Sonic Foundry Broadens Agreement with Smart and Friendly

Sonic Foundry, Inc. (AMEX: SFO) today announced it has broadened its agreement with Smart and Friendly for the inclusion of its popular CD Architect professional audio CD recording software in their recorders. This agreement enables Smart and Friendly to include CD Architect in its next generation of CD Recorders, while continuing to provide its CD Rocket users the software. CD Architect will be available to the consumer channel in Smart and Friendly CD Recorders exclusively until the end of 1998.

"We've been greatly encouraged by the consumer industry's response to our previously announced product combination of Smart and Friendly's CD Rocket and Sonic Foundry's CD Architect," commented Sonic Foundry Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rimas Buinevicius. "Our expanded relationship with Smart and Friendly enables us to offer CD Architect to an even larger number of Smart and Friendly power users, especially home hobbyists and non-professional musicians.

"Our strategy has always been to bring professional products to market first, then drive them down to the consumer market with non-professional versions, which we did with Sound Forge[R] and ACID[TM]," added Mr. Buinevicius. "This agreement now gives non-professionals easy access to the same recording tools used by the professional musicians and recording studios."

Acknowledged as the preferred CD recording software by professional musicians, CD Architect allows users to prepare, arrange, and record professional audio CDs on their PCs. Combined with Sound Forge[R] XP, CD Architect provides a complete software solution for high-quality audio preparation and recording.

The Smart and Friendly CD Rocket is the latest in a line of high-performance recorders to be announced by the company this year. It operates at 8x write speeds — two to four times faster than competing CD Recorders, and plays back data at 20x speed — almost twice as fast as other recorders now available in the retail marketplace. "There is nothing like the CD Rocket on the market today," said Perry Solomon, Smart and Friendly President and Chief Executive Officer. "The CD Rocket includes the most desired CD recording software available, including CD Architect. We look forward to providing CD Architect to a new generation of Smart and Friendly CD Recorder users."

About Smart and Friendly

Smart and Friendly, Inc. is recognized as the industry's largest privately held manufacturer of CD-Recordable, CD-ROM, and optical storage technology. The company was recently named the country's Number One Supplier to Retail of CD Recorders by Personal Technology Research (PTR), publishers of the HOT Market Monitor USA. Later, it was selected by NewMedia Magazine as one of the digital recording industry's most influential suppliers and placed on the NewMedia 500 List.

The company's new external version of the CD Rocket 8 x 20 CD Recorder (SAF791) represents the next generation in CD-R technology. Both this version, and the internal version released earlier this year (SAF793) include an unparalleled suite of the industry's leading software, including CD Architect, valued at more than $1,500.

Smart and Friendly products are available at leading retail outlets including American TV, Best Buy, CDW, CompUSA, ComputAbility, Damark, DataVision, Fred Meyer, Fry's Electronics, The Good Guys, Insight Direct, J&R Computer World, Micro Center, Micro Warehouse, Nebraska Furniture Mart, and PC Connection and to resellers through D&H, Ingram Micro, Merisel, Synnex, and Tech Data.

For product and sales information, contact Smart and Friendly at 20520 Nordhoff Street, Chatsworth, CA, 91311; www.smartandfriendly.com; 800-959-7001 or 818-772-8001; or fax 818-772-2888. Smart and Friendly also offers free technical support over a toll-free line.

CD Rocket is a registered trademark of Smart and Friendly, Inc. All other product names are registered trademarks of their respective companies.