Omnifone, a UK based mobile music company, today launches
MusicStation, an all-you-can-eat (AYCE) full-track mobile music
service which will be rolled-out in partnership with major music
labels, mobile operators and mobile industry partners across the
world. The service will allow users access to the world's music on
their industry-standard mobiles for GBP 1.99 per week.*
"The launch of MusicStation heralds the next generation mobile
music experience for the hundreds of millions of mobile phone
subscribers worldwide who want a simple, easy-to-use digital music
experience," said Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone. "MusicStation will give
users of any music-capable handset the ability to legally access,
download and enjoy an unlimited amount of music, from a global music
catalogue supported by the music industry, all for a small weekly fee,
wherever they are."
As well as working in collaboration with the world's major music
labels, Omnifone has already signed partnerships with 23 mobile
network operators, who have subscribers in 40 countries and a total
customer base of 690 million subscribers.
Rob Wells, Senior Vice President, Digital, for Universal Music
Group International said "Universal Music Group International are
looking forward to the launch of MusicStation, it's one of the most
consumer friendly and secure platforms we have seen and the worldwide
potential of the MusicStation platform and its ability to make music
instantly accessible to consumers via their mobile phone is enormous."
The first operator partners to announce Rollout Agreements for
MusicStation will be Scandinavian network operator Telenor and
Vodafone partner network Vodacom in South Africa. Four more networks
will be launching across major territories in Western Europe and
Asia-Pacific in Q2 2007 and these rollouts will be announced in these
local markets in the near future.
Anders Jensen, Chief Marketing Officer at Telenor, confirming a Q2
2007 rollout, said, "As one of the first Omnifone partners to launch
the MusicStation all you can eat service, Telenor has reinforced its
commitment to deliver cutting edge innovative services to its mobile
subscribers across Sweden."
Further European operators plan rollouts Q3 2007. Lewis added, "We
will ensure the vast majority of Europeans have the freedom to choose
MusicStation by the time iPhone arrives in Europe. We will give
consumers the choice they deserve".
Omnifone confirms the countries its partners have active mobile
phone networks in include: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, France,
Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New
Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, South
Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and UK.
MusicStation provides a complete music experience, enabling users
to search for music, download and play music on their mobile, Mac/PC,
create, manage and share playlists and tracks with the MusicStation
community, and view the latest music news. All of this functionality,
including music downloads, takes place in the background whilst music
is being played. Unlike Apple's recently-announced iPhone,
MusicStation downloads its music over-the-air (OTA) across the MNO's
data network, giving users instant access to new music at any time,
irrespective of their location. MusicStation also works on both 3G and
the majority 2.5G marketplace, providing 2.5G subscribers with OTA
full music downloads for the first time.
"By leveraging the hundreds of millions of handsets sold every
year by operators to deliver MusicStation into the global market, we
believe we can give Apple a run for its money in digital music
provision", continued Lewis. "The consumer experience of using
MusicStation has much in common with that of an iPod, except that with
MusicStation users don't need a credit card, computer or broadband
connection and can still download and enjoy the world's music, all the
time."
MusicStation includes content from major labels as well as
independent music labels and aggregators in local territories.
Out-of-the-box MusicStation provides a totally localised music
experience. Delivering tracks in Enhanced Advanced Audio Coding format
(eAAC+), Omnifone's new service also supports industry-strength DRM.
Omnifone believes MusicStation can significantly enhance digital
music revenues for partner MNOs, the music labels and the collection
societies.
Guy Fletcher OBE, Writer Director of the PRS and Creative Director
of leading independent publisher, Music Copyright Solutions Plc
commented, "Music Station will enable inexpensive total access to the
world's music by almost anyone with a mobile phone.... it's a great
business model for the industry and users alike... truly an important
part of the digital revolution".
Omnifone also announces the appointment of Mobiltron Asia Pacific,
as its Global Services Partner. Mobiltron's appointment will allow
Omnifone partner MNOs to easily source factory-enabled handsets or to
rapidly customise existing industry-standard handsets to ensure
maximum handset reach to the MusicStation platform. Mobiltron
distributes, customises and fulfils handsets across Europe and Asia
through facilities in the PRC, Hong Kong and France. John
Maclean-Arnott, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mobiltron
comments, "We are delighted to assist Omnifone in ensuring the largest
proportion of mobile phone customers possible can have access to the
compelling MusicStation experience. We look forward to successful
rollouts in Europe and Asia Pacific."
Robin Bloor, Partner at Hurwitz & Associates, Founder of Bloor
Research, and also Co-Author "Service Oriented Architecture for
Dummies" stated, after reviewing the MusicStation product, "Omnifone
has a great opportunity, partly because Apple is doing exclusive deals
with carriers and leaving others out in the cold. Apple isn't willing
to share its iTunes revenue with the carriers and Apple has only one
expensive device that is highly priced.
Naturally Apple will take some share of the market, but even in
its wildest dreams it won't get close to 5 percent. Omnifone is
providing a music playing capability that many carriers are going to
find very useful, maybe even necessary, if they wish to compete with
Apple and stay centre stage for content, rather than become purely
dependent on price sensitive services such as traditional voice and
text."
*Subscribers will pay a small weekly fee to access a comprehensive
global catalogue of music drawn from all the major labels and
independents. Pricing in the UK is GBP 1.99 per week for unlimited
downloads including data with European pricing set at 2.99 Euros per
week. A premium service will offer unlimited music downloads to a
subscriber's mobile and Mac/PC desktop for GBP 2.99 per week in the UK
and 3.99 Euros per week across the rest of Europe. All charges are
inclusive of 2.5G or 3G data.
About MusicStation
MusicStation will run on all 2.5G and 3G music compatible mobiles,
accounting for approximately 80% of all mobile phone handsets sold in
Western Europe today, with both Java and Symbian versions available at
launch.
MusicStation's user interface and functionality are virtually
identical across all manufacturer handset models, providing the same
intuitive user experience on every handset.
Downloaded MusicStation tracks and user playlists are stored
centrally so that if a mobile is stolen, lost or upgraded, the
replacement handset will automatically restore the same music
experience the first time MusicStation is switched on.
MusicStation automatically stores a user's favourite tracks on the
phone's internal or removable memory. Whilst some phones can store
thousands of tracks, others can store less than one hundred.
MusicStation maximises the capabilities of any mobile phone by using
unlimited downloads from the network to provide access to any of the
catalogue at any time. MusicStation's architecture ensures that the
memory allocated on the phone is always used to store the user's
favourite and about-to-be-played music. This means that users can
access their favourite tracks when in Flight Safe mode and access the
full catalogue when connected to a 2.5G or 3G data network.
In-built networked community functions, including the ability to
share playlists and tracks with other users over operators' data
networks mean that MusicStation provides consumers with a truly
compelling community experience on the mobile for the first time.
MusicStation users will be able to:
-- Discover the MusicStation Play Charts (tracks that are being
played the most, rather than purely purchased or downloaded,
the most)
-- Access playlists created by other MusicStation users;
-- Use collaborative filtering and nearest-neighbour technology
to identify new tracks, artists, albums and other users that
are likely to be of interest;
-- Publish playlists for other users to access, and achieve a
'cool' status based on their popularity;
-- Message other consumers, sending recommended tracks, albums,
playlists and messages;
-- Receive music news, gig dates, single and album releases and
messages from artists, automatically personalised based on
what music the consumer listens to the most frequently.
About Omnifone
Mobile music company Omnifone was founded in 2003 by leading
technology entrepreneurs Rob Lewis, Phil Sant and Mark Knight. The
founders, along with Chairman Jim Feeney, established Omnifone with
the aim of bringing legal and affordable digital music to the mass
market over the only digital medium that is ubiquitous globally;
mobile handsets. Omnifone's next generation music service MusicStation
is a low cost all-you-can-eat subscription-based mobile music service
that is pre-installed on participating partner operator handsets and
delivers the world's music to most mobile handsets for a small weekly
fee. Omnifone uses its unique Device Adaptive Architecture to
instantaneously port MusicStation to multiple operator handsets,
reducing time to market and giving the highest possible handset reach
of any mobile music service globally.
Omnifone has gained global support for MusicStation from the music
and mobile industries and has an established network of 23 partner
networks, reaching across 40 European, Asia Pacific and African
countries. Omnifone's founders sold the successful internet software
development company Cromwell Media for GBP 850m in March 2000 and
subsequently sold Silicon.com and associated European assets they
founded, to major online publishers, including NASDAQ-listed CNET
Networks.
Omnifone has offices in London, UK and Hong Kong. For further
information, please visit www.omnifone.com.*
*Please note Omnifone's corporate web site goes live 00.01 hours
CES Monday 12th February 2007.
