co-production of Festival Productions L.L.C. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Festival Productions Inc.-New Orleans) and AEG Louisiana Production L.L.C. (a subsidiary of AEG LIVE).
About MSN Video
MSN Video is one of the largest video-only streaming services on the Web, watched by more than 11 million unique users per month. In addition to streaming news, entertainment and sports video clips from more than 45 content partners, MSN Video presents a broad array of live events to online audiences worldwide. More than 50 top advertisers support MSN Video, which is available to consumers at no charge. MSN Video is available on the Web at http://msnvideo.com to consumers in the U.S.
MSN Video is also live in Australia, Canada and Japan, and in Spanish in the U.S.; the service also is in beta testing in the U.K.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
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