y promoted its site through common search engines and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). For example, the company has a strategic business alliance with Yahoo! which provides the music retailer with exclusive music-retail access on music-related search results, and CDnow is the premier music retailer on Yahoo!'s international sites. In addition, CDnow has formed alliances with WebCrawler, GeoCities, Lycos and Lycos Bertelsmann (which has a large European presence). The company also uses e-mail to keep existing customers apprised of titles which may be of interest (based on past purchasing history) and has a separate e-mail program set up to target those customers who have registered at the CDnow site, but who have not made purchases.
The company has also pursued strategic tie-ins with recognized companies in the music industry, and CDnow is able to use the MTV and VH1 brand names on its site as well use the Rolling Stone brand name when promoting content originally generated by that magazine. CDnow also has more than 25,000 reviews from CMJ, and can post Billboard's music charts on its site.
Revenues for CDnow reflect the company's aggressive marketing campaigns: revenues nearly tripled both from 1995 to 1996 and from 1996 to 1997. However, the company has yet to post a profit on these revenues, and its net loss per common share has increased steadily since its first year of operation. For the year ending December 31, 1997, the company lost $1.42 per share, a considerable increase from its previous year's loss of only $0.29 per share.
N2K is the result of a merger between N2K, Inc. and Telebase. N2K was founded in 1995 as a developer of online music entertainment content while Telebase was founded in 1984 as a provider of online information services. Telebase began marketing recorded music and related merchandise in 1995 as part of its Music Boulevard online store. Telebase and N2K merged in 1996, and the new compan...