Mobile music company Omnifone, today announces the first rollout
of its award-winning unlimited music downloads service, MusicStation,
in Asia-Pacific with Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong)
Limited's mobile operation 3 Hong Kong.
3 MusicStation will provide 3 Hong Kong's mobile users unlimited
access, when subscribed, to a vast catalogue of music from all the
major record labels; Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music
Entertainment, EMI Music and Warner Music Group, as well as leading
independents, on a range of new and existing handsets at an innovative
price point of just HK$12 per week* (including data charges).
"Hong Kong is the gateway to Asia-Pacific and so strategically
important for Omnifone's global ambitions," said Rob Lewis, CEO of
Omnifone. "Partnering with 3 Hong Kong, one of the most innovative
mobile network operators in the world, enables us to make the first
step in bringing MusicStation to what will be the world's most
important digital music market."
3 MusicStation gives users the freedom to download, play and share
whatever music they want wherever they are, directly on their handset.
Customers can discover and download any new music risk-free at any
time, enabling legitimate and effective music discovery. 3
MusicStation also features live charts, a personalised music news
service and a music based social network community capability which
enables users to make friends, build and share playlists and music
recommendations with other 3 MusicStation users.
3 Hong Kong Chief Operating Officer Amy Lung, said; "At 3 we pride
ourselves on delivering an innovative suite of cutting edge services
to our subscribers. In launching 3 MusicStation, we are the first
operator in Asia-Pacific to rollout an All You Can Eat (AYCE) music
subscription service that gives consumers the freedom to access as
much music as they want, at any time, anywhere in Hong Kong, on a wide
range of new and existing music mobiles over the 3 network."
3 MusicStation is available on 14** new or existing 3/3.5G Nokia
and Sony Ericsson music mobiles, either preinstalled or alternatively
available for Over The Air (OTA) download from 3 Hong Kong's 3G
portal. 3.5G (High Speed Data Packet Access - HSDPA) handsets
including the Nokia 6120, N95 and Sony Ericsson W910i will deliver
full track downloads over the mobile network in just a few seconds and
an entire album can be downloaded in under a minute.
Further 3 MusicStation handsets from a range of manufacturers will
be added in the run up to Christmas.
Omnifone sets compelling Asia-Pacific pricing to encourage legal
music consumption
Omnifone has set special pricing for MusicStation across
Asia-Pacific countries which will encourage legal music consumption
across the region. 3 MusicStation users will pay just HK$12 per week*
for unlimited access to the largest catalogue of local and
international music available in Hong Kong.
Sandy Monteiro, Senior Vice President (ASEAN), Vice President -
Digital (South East Asia excluding China), Universal Music Group
International said, "Asia-Pacific is a huge market for the music
industry, but piracy issues have stifled the growth of legal music
sales in recent times. The widespread acceptance of the mobile phone
as a device to experience music in the region is providing a great
opportunity for the industry to get a better sense of the true value
of music.
The arrival of 3 MusicStation is timely; it's a compelling music
experience on mobile with competitive pricing, easy to use, widespread
access to exciting content, and is available to virtually all music
mobile handsets. As the leading player in the market, Universal Music
will benefit greatly from the launch of 3 MusicStation in Hong Kong
and its rollout across the region, as will music in general."
JF Cecillon, Chairman & CEO, EMI Music International said,
"Subscription based mobile music services are more established in
Asia-Pacific than in many other parts of the world. The launch of 3
MusicStation in Hong Kong is a great opportunity for EMI and its
artists to be a part of this burgeoning market and to help drive the
development of legal music consumption."
Lachie Rutherford, President, Warner Music Asia-Pacific, said, "In
order to meet the challenges posed by illegal copying of music in this
region, we need to develop attractive legitimate alternatives. 3
MusicStation provides Warner Music Asia-Pacific with a great way to
tap into this market via a convenient, easy-to-use and well-priced
service that provides consumers with a compelling mobile music
experience."
Ruuben van den Heuvel, Senior Vice President, Digital and New
Business Development, Sony BMG Music Entertainment Asia said, "We are
delighted that 3's customers can now enjoy the rich music offering
that MusicStation enables. Millions of music fans in Hong Kong being
connected to music 24/7 provides the best way for Sony BMG to continue
to enrich the lives of many through the incredible creativity of our
artists."
Full Traditional Chinese implementation for 3 MusicStation
Confirming Omnifone's strategic focus on localisation, Omnifone
confirms the 3 MusicStation service features a full Traditional
Chinese interface in addition to an English language interface. The
implementation of wide handset reach double-byte character support
will also assist other proposed rollouts in Asia-Pacific. The 3
MusicStation service will also be supported by a local Omnifone
editorial team providing full editorial support for localised music
news and content, a key characteristic of every MusicStation rollout.
The Asia-Pacific market
Asia-Pacific is the world's fastest growing digital music market,
now accounting for 25% of global digital sales. Although PC and
broadband penetration is fragmented across the region, Asia-Pacific
has a vibrant mobile culture with many consumers purchasing between
two and three new handsets every year. Asia-Pacific boasts the highest
levels of 3G penetration in the world with 53% of mobile subscribers
in Japan and 35% of mobile subscribers in South Korea currently using
3G handsets. (Source: IFPI Digital Music Report 2007).
Though low iPod penetration and the lack of any iTunes stores in
Asia-Pacific (outside of Australia, Japan and New Zealand) means that
many consumers chose to copy or side-load music rather than purchasing
tracks legally, subscription based streaming and download services
have proved popular throughout the region. There is a strong
opportunity for mass market subscription based music services which
can in turn promote the take-up of legal music consumption across the
region.
Robin Bloor, international IT analyst with Bloor Research said,
"Setting a very low weekly subscription fee for 3 MusicStation is a
sensible move. It will be seen as an incentive for mobile users in
Asia-Pacific, who rarely pay for music on PCs or MP3 players. The
Asia-Pacific market is predicted to be the largest for digital music
over the next few years. Launching with 3 Hong Kong allows Omnifone to
leverage this developed part of Asia-Pacific where 3G penetration
levels are high, to gain a strategic foothold in the region.
MusicStation's subscription based model is likely to help 3 Hong Kong
hold on to customers, reducing churn and incrementally increasing
ARPU+ from music. Other operators will surely follow as digital music
becomes a clear differentiator. Asia-Pacific is not scheduled to get
the iPhone any time soon - maybe not for years - so Omnifone is
stealing a march on Apple's iTunes in an important market, where
iTunes has no significant footprint."
Further MusicStation rollouts imminent
The 3 Hong Kong launch comes just weeks after Vodafone announced
that it will roll out MusicStation in the UK in November. Further
rollout announcements will be made imminently.
Omnifone is working with 27 other mobile network operator partners
to rollout MusicStation across 40 European, Asia-Pacific and African
countries including; Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands,
New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia,
Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.
*Subscribers pay a small weekly fee of just HK$12 including data
charges, directly through their existing 3 contracts. 3 MusicStation
is available to download to new and existing mobiles from 3 Hong
Kong's 3G portal. 3 MusicStation handsets will be available in 3 Hong
Kong stores.
**See 3 MusicStation handset range below.
+ Average revenue per user (ARPU)
Notes to editors
About 3 MusicStation
3 MusicStation will run on virtually all 3/3.5G music compatible
mobiles. 3 MusicStation's user interface and functionality are
virtually identical across all manufacturer handset models, providing
the same intuitive user experience on every handset.
Built-in networked functions, including the ability to share
playlists with other users, mean that 3 MusicStation delivers a truly
compelling music experience on the mobile for the first time in
Asia-Pacific. 3 MusicStation customers will be able to build a
music-based social network, where they can create a profile and
message their friends with track and playlist recommendations. 3
MusicStation uses 'collaborative filtering' and 'nearest neighbour
technology' to identify and recommend new tracks, artists and
playlists that users are likely to be interested in.
Downloaded 3 MusicStation tracks and user playlists are stored
centrally so that if a 3 Hong Kong customer's mobile is stolen, lost
or upgraded, the replacement handset will automatically restore the
customer's music, playlists, friends and preferences the first time 3
MusicStation is switched on.
3 MusicStation automatically stores a customer's favourite tracks
on the phone's internal or removable memory. Whilst some phones can
store thousands of tracks, others store less than one hundred. 3
MusicStation maximises the capabilities of any mobile phone using
unlimited downloads from the network to provide access to any of the
catalogue at any time. 3 MusicStation's technology also ensures that
the memory allocated on the phone is always used to store the
customer's favourite and about-to-be-played music. This means that
users can listen to their favourite tracks when in Flight Safe mode
and have unlimited access to the full catalogue when connected to a 3G
or 3.5G network.
About Omnifone
Award winning 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 (AYCE) 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 winning the prestigious Music Service Award
Meffy, at Mobile Entertainment Market (MEM) 2007 in Monte Carlo on 5
June 2007 and also the Red Herring 100 award. The company has an
established network of 30 partner networks, reaching across 40
countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa. 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,
Scotland, Sweden, Hong Kong and South Africa. For further information,
please visit www.omnifone.com.
About 3 Hong Kong and Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong)
Limited
Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited ("Hutchison
Telecom Hong Kong"), a subsidiary of Hutchison Telecommunications
International Limited*, is one of the leading mobile operators in Hong
Kong with over 2 million subscribers. It provides 3G and 2G services
under the "3" brand.
Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong has always been a pioneer in the
evolution of mobile development, deploying multiple technologies in
Hong Kong since 1985, including 1G analogue (AMPS/TACS), 2G digital
(GSM/CDMA), 2.5G high speed data transmission (GPRS/IS95B) and 3G
video mobile communication services (WCDMA). It was the first operator
in Hong Kong to roll out a world-class 3G service, forming an integral
part of Hutchison Whampoa Group's global 3G footprint. With the launch
of 3G services in January 2004 under the "3" brand, Hutchison Telecom
Hong Kong has firmly established its leadership position in the 3G
market in Hong Kong, providing a rich portfolio of ground-breaking
video mobile communication services, superb network quality and
extensive automatic international roaming and data roaming coverage.
For more information about "3", please visit the "3" website at
www.three.com.hk.
*Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited is listed in
New York and Hong Kong and is a subsidiary of the Hutchison Whampoa
Group.
3 MusicStation handset range at launch
Sony Ericsson W660i
Sony Ericsson K530i
Sony Ericsson W880i
Sony Ericsson K810i
Sony Ericsson Z610i
Sony Ericsson K610i
Sony Ericsson K800i
Sony Ericsson T650i
Sony Ericsson W910i
Sony Ericsson K770i
Nokia N73
Nokia 6120
Nokia N95
Nokia E65