Arista Press Release

Another Leading Trade Publication Radio And Records (R&R) Names Arista Records as the No. 1 Label of the Year Arista Has 4 of the Top Ten Selling Albums for the Week Including Whitney Houston's The Preacher's Wife, Toni Braxton and Kenny G Two highly regarded publications herald Arista Records as the No. 1 label of the year in both album sales and record airplay. Arista Records year to date album sales show an impressive No. 1 ranking in market share according to today's The Hollywood Reporter which listed Arista's market share in terms of current album sales for the year at 8.4%, at least one point higher than the closest competitor. The publication states, "Arista Records beat out music companies many times its size to rank as the top label of 1996."

The industry newspaper, Radio & Records (R&R) lists Arista as the No. 1 label in 1996 in its year-end Label Performance Review. Arista finished No. 1 in four radio airplay formats including CHR/Rhythmic, Urban, Urban AC, and AC.

Many major superstar hit records and breaking new artists in almost every music genre and format helped Arista continue with its tremendous success in '96. Arista Records continues to soar with soundtracks including, Waiting To Exhale featuring Whitney Houston as the best selling soundtrack of the year with certified sales of over seven million units. Waiting To Exhale spawned five hit singles and was produced by Babyface. Whitney's second soundtrack hit of the year is the recently released The Preacher's Wife Soundtrack. Indicating another strong week of sales, the soundtrack album goes from 4 (with a bullet) - 3 (with a bullet) on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart.

Arista has four of the top ten best selling albums, more than any other label or distributing label. Whitney Houston's The Preacher's Wife Soundtrack (233,000 units), Toni Braxton's Secrets (183,200), Kenny G's The Moment (162,000) and Kenny G's Miracles: The Holiday Album (released in '94) is the 9th best selling album of the week with over 183,000 units for the week. Kenny G dominates the week as the best selling artist with combined record sales of over 340,000 copies between Miracles and The Moment.

In addition to these major releases, other important albums that have contributed to Arista's dominating success this year: Arista Nashville's Alan Jackson's Greatest Hits Collection and the current Everything I Love, Brooks & Dunn's Borderline and LaFace Records' TLC's Crazysexycool, OutKast's Atliens and The Tony Rich Project's Words.

Arista current chart toppers include The Preacher's Wife Soundtrack which is No. 1 on the Soundtrack Albums Chart and No. 1 on the Gospel Albums Chart. Kenny G's The Moment is No. 1 on The Top Contemporary Jazz Chart and Kenny's Miracles: The Holiday Album is No. 1 on the Seasonal Christmas Chart and Top Catalogue Albums Chart. Alan Jackson's "Little Bitty" is No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles Chart. Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart" is No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart and Radio & Records' AC Singles Chart.