Paris, France (February 22, 2000) -- Sonic Solutions announced today at the Audio Engineering Society Convention (AES) in Paris that they would collaborate to integrate Sony’s ATRAC3 (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding 3) into iMaster, Sonic’s suite of professional tools for the preparation of compressed audio for Internet distribution. Sonic will build Sony’s ATRAC3 encoder directly into the iMaster toolkit running on the award-winning SonicStudio HD workstation, giving mastering engineers the ability to produce Electronic Music Distribution (EMD) masters for Internet distribution of audio in parallel with production of conventional CD-Audio releases.

"We are delighted to be working with Sonic Solutions, the acknowledged leader in audio premastering," said Yutaka Nakagawa, corporate senior vice president of Sony Corporation. "To ensure the success of Sony’s EMD business, we felt that it was essential for Sony to collaborate with Sonic Solutions to support major record labels in the preparation of ATRAC3 music content for Internet delivery."

"As a member of SDMI (Secure Digital Music Initiative), Sonic has been deeply involved in the development of secure electronic music distribution," said Yuki Miyamoto, Product Marketing Manager for New Audio Formats at Sonic Solutions. "Through close collaboration with Sony, we will be able to quickly deploy the ATRAC3 secure music coding technology to the professional mastering community, making the preparation of high-quality audio content for EMD possible."

"We are pleased that Sonic Solutions has integrated the ATRAC3 compression codec directly into SonicStudio HD," said Al Smith, senior vice president, Sony Music Entertainment. "We think incorporating audio compression into the standard mastering process is an important step in the development of EMD, as it will result in better quality audio for digital delivery."

About ATRAC3
ATRAC3 is a CODEC developed from ATRAC, which is the sound compression technology used in MiniDisc. ATRAC3 provides both high sound quality and the compression rate necessary for Electronic Music Distribution. ATRAC3 compresses sound with great efficiency and high sound quality by utilizing the latest sound compression technologies and engineering know-how combining Band Splitting Filters and MDCTs (Modified Discrete Cosine Transforms), as well as Gain Control Technology, etc. The ATRAC3 encoding/decoding process is relatively less complex than alternate approaches allowing ATRAC3 to be incorporated into smaller sized ICs suitable for implementation in portable products.

About SonicStudio HD
SonicStudio HD is the latest version of SonicStudio — the most widely used digital audio workstation for CD premastering. SonicStudio HD consists of a high-performance audio processor, multi-channel digital I/O up to 192 kHz, 24-bit and a powerful suite of applications for recording, editing, processing and formatting digital audio. A true multi-format mastering system, SonicStudio HD supports CD, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, SACD and EMD mastering. SonicStudio is used today by major record labels, recording studios and mastering facilities to prepare more than two out of every three commercially released CDs. SonicStudio users have consistently won Grammy, Emmy and Oscar awards for their exceptional sound work.

About Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC)
Based in Marin County, California, Sonic Solutions designs and manufactures DVD publishing and audio editing systems used by video, audio and multimedia professionals around the world. Sonic's product lines include DVD Creator, the leading system for professional DVD production; DVD Fusion for Macintosh, the first DVD publishing system designed for non-linear video editors; DVDit! (http://store.dvdit.com/), the easiest way to publish on DVD and the first DVD publishing application for consumers; and SonicStudio HD, the leading digital audio workstation to prepare recorded sound for release on DVD and CD. Sonic is a leader in advancing DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technology and is a full voting-member of the DVD Forum, the standards-setting body for the DVD format.

About Sony

Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its music, pictures and computer entertainment operations make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of over $56 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999. Sony's Home Page URL: http://www.sony.co.jp/