Thumbplay News

EXEC DEPARTS APPLE TO LEAD TECH FOR NEW CLOUD-BASED MUSIC SERVICE, THUMBPLAY MUSIC

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:28:00 +0000

-- Pablo Calamera Named Chief Technology Officer at Thumbplay --

NEW YORK – 1 March 2010– Pablo Calamera has been appointed to the newly-created role of Chief Technology Officer for Thumbplay, the leading mobile entertainment company in the U.S. Calamera joins Thumbplay from Apple^® Inc where he oversaw technology development for MobileMe^SM, a pioneering, cloud-based data-syncing product for iPhones^®, PCs and Macs^®. As of March 8, 2010, Calamera will be based in New York, reporting to Evan Schwartz, Thumbplay CEO and Co-Founder.

Calamera brings with him more than 25 years experience in PC, Mobile, set-top box and cloud-computing–this includes a total of 10 years at Apple, six years at Danger (acquired by Microsoft) and two with WebTV (also acquired by Microsoft). Calamera will have oversight of all technology initiatives for the company, including its recently launched Thumbplay Music. Thumbplay Music is a cloud-based service that provides unlimited, on-demand access to millions of songs and is now offered in the U.S. in Private Beta by invitation-only (http://music.thumbplay.com).

Commented Schwartz: “We are thrilled to have Pablo join our team. He has unique experience with Apple, Danger and WebTV in delivering and syncing content across multiple platforms for a scaled customer base. He has also managed major integrations with U.S. and international carriers; an area of ongoing strategic importance for us. Over the course of his career, he has done an extraordinary job of building state-of-the-art consumer products and services from concept to completion. Technological innovation is paramount to Thumbplay, and Pablo’s talent, experience and commitment to excellence will play a vital role in keeping us at the forefront of mobile entertainment offerings.”

Remarked Calamera: “Thumbplay has an incredible talent pool, and they have done a remarkable job in building robust, feature-rich services that deliver beautifully across multiple platforms. This is a very difficult thing to do, and I have been consistently impressed with the energy, smarts and creativity on display. I am greatly looking forward to working with Evan and the entire Thumbplay team to deliver against our very ambitious goals for the future.”

Calamera most recently served as Director of Apple’s MobileMe, a mass scale premium consumer service providing client/server solutions that are integrated into devices, operating systems and desktop applications. MobileMe supports millions of worldwide active users on a daily basis. Prior to Apple, from 2001–2006, he was the Senior Director of Service Engineering and Support for Danger Inc., where he lead the service engineering team for the first real consumer smartphone - the Sidekick. Before that, he was at NotifyMe Networks as CTO and Vice President of Engineering for a trailblazing voice alerting application service provider (ASP) which, for the first time, brought the dynamic/interactive power of the Internet to every telephone. He has also served in critical roles at AT&T Labs, WebTV Networks and also held previous positions at Apple early in his career.

Thumbplay’s latest offering, Thumbplay Music, is currently available on select BlackBerry^® smartphones and its companion app for PCs/Macs is available through a downloadable Adobe^®AIR^® version. Thumbplay Music is a next generation service, built by experts in mobile content delivery and will be available for BlackBerry, Android^™ and iPhone smartphones within the first quarter of 2010. Today, the service has more than 8 million tracks under license from EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group and more than 25,000 independent labels.

Thumbplay Inc., which enjoys sustained profitability, has an award-winning service centered on delivering millions of pieces of mobile content to 95 percent of U.S. devices among every major carrier. Thumbplay will leverage its existing network of more than 8,000 distribution partners to promote Thumbplay Music.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY

Thumbplay, Inc. is defining the mobile entertainment experience for U.S. consumers. Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

THUMBPLAY’S CHRIS PHENNER JOINS DIGITAL MUSIC FORUM EAST PANEL TO DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF MOBILE APPS AND MUSIC

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:00 +0000

Phenner’s Participation Comes on the Heels of the Launch of Thumbplay Music

NEW YORK – February 9, 2010 – Chris Phenner, EVP of Business Development for Thumbplay^®, will speak on the future of mobile music at Digital Music Forum East (www.digitalmusicforum.com/east/) on February 24^th, 2010 in New York City. Thumbplay, the leading mobile entertainment company in the U.S., recently launched Thumbplay Music^TM, a cloud-based music service that provides unlimited, on-demand access to millions of songs and is now offered in Beta by invitation-only (request at http://music.thumbplay.com). Thumbplay Music is a next generation music service, built by experts in mobile content delivery to serve the rapidly growing market of U.S. smartphone users which is forecasted to grow to 160 million people by 2013.**

PANEL TOPIC - MOBILE APPS: What's Next?

Music apps for smart phones and social networks are the hot new way for artists to keep fans updated with new information, exclusive videos, chat rooms, and Twitter-style news feeds. This panel will discuss the opportunities around music apps with a focus on how artists and labels and using apps to promote and even distribute music. How is Apple's App Store evolving? What can we expect with the launch of the RIM/BlackBerry and Android app stores? What kind of innovation are we seeing with apps in overseas markets? What is the next frontier of mobile apps and the music industry?

About Chris Phenner

Phenner has nearly 15 years experience in software, digital media and online subscription services. Prior to Thumbplay, Phenner was director of business development at Audible, Inc., business development manager at CNET Networks' Download.com; and, prior to that, served as director of business development at Napster (1.0). He was also business development manager at RollingStone.com and in marketing with Spyglass, Mosaic's original licensor. Phenner has a B.A. in Political Science from Miami University and an MBA from a dual-degree program with U.C. Berkeley and Columbia University.

Panelists:

Chris Phenner, EVP, Business Development, Thumbplay

Syd Schwartz, SVP Global Digital Marketing, EMI North America
Mike Scogin, VP, Wireless, MTV Mobile at MTV Networks
Pete Watson, Sr. Bus. Dev. Manager, Research in Motion Limited (RIM) / BlackBerry
Jim Rondinelli, SVP, Strategic Development, Slacker
Moderator: Aydin Caginalp, Partner, Ent. & Media Group, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Media interested in attending the panel can register at http://www.dmwmedia.com/form/press-registration-2010.

THE ECHO NEST and THUMBPLAY PARTNER FOR MUSIC DISCOVERY FEATURES

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:00:00 +0000

 The Echo Nest, a music intelligence platform that helps developers make online music smarter, announced today that it is enabling advanced music discovery for the new Thumbplay Music service.  The Echo Nest is powered by the world's first machine learning system for music that actually reads about music and listens to music everywhere on the web. At http://developer.echonest.com/  developers can easily tap into this deep musical understanding to create more intelligent, engaging and interactive music applications.  cloud-based Thumbplay Music provides unlimited, on-demand access to millions of songs and is now offered in Beta in the U.S. by invitation-only (request at http://www.thumbplay.com/) Thumbplay and The Echo Nest are working together to offer users a wide range of music discovery and interactive playlisting experiences.  Notably, the new service includes AutoPlaylist, the first mobile application of its kind in the U.S., which allows users to instantly-generate playlists based on a single, selected track.

Thumbplay Music is currently available on select BlackBerry^® smartphones and its companion app for PCs/Macs^® is available through a downloadable Adobe^®AIR^® version. Thumbplay Music is a next generation service, built by experts in mobile content delivery and will be widely available on BlackBerry, Android^™ and iPhone^® smartphones within the first quarter of 2010. Today, the service has more than 8 million tracks under license from all major labels and more than 25,000 independent labels.

AutoPlaylist applies The Echo Nest’s combined understanding of a song’s musical attributes, such as tempo, instrumentation, key, time signature, energy, harmonic and timbral structures along with cultural attributes such as an artist’s popularity and fan base, resulting in the most comprehensive and intuitive mobile playlisting experience available anywhere. All Thumbplay Music playlists are fully interactive and users can add to, delete or change playlists at any time. In addition, after discovering a new artist, users can listen to full albums on demand. Playlists are also available for offline playback when a network connection is unavailable.

Jim Lucchese, CEO of The Echo Nest said: “We are having a great time collaborating with Thumbplay. Both companies share an obsession with giving fans more immersive, interactive music discovery experiences around Thumbplay’s huge music catalog. We’ve been very impressed with the speed of product development and the incredible growth in their catalog over a very short period of time.”

Added Evan Schwartz, CEO and Co-Founder of Thumbplay: “The brilliant team at The Echo Nest has delivered functionality to Thumbplay Music that has not been realized before on any other mobile service. Now music fans have all of their favorite functions on one service -- unlimited, on-demand music on their smartphones and PCs/Macs, online and offline play, wireless syncing between devices and notably, the incredibly intuitive, dynamic music discovery tools that we built with The Echo Nest. People are very impressed when they see AutoPlaylist in action; and, of course, this is just the beginning of our work together.”

Thumbplay, which enjoys sustained profitability, has built an award-winning service centered on delivering millions of pieces of mobile content to 95 percent of U.S. devices among every major carrier. Thumbplay will leverage its existing network of more than 8,000 distribution partners to promote Thumbplay Music.

ABOUT THE ECHO NEST

The Echo Nest is a music intelligence company co-founded by two MIT Media Lab PhDs, Brian Whitman Tristan Jehan. Powered by the world’s first machine learning platform for music, The Echo Nest makes it easy for developers to build more intelligent, engaging and interactive music applications. The Echo Nest’s customers and partners include leading online music services, record labels and a growing army of the smartest independent application developers in the world. The company is a three-time National Science Foundation SBIR grant winner and is funded by Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Argos Management and angel investors, including two co-founders of the MIT Media Lab.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY

Thumbplay, Inc. is defining the mobile entertainment experience for U.S. consumers. Thumbplay.com features licensed music, video and games from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

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All trademarks property of their respective owners. No partnerships implied. The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited.

THUMBPLAY FORGES 20 NEW CONTENT DEALS FOR JUST-LAUNCHED THUMBPLAY MUSIC; 8 MILLION TRACKS NOW UNDER LICENSE FOR THE CLOUD-BASED, ON-DEMAND SERVICE

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:47:00 +0000

-- Beggars Group, Merge Records, Redeye Distribution, Tunecore and Others Join All Major Labels

to Deliver Unlimited Music for Smartphones/PCs --

NEW YORK – 3 February 2010 – Thumbplay (www.thumbplay.com), the leading mobile entertainment company in the U.S., has forged agreements with 20 new content partners for its new Thumbplay Music application. The number of tracks currently under license for the service now exceeds 8 million. Included in the latest round of content deals for the app are: Beggars Group, Merge Records, Redeye Distribution and Tunecore. The announcement comes just weeks after Thumbplay announced the service’s Private Beta launch with content from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music as well as CD Baby, INgrooves, IODA and The Orchard. Thumbplay Music is a cloud-based, subscription music service that provides unlimited, on-demand access to millions of songs. It is a next generation music service, built by experts in mobile content delivery, to serve the rapidly growing market of U.S. smartphone users, which is forecasted to grow to 160 million people by 2013.**

Thumbplay also announced today that it has closed deals with: AWAL; BFM Digital; DashGo; Dig Dis; E1 Music; Finetunes; IRIS; Nettwerk; Nu Urban; Oseao; Rebeat Digital; Record Union; RouteNote; Sundesire Records, Symphonic Distribution and The state51Conspiracy. As of today, Thumbplay includes more than 25,000 independent labels and more than 75,000 do-it-yourself artists.

Currently, Thumbplay Music is available by invitation-only (request at http://music.thumbplay.com) on select BlackBerry^® Smartphones* and on PCs/Macs^® through a downloadable Adobe^®AIR^® desktop version. The app is scheduled to launch widely to consumers within the first quarter of 2010 and will be available on Android, iPhone and additional BlackBerry smartphones.

Evan Schwartz, Thumbplay CEO and Co-Founder said, “Our goal is to offer music fans the widest selection possible – spanning every genre out there – and to provide an effortless way to discover new artists. I believe the speed with which we’ve been able to close deals for Thumbplay Music speaks to the strength of the app and the great need for a full service, on-demand and portable music experience.”

According to Simon Wheeler, Director of Digital at Beggars Group, “We are extremely proud to include our artists and labels in the new Thumbplay Music service. It delivers on its promise of a great experience for music fans wherever they listen to music. Whether on their smartphones or at their computers, fans of our artists and labels, including 4AD, Matador, Rough Trade and XL Recordings, can listen to new releases the minute they are available. This includes the recent USA number one album from Vampire Weekend as well as Cat Power, The National, The xx and Jarvis Cocker and more great artists from our catalogue like The Pixies, The Cult, Interpol and The Prodigy. Thumbplay Music is a great music service for fans of our original, creative music.”

Redeye Marketing Director, Josh Wittman, added, “Thumbplay Music is a big win for music fans–‘must-have’ tunes are always at hand, and it is a great music discovery tool. You’ll soon be able to find and play music from all of our artists including Liam Finn, Nick Lowe, Robyn Hitchcock, Elliott Smith, The Decemberists, Gossip, DeVotchKa, The Black Keys, Laura Veirs, The Annuals and Pelican–and all right on your phone and PC. We’re delivering content from all of the Redeye labels, including Yep Roc, Luaka Bop, Kill Rock Stars, Ace Fu, Hydra Head, Bomp/Alive and Sargent House. We’re thrilled to be on board with a next generation music service that is worthy of the fans of our great music.”

Thumbplay Music includes its own in-app media player and boasts several compelling features, including:

· Unlimited, on-demand access to any artist or album; includes millions of high-quality songs

· Online and offline smartphone access, listen to music without Wi-Fi^® or network connection. Whether underground or mid-flight, playlists are available for listening offline–delivering true portability

· Effortless playlist creation; add songs or albums to playlists which automatically, wirelessly synchronize across PC, Mac and Smartphone devices

· AutoPlaylist – Instantly generate expert recommendations based on favorite songs; a great way to discover new music

· iTunes^® playlist re-creation within Thumbplay Music’s desktop app. With a few clicks, recreate iTunes playlists and have them available on your PC and smartphone.

· Search – Find music by artist, song, album or genre; includes free previews of all songs

· Favorites – a quick, intuitive way to build a personal music collection that automatically synchronizes between smartphones and the desktop app

The Thumbplay Music service will include a free, three-day trial of its unlimited, on-demand service. Following the trial period, subscriptions are $9.99 per month.
Thumbplay, which enjoys sustained profitability, has built an award-winning service centered on delivering millions of pieces of mobile content to 95 percent of U.S. devices among every major carrier. Thumbplay will leverage its existing network of more than 8,000 distribution partners to promote Thumbplay Music.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY

Thumbplay, Inc. is defining the mobile entertainment experience for U.S. consumers. Thumbplay.com features licensed music, video and games from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

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All trademarks property of their respective owners. No partnerships implied. The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited.

THUMBPLAY MUSIC - PRIVATE BETA - LAUNCHES AT CES 2010; UNLIMITED MUSIC APP "SINGS" ON BLACKBERRY SMARTPHONES AND ON ALL PCs

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:01:00 +0000

-- Leading Mobile Entertainment Provider Delivers Music Service with Unlimited On-Demand Access to Millions of Songs; All Four Major Labels on Board --

LAS VEGAS -- January 7, 2010 – Thumbplay (www.thumbplay.com), the leading provider of mobile entertainment in the U.S., today launched the Thumbplay Music™ application in Private Beta at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The app is being demonstrated at the BlackBerry^® booth at CES (Booth #30851 – LVCC South Hall). Currently available by invitation-only on select BlackBerry® Smartphones* as well as a downloadable Adobe^®AIR^® desktop version (PC/Mac-compatible), Thumbplay Music is a cloud-based, subscription music service that provides unlimited, on-demand access to millions of songs. Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music, as well as CD Baby, INgrooves, IODA, The Orchard and dozens of additional independent labels, will also be featured in the service.

Thumbplay Music is a next generation music service, built by experts in mobile content delivery to serve the rapidly growing market of U.S. smartphone users which is forecasted to grow to 160 million people by 2013.** To request an invitation to join the Private Beta, sign in here: http://music.thumbplay.com/.

Thumbplay Music includes its own in-app media player and boasts several compelling features, including:

- Unlimited, on-demand access to any artist or album; includes millions of high-quality songs

- Search – Find music by artist, song, album or genre; includes free previews of all songs

- Favorites – a quick, intuitive way to build a personal music collection that automatically synchronizes between smartphones and the desktop app

- Online and offline smartphone access, listen to music without Wi-Fi^® or network connection. Whether underground or mid-flight, playlists are available for listening offline -- delivering true portability on BlackBerry smartphones

- Effortless playlist creation; add songs or albums to playlists which automatically, wirelessly synchronize across PC, Mac and smartphone devices

- AutoPlaylist -- Instantly generate expert recommendations based on favorite songs; a great way to discover new music

- iTunes^® playlist re-creation within Thumbplay Music’s desktop app. With a few clicks, recreate iTunes playlists and have them available on your PC and BlackBerry Smartphone.

Evan Schwartz, Thumbplay Co-Founder and CEO said, “We are immensely proud to showcase Thumbplay Music’s Private Beta at the BlackBerry booth at CES. This is, without question, an application BlackBerry Smartphone users will truly embrace and enjoy. Over the last five years, we’ve developed a deep understanding about what it takes to build a successful mobile entertainment product around a sound business model in the U.S., and every ounce of that know-how is going into Thumbplay Music. With the incredible growth and functionality of Smartphones, we are now able to deliver an exceptional music experience -- music the way our customers have long been asking for – a service that is easy-to-use, offers unlimited choice and access, and provides total portability.”

Thumbplay Music will become widely available to consumers within the first quarter of 2010 and the service will include a free, three-day trial of its unlimited, on-demand service. Following the trial period, subscriptions are $9.99 per month.

Thumbplay, which enjoys sustained profitability, has built an award-winning service centered on delivering millions of pieces of mobile content to more than 2,500 devices among every major carrier in the U.S. Thumbplay will leverage its existing network of more than 7,000 distribution partners to promote Thumbplay Music.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY

Thumbplay, Inc. is defining the mobile entertainment experience for U.S. consumers. Thumbplay.com features licensed music, video and games from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

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*As of January 7, 2010, the Private Beta launch of Thumbplay Music supports the following BlackBerry Smartphones: BlackBerry^® Tour™ 9630 (Verizon, Sprint), BlackBerry^® Bold™ 9000 (AT&T) and BlackBerry^® Curve™ 8900 (T-Mobile).

**Yankee Group (2009)

Contact:

Susan Lietz Patrick Durkin

Susan.Lietz@thumplay.com Patrick.Durkin@seismk.com

917.499.5053 212.561.7459

THUMBPLAY’S ARE TRAASDAHL APPOINTED CHAIRMAN; EVAN SCHWARTZ ELEVATED TO CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:38:00 +0000

-- Traasdahl Concentrating on Corporate Development as

Schwartz Takes Day-to-Day Reins and Drives Consumer Launch of Thumbplay Music App –

NEW YORK 16 -- December 2009 -- Following five years of growth, innovation and setting new standards for customer service, Thumbplay’s Founder and CEO Are Traasdahl will now serve as Chairman. Traasdahl will concentrate on Thumbplay’s long-term corporate development, a role he has been transitioning to over the past few months.

Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer Evan Schwartz has been promoted to CEO, effective immediately. Schwartz will oversee all day-to-day operations for the company, including the launch of the new Thumbplay Music application. The company has achieved sustained profitability, with sales of full track music and other advanced content driving the growth.

Thumbplay Board Member Eric Hippeau commented, “We are extremely pleased to elevate Are to Chairman and Evan to CEO. Both have demonstrated tremendous leadership skills as they’ve grown Thumbplay into the leading mobile entertainment service in the U.S. Evan’s 14-plus years of online music experience and his deft marketing prowess make him ideally suited to continue to grow the business and steer the company through the launch of the company’s exciting new music and video products for Smartphones.”

Traasdahl said, “Having seen Thumbplay through its inception and its incredible growth to-date, I’m looking forward to concentrating on big picture development from the perspective of a board member and Chairman. With a focus on long-range growth opportunities, I will continue to help Thumbplay achieve its rightful place as the leading mobile entertainment company. The terrific successes we’ve achieved so far give us a great foundation and I have every confidence that with the extraordinary stewardship of Evan and the talented team at Thumbplay, we will achieve all we’ve set out to do and more.”

Remarked Schwartz: “I’m honored to assume the leadership role at Thumbplay, particularly at such a pivotal time for the entertainment industry. Are and I set out with some pretty ambitious goals, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far. With the advent of Smartphones, the music and video services we have been dreaming about for the last 10 years are finally possible and consumers are ready for them. Moving forward with Scott Marshall, our COO/CFO at my side, and the rest of our great team, we are well-positioned for the future.”

The company launches Thumbplay Music, an application which provides anytime-anywhere access to digital music via Smartphones and computers, to a wide consumer audience early in 2010.

Thumbplay is the leading mobile entertainment service in the U.S., offering personalization content for more than 250 million mobile customers. Its direct-to-consumer service is accessible on more than 2,500 mobile devices among every major carrier in the U.S.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay, Inc. was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY

Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer mobile entertainment service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

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THUMBPLAY'S MICHAEL BIONDO NAMED CUSTOMER SERVICE EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR BY THE CUSTOMER SERVICE INSTITUTE OF AMERICA

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:37:00 +0000

Pre-Eminent Customer Service Organization Recognizes Thumbplay, the Leading Mobile Entertainment Provider in the U.S.

NEW YORK — December 2, 2009 — Michael Biondo, Vice President of Customer Service for Thumbplay, the leading mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., has been named Customer Service Executive of the Year by the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) . The awards are presented from the International Council of Customer Service Organizations though the CSIA. The International Service Excellence Awards are recognized as the most prestigious awards within the customer service industry. Previous CSIA award winners in this category include Sheila Harrell of FedEx, and Jane Judd of Zappos.com.

Biondo, who has been at Thumbplay since 2006, is responsible for ensuring that Thumbplay customers receive an extraordinary level of service. He oversees all of the touch points for Thumbplay’s 365-day-a-year customer service -- including phone, e-mail and live chat services – giving people multiple, convenient ways to reach Thumbplay and receive swift assistance. Biondo instills a solution-oriented culture of respect for anyone who contacts the company. This unwavering dedication to the customer is behind his recognition from the CSIA.

“Our top priority at Thumbplay has always been to deliver a positive customer experience,” says Evan Schwartz, Thumbplay Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer. “Under Michael’s stewardship, we have developed a number of innovative and highly-personal ways to communicate with people. Of course, the best measure we have of our success is the customers themselves. We consistently get terrific feedback from them, whether it is about the best way to download music to their Smartphones, or how to set the ideal resolution to play videos on their devices. I am thrilled that the CSIA agrees with our customers and is recognizing Michael’s outstanding achievements with this prestigious honor.”

“Our judges were exposed to some exceptional approaches to creating outstanding customer experiences and are always pleased to see the customer service profession receive the attention and accolades it deserves for contributing to the customer experience as well as an organization’s bottom line,” says Brett Whitford, Secretary-General, International Council of Customer Service Organizations. “This year’s award winners have demonstrated that they are leaders in customer service and are worthy of our top awards.”

The Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) is the body delegated by International Council of Customer Service Organizations (ICCSO) to manage the 2009 International Service Excellence Awards. These awards are the world’s peak customer service awards with leading customer service organizations and individuals around the globe being nominated in a variety in categories to recognize their commitment to customer service excellence. These awards are sought after by government, not-for-profit and for-profit organizations of all sizes and across all industries globally.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY

ABOUT CSIA

The Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) provides organizations with education, certification and recognition in the field of customer service. CSIA is the professional body of choice for customer service leaders seeking professional recognition through the attainment of internationally recognized industry qualifications, certifications and awards.

CSIA is the US Representative body on the International Council of Customer Service Organizations (ICCSO) and had the honor of hosting the 2008 International Service Excellence Awards™ at the NACCM on November 17th, 2008. Judged using the International Customer Service Standard criteria, these awards are the world’s peak customer service awards. Leading customer service organizations and individuals around the globe are nominated in a variety in categories to recognize their commitment customer service excellence. www.serviceinstitute.com

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Thumbplay Supports Adobe "Strobe"

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:47:00 +0000

Today, Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE) announced the global media companies, content delivery networks (CDNs), publishers and advertising networks which are embracing Adobe’s open framework for building custom media players – Thumbplay among them. Code-named “Strobe”, the new framework will help establish an industry standard for media players and offers production-ready components to streamline the development process, reducing the time content publishers spend creating playback technologies. Click HERE to see the Adobe announcement.

Remarked Thumbplay’s Chris Phenner (EVP, Business Development):

“Thumbplay relies on the Flash Platform™ for our web site’s audio and video samples, for widgets that Thumbplay OPEN provides to artists to sell mobile content, and for the Flash Lite titles we sell – Thumbplay is living the Open Screen Project’s strategy every day. Strobe is a great framework that we plan to leverage to help sites monetize and extend their embedded video players to include mobile features.”

Billboard: ON EVERY SITE A RINGTONE

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:11:00 +0000

ON EVERY SITE A RINGTONE
A New Service Extends the Reach Of A Faltering Mobile Music Format
By Anthony Bruno for BILLBOARD
May 11, 2009

Ringtone Sales are dropping sharply but record labels and mobile content providers are doing everything they can to shore up sales.

Several mobile carriers have begun offering a make-your-own-ringtone service from provider mSpot. Labels like Warner Music Group have explored bundling ringtones with full-song download sales. And services like Myxer have even tried ad-supported ringtones.

Now, The mobile content provider Thumbplay has quietly unveiled a new service called OPEN Pro that allows labels to sell ringtones almost anywhere online without striking deals with each wireless operator. OPEN Pro is an extension of a tool Thumbplay launched in September that allows unsigned artists to sell ringtones by uploading their content to the Thumbplay system.

“It helps labels and artists’ managers sell mobile content from the Web sites they manage,” says Thumbplay director of business development Mike Park. “It’s basically a way for them to keep track of sales for all their labels, drill down into specific artists and track performance.”

Even when ringtone sales were still growing, the format faced two key distribution bottlenecks. The vast majority of sales came through mobile operators, which maintain complete control over which artists get prime placement on their crowded mobile entertainment menus. That inevitably leads to a focus on chart-topping artists, at the expense of others.

Bypassing the carriers and selling directly to fans brought its own set of challenges, most important of which was that ringtones have to be formatted for each mobile handset and mobile network.

Thumbplay is breaking through these logjams. It has agreements to deliver ringtones to each mobile operator and has the ability to determine the proper format based on the user’s phone. It also has partnerships with music sites like AOL, MTV, Clear Channel Online, MSN and iLike, so that tracks listed on these sites carry a “buy ringtone” link from Thumbplay.

The new OPEN system allows labels to add that same buy link to any service that doesn’t already have a deal with Thumbplay, including the artist’s own Web site, Twitter and MySpace Page. It also includes a widget creation tool that gives fans the ability to sell their favorite artist’s ringtones from their own blogs and social-networking profiles. Labels can use the OPEN content management and data reporting systems to track ringtone sales across a variety of sites. Thumbplay hopes to add mobile full-track downloads to the OPEN Pro program in a few months.

Thumbplay takes a cut of each sale. And while it sells a la carte ringtones, its primary business model is signing up fans to a monthly $10 subscription plan through which users get credits that can be redeemed for ringtones, games and other mobile content. Labels get the same amount per ringtone whether it’s sold a la carte or downloaded through a subscription.

To enlist the help of labels in growing its subscriber base, the OPEN Pro service pays labels a bounty for each new Thumbplay subscriber acquired through their artists’ widgets.

A&M/Octone tested the service late last year with a campaign for Hollywood Undead. Ringtones for developing artists usually get little attention on carrier-controlled ringtone menus, so Rome Thomas, head of sales and artist development at the label, was looking for a “back door” of sorts to the mobile market. Using Thumbplay’s widget to drive sales from the artist’s site, as well as other social network outlets, was exactly what he needed.

“Thumbplay gives me the opportunity to make an amount of mobile revenue via all of our Web surfaces,” he says. “I’m always looking at how to be more competitive on the mobile side.”

As a result, the campaign saw an 8% conversion rate of those clicking through to the “buy ringtone” link and completing a purchase, about four times the average.

But Thomas says the bounty for new subscribers has proved to be the more interesting opportunity.

“The bounty income was more compelling than the per-unit sales of an a la carte product,” he says. “We’re making a significant, very high dollar amount per acquisition, and we’re also being paid on the back end for each piece of content sold. This affiliate fee was higher than any other affiliate fee that I’ve ever seen from any of our online retailers.”

To date, ringtone sales have focused on mining more revenue out of radio hits. If programs like Thumbplay take off, the faltering format my find some relief in the long tail.

Thumbplay "OPEN Pro" Launched for Music Labels, Artist Managers - Makes Digital Music Sales Quick + Easy

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:33:00 +0000

NEW YORK - MAY 11, 2009 - Thumbplay, the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., today launched Thumbplay OPEN Pro (http://open.thumbplay.com), a first-of-its-kind online marketing tool that makes it effortless for music labels, artist managers and media companies to sell their digital content to millions of mobile customers. By using the tools within the Thumbplay OPEN Pro service, which are free and available for the first time anywhere, content owners have access to more than 230 million mobile customers in the U.S.

From just one interface, users can now manage online and mobile marketing campaigns for multiple artists across multiple websites and they have access to detailed traffic and sales reporting. Moreover, within Thumbplay’s OPEN Pro service, the company has introduced the new Widgetron™ widget maker, an automated tool that allows users to create widgets with custom sizes, colors and playlists with a click of a button. Content owners generate income two ways: content sales and customer referrals.

Thumbplay built OPEN Pro in collaboration with several of its partners to ensure that the service addressed their needs. In particular, Universal’s A&M/Octone Records beta-tested the Widgetron for the Hollywood Undead release “Swan Songs,” which has famously built much of its considerable steam online.

Rome Thomas, Head of Sales & Artist Development for A&M/Octone said: "Wherever a Hollywood Undead fan exists online, we’re there with a number of promotional and commercial offers for the band's growing worldwide community. Thumbplay's OPEN Pro customized widget has given us a channel to better merchandise Hollywood Undead mobile, creating sizeable revenue and adapting our strategy for a number of other A&M/Octone artist mobile campaigns."

Added Are Traasdahl, CEO and Founder of Thumbplay: “With Thumbplay OPEN Pro, we’ve taken Thumbplay’s greatest expertise -- reaching hundreds of millions of mobile customers who are hungry for great entertainment -- and we’ve put it in the hands of every marketing team out there. It is not only extremely easy to use; it saves time, generates money, and ensures that fans have broad and instant access to the content they love. It’s the ultimate Thumbplay win-win.”
-- more --

Page Two of Two: Thumbplay OPEN Pro Launched

Thumbplay OPEN Pro features include:

Dynamic Landing Pages – Add purchase links to websites, emails, Twitter and social profiles in less than five minutes. Create customized pages for every band and every song.
Widgetron™ Widget Maker – Create and manage multiple widgets from a single dashboard; customize playlists, colors, sizes and purchase options, including a-la-carte.
Thumbplay API – Build custom, rich experiences into websites and mobile apps.
Reporting Console – Track and compare every click on purchase links, widgets and campaigns with detailed, daily reports.

Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library is accessible on more than 2,500 mobile phones among every major carrier in the U.S., reaching more than 230 million U.S. wireless subscribers. The company has maintained and grown its leadership position by delivering an optimal user experience, which includes its live, “24/7/365,” customer service and an unparalleled catalog of mobile entertainment options. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY
Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site. The recently-launched Thumbplay OPEN provides artists, music labels, developers and Web site publishers the tools to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at http://www.thumbplay.com/ or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

# # #

Spice Things Up With Music From Thumbplay For Cinco De Mayo

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:50:00 +0000

-- Festive Mobile Content Brings a Fiesta to Your Phone --

NEW YORK – APRIL 30 – Thumbplay, the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., is celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a broad selection of party content on this festive holiday. Make your mobile phone the life of the fiesta with downloadable MP3s, graphics, videos and more.

Check out some of the spicy party MP3s and Mexican pride graphics
on Thumbplay.com – the hotspot for all Cinco de Mayo mobile content. It’s a fiesta for your phone! ¡Viva el Cinco de Mayo!

MP3s to get the party started:

Fun Mexican Pride Graphics:

Top Regional Tones:

Fun Tones:

Music Videos:

Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library is accessible on more than 2,500 mobile phones among every major carrier in the U.S., reaching more than 230 million U.S. wireless subscribers. The company has maintained and grown its leadership position by delivering an optimal user experience, which includes its live, “24/7/365,” customer service and an unparalleled catalog of entertainment options. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

# # #

Thumbplay Names Thomas Tracey Vice President, Product

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:12:00 +0000

NEW YORK -- March 23, 2009 -- Thumbplay (www.thumbplay.com), the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., today announced the appointment of Thomas Tracey as Vice President, Product. He reports directly to Evan Schwartz, Thumbplay’s co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer.

Tracey will spearhead the development and introduction of new products, particularly in the area of advanced media such as MP3s and videos. He will also ensure the continued delivery of best-in-class mobile entertainment services for smartphones and mobile devices. Tracey joins Thumbplay from Vindigo, where, as director of product development, he managed a portfolio of cross-carrier and cross-handset mobile applications including MapQuest Mobile, The New York Times, NBC Weather, Vindigo City Guide, MovieGoer and Plaxo.

“Thomas is an accomplished addition to Thumbplay, home to the industry’s best and most innovative team of professionals,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and Founder of Thumbplay. “He will play an important role as we continue to evolve our products while simultaneously preserving the exceptional entertainment experience our customers have come to expect.”

Tracey will leverage his deep experience in web and mobile product development to further enhance the Thumbplay customer experience across all platforms. Prior to his time at Vindigo, he spent six years in various product development and sales positions with Yesmail, an InfoUSA company, where he was responsible for the strategy, development and support of Yesmail’s online marketing products and services.

Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library is accessible on more than 2,500 mobile phones among every major carrier in the U.S., reaching more than 230 million U.S. wireless subscribers. The company has maintained and grown its leadership position by delivering an optimal user experience, which includes its live, “24/7/365,” customer service and an unparalleled catalog of entertainment options. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

About Thumbplay
Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site. Thumbplay OPEN provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers (open.thumbplay.com).

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

###

ARTISTdirect Partners With Thumbplay For Mobile Content Downloads

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:49:00 +0000

-- Arrangement Brings Together Two Major Music and Entertainment Ventures --

NEW YORK -- March 17, 2009 -- Thumbplay (www.thumbplay.com), the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., and ARTISTdirect Internet Group, Inc. (www.artistdirect.com), the premiere online resource for music and entertainment news and information, announced today their partnership to offer ARTISTdirect.com visitors direct access to Thumbplay’s extensive catalog of mobile content. Links to mobile content, powered by Thumbplay.com, are now available on hundreds of thousands of artist pages throughout the ARTISTdirect site.

With one of the web’s deepest and broadest catalogues of content, covering every genre of music and film, ARTISTdirect.com has established itself among the top online destinations for 24/7 in-depth coverage of entertainment. ARTISTdirect features one of the largest selections of free music content that ranges from over 10,000 music videos and 7 million albums, tracks and samples to millions of artist pages, as well as news that includes behind-the-scenes interviews, reviews and exclusive artist content with everyone from 50 Cent to Bruce Springsteen.

As the 5th largest Entertainment - Music network property on the Internet according to comScore, the ARTISTdirect Network attracts more than 12 million unique visitors per month. ARTISTdirect’s user demographic is characterized as young, net-savvy and extremely mobile--a highly desirable segment among national advertisers.

“This partnership with Thumbplay gives our visitors and fans access to the best and latest mobile content available,” said Dimitri Villard, CEO of ARTISTdirect Internet Group, Inc. and its parent, ARTISTdirect, Inc. “Thumbplay has been at the forefront of providing first class content and we’re delighted to be in business with them.”

Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library is accessible on more than 2,000 mobile phones among every major carrier in the U.S., reaching more than 230 million U.S. wireless subscribers. The company has maintained and grown its leadership position by delivering an optimal user experience, which includes its live, “24/7/365,” customer service and an unparalleled catalog of entertainment options. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

About ARTISTdirect Internet Group, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, Artist Direct Internet Group (“ADID”) controls some of the Internet’s leading consumer music and entertainment information properties. Its flagship website www.ARTISTdirect.com is the premier destination for all things related to music and film and their artists. Through its rich, multimedia repository of contextually relevant information and entertainment, the company creates deep connections between artists and fans that deliver benefits to both the entertainment consumer and the entertainment industry. ARTISTdirect.com receives over 3 million unique visitors per month while the ARTISTdirect Network, a family of related Web sites, draws more than 12.4 million monthly unique visitors. Featuring the latest hit videos, streams, free downloads, breaking news, in-depth interviews with musicians, actors, filmmakers and film score composers, a huge data base filled with biographies and discographies plus hard-to-find information, as well as CDs, concert and movie tickets for purchase, ARTISTdirect.com is the ultimate resource for anyone with an appetite for finding new and interesting content about their favorite artists and their music and films. ADIG’s other properties include the legendary Ultimate Band List, www.UBL.com, one of the web’s first music properties.

About Artist Direct, Inc.
ARTISTdirect, Inc. (OTC BB ARTD – NEWS) is a publicly-held holding company with two operating subsidiaries: ARTISTdirect Internet Group, Inc. operates one of the largest destination sites on the Internet for music and motion picture news, information and streaming music. ADIG also operates an ad network that is currently ranked 5 in comScore’s ranking of music sites. MediaDefender, Inc. provides intellectual property protection and business information services to major motion picture studios, record labels, television networks, gaming companies and software publishers and Internet marketing services to advertising agencies and other clients.

About Thumbplay
Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site.

The recently-launched Thumbplay Open provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers (open.thumbplay.com).

Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

Media at your Thumbtips

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:58:00 +0000

This Web site is the one-stop destination for your cell phone. From ringtones and videos to wallpapers and games to MP3s, there is a lot to choose from to customize a cell phone.What sets it apart:There are a host of sites offering digital music downloads, but what differentiates Thumbplay is its comprehensive collection of songs. "We have deals with every major record company, independent labels and artists, as well as game and video content providers," said Susan Lietz, vice president for Corporate Communications of Thumbplay. "And specifically, our selection of full-songs, games and videos is really great - so whatever your tastes are, we've got something for you.

"The site includes Aggie fight songs in the music library, and during the election season the site offered Obama ringtones and videos. It is pretty much up to the imagination to what digital music and videos can be found.Thumbplay has great coverage and works with major mobile carrier services. It reaches out to more than 2,500 models, so in all probability your phone will be covered.

"The moment you enter your mobile number, our service 'recognizes' what type it is and provides specific recommendations for the best media for your handset," Leitz said.The customer service on the Web site is top-notch and available at all times. What's great about the customer service is that instead of being greeted by voice recording machines, you get to speak with real people no matter when you call. Customer service is not restricted to phones; it is accessible by text messages.

One feature of Thumbplay is if you are an independent artist or you invented a ringtone, you can sell it on "Thumbplay Open" and get paid for your work. Signing up is free, and the application provides a platform for amateur artists to sell their work. You can also sell mobile applications you developed on Thumbplay.Another function of the site is the "locker." This automatically stores purchases from Thumbplay on your computer. In case you change your phone or lose it, you always retain all your Thumbplay entertainment.

Price:
Thumbplay does not have individual prices for each service.

Instead, you sign up for an account subscription for $9.99 a month. You earn credits, which you can use for any of the services. New subscribers get bonus credits. For example, a subscription will give you 10 credits a month, an MP3 purchase gives you two credits and a ringtone comes for one credit. This gives you a lot of flexibility in choice and lets you browse the huge range of offered entertainment. The flipside of this subscription is if you want only one song, you end up paying more. Subscriptions can be cancelled anytime.

Conclusion:
Thumbplay is an awesome site for people wanting more applications on their phone. Thumbplay.com is one of the best mobile entertainment sites on the Internet and won an award for "Best Mobile Infotainment Portal" for News/Entertainment in Visiongain's 2008 Mobile Entertainment Awards and Conference in London.

Thumbplay's Michael Biondo Wins Stevie® Award for "Customer Service Leader of the Year"

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:19:00 +0000

-- Thumbplay's Unparalleled, 24-7 Customer Service Features
Four Touch Points: Phone, E-mail, Live Chat and Mobile Live Chat --

NEW YORK -- February 10, 2009 -- Thumbplay's unrivaled, 24-7-365 customer service was highlighted at the third annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service on February 9, where the company’s head of Customer Operations, Michael Biondo, won the prestigious Stevie® Award for “Customer Service Leader of the Year.” Thumbplay was also honored as a Finalist in the category of Best Use of Technology in Customer Service.

Thumbplay (www.thumbplay.com), the #1 mobile entertainment provider and destination in the U.S., recently announced several key customer service enhancements and innovations to its award-winning service. Dedicated to providing optimal service to the 24-7 mobile generation, the company recently launched live mobile chat support, a first in the customer service sector. With four touch points – phone, e-mail, live chat and mobile live chat – Thumbplay offers an unparalleled number of options among retailers for helping customers troubleshoot and manage their accounts.

“Thumbplay is committed to delivering the highest-quality service and support for our customers, and Michael and his team have done an extraordinary job of ensuring we deliver on that promise," said Are Traasdahl, CEO and Founder, Thumbplay, Inc. “Our ongoing commitment to technological innovation, exceptional customer service and strategic partnerships continues to pay off for our customers and our company. I am extremely proud of Michael’s accomplishments and we’re honored to be recognized with a Stevie Award.”

The awards are presented by the Stevie® Awards, which organizes several of the world’s leading business awards shows, including the prestigious American Business Awards. Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word “crowned,” winners were announced during a gala banquet on Monday, February 9 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

“This year’s honorees demonstrate that even in challenging economic times, it’s possible for organizations to continue to shine in sales and customer service, the two most important functions in business: acquiring and keeping customers,” said Michael Gallagher, president of the Stevie Awards.

Nominated customer service and sales executives from the U.S.A. and several other countries attended. There are 27 categories for customer service professionals, including Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Customer Service Department of the Year; as well as 41 categories for sales professionals, ranging from Global Sales Leader of the Year to Sales Training Program of the Year to Sales Department of the Year of the Year.

Members of the Awards' Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs selected Stevie Award winners from among the Finalists. Finalists were chosen by business professionals worldwide during preliminary judging.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY
Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site. Thumbplay OPEN provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers (open.thumbplay.com).

Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

ABOUT THE STEVIE AWARDS
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.

Sponsors of the third annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are John Hancock Mutual Funds, Sales Partnerships, and ValueSelling Associates.

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Wallets May Be Light, But Hearts (And Mobile Phones) Are Filled With Love

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:02:00 +0000

-- Thumbplay Data Indicates that the Mobile Generation is Feelin' the Love this Valentine's Day, Despite Tough Times --

NEW YORK -- February 5, 2009 -- Thumbplay (http://www.thumbplay.com), the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., continues to keep a finger on the evidently racing pulses of the mobile generation. Today, the company reports that from November 2008 through January 2009, they have seen a 40 percent rise in love ballad downloads compared to the same period a year ago. Despite depressing economic indicators, it appears romantic indicators are decidedly on the rise heading into Valentine’s Day ‘09.

As of Feb. 4, following is the top love-inspired content helping to spread the “mobile love” at Thumbplay.com and m.thumbplay.com:

Top-Selling Favorite Valentine MP3s:
• Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It”
• Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown”
• Keyshia Cole’s “Heaven Sent”

Top-Selling Love Tunes “Country Style:”
• Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”
• Brad Paisley’s “Waitin’ On A Woman”
• Rascal Flatts’ “Love You Out Loud”

Top-Selling “Naughty or Nice” Videos:
• Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”
• Akon’s “Don’t Matter”
• Robin Thicke’s “Lost Without You”

Top-Selling Valentine’s Day Voicetones:
• “I’m Taken”
• “Cupid Calling”
• “Who Needs A Man”

Top-Selling Tear-Jerkers:
• Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman”
• Lionel Richie & Diana Ross’ “Endless Love”
• Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What love Is”

Top-Selling Anti-Love Downloads:
• Ne-yo’s “So Sick”
• Pussycat Doll’s “I Hate This Part”
• Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love A Bad Name”

Dedicated to providing the best and most sought-after entertainment for the mobile generation and beyond, Thumbplay.com is home to the broadest selection of seasonal content available.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY
Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site. The recently-launched Thumbplay Open provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers (open.thumbplay.com).

Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

# # #

Photobucket and Thumbplay Launch New "Send to Mobile" Service

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:09:00 +0000

-- More Than 25 Million Photobucket.com Visitors Can Easily Send Photos to Phones With Improved Service Powered by Thumbplay --

NEW YORK, January 26, 2009 -- Photobucket, the Web’s premiere standalone photo and video sharing Web site, and Thumbplay, the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S.*, today announced a new “send to mobile” service, providing a two-click solution that enables Photobucket users to customize their mobile phones with photos sent from their Photobucket albums.

For only $1.99, photos posted on Photobucket can now be downloaded as a wallpaper image onto any of the 2,000-plus mobile phones supported by Thumbplay. All images are optimized for consumers’ phones’ screen size and resolution. The process takes just seconds to complete and does not require membership.

“Increasingly, mobile phones are becoming the sole entertainment device of choice for people, a place to store all of their favorite images, music, games and more,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and founder of Thumbplay. “Through Photobucket, it is easier than ever to customize devices and keep favorite memories close at hand.”

Added Alex Welch, president of Photobucket, “Photobucket is committed to making its service available to our users on every possible platform. Thumbplay gives our users another great way to interact with and utilize their Photobucket images in a way that is effortless, fast, and works on the phones of more than 230 million mobile users in the U.S.”

Thumbplay has agreements in place with every major carrier and works on more than 2,000 mobile phones. Thumbplay subscribers that do not currently have a Photobucket account can create one for free at http://photobucket.com/. For more information, please visit http://photobucket.com/mobile.

*Source: Nielsen Mobile’s “Mobile Content Storefront Revenue” Report, Q3 and Q4 2007 and Q1 and Q2 2008(based on non-carrier revenue generation at the top U.S. wireless carriers)

ABOUT THUMBPLAY
Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site. The recently-launched Thumbplay Open provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers.

Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at http://www.thumbplay.com/ or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

About Photobucket
Photobucket is the largest standalone photo and video sharing site, with 45 million unique users worldwide* linking billions of personal photos, graphics, slideshows and videos daily to hundreds of thousands of Web sites, including Bebo, Blogger, Craigslist, eBay, Facebook, Friendster, hi5, MySpace, Orkut, Xanga and many others. In addition to linking content, Photobucket users share their personal digital media by email, instant messaging, and mobile devices. Every day, more than 10 million personal photos, graphics and videos are uploaded to Photobucket for sharing with family, friends and the online world. The company actively moderates content to create a safe environment for its users, partners and advertisers. Photobucket has offices in San Francisco, California and Denver, Colorado and is located online at http://photobucket.com. For the latest feature announcements and news, please visit the Photobucket blog at http://blog.photobucket.com.
*comScore Media Metrix, November 2008

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Thumbplay Ups Chris Phenner to EVP, Business Development

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:23:00 +0000

--Expanded Role Encompasses Content Licensing, Partnerships and Programming--

NEW YORK — January 20, 2009 — Thumbplay, Inc., the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., today named Chris Phenner executive vice president, business development. Phenner, who joined Thumbplay in 2005 and most recently held the title of senior vice president, business development, is responsible for integrated partnerships, content licensing and content programming for the company. He reports to Evan Schwartz, co-founder and CMO.

The role is an outgrowth of Phenner’s accomplishments in securing partnerships for Thumbplay with some of the biggest names in digital media, including AOL, MSN, Comcast, RIM, Adobe, iLike, Clear Channel and some 2,000 self-service partners, thanks to the scale of Thumbplay OPEN. As executive vice president, business development, he will focus on Thumbplay’s category-leading relationships with content partners, expanding the company’s extensive catalog of MP3s, and deepening the company’s catalog of videos, games and graphics.

“In the past three years, Chris and his team have done amazing work developing and launching vital distribution partnerships,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and founder of Thumbplay. “With the launch of Thumbplay OPEN less than five months ago, we are seeing significant overlap in content licensing and distribution partnerships which has made the process far more efficient for our company and our partners. With Chris leading the charge, we expect to see continued momentum and growth. His promotion is well deserved.”

Thumbplay OPEN, launched in September 2008, provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers. As Thumbplay's offering of tools for major label and studio partners continues to expand, many content partners are using Thumbplay OPEN as a means to drive subscribers, in addition to managing their content catalogs through Thumbplay. The success and widespread acceptance of Thumbplay OPEN has expanded Thumbplay¹s relationships to some 2,000 content partners. To learn more about Thumbplay OPEN and view a demo video, visit http://open.thumbplay.com.

Phenner has more than 12 years experience around software, digital media and online subscription services. Since joining Thumbplay in 2005, he has been responsible for driving new customer acquisition via numerous integrated partnerships. Phenner has also been the business lead for Thumbplay OPEN, enabling the self-service upload and sales of mobile content that is delivered over-the-air; opening up a marketplace that is accessible to more than 230 million U.S. wireless subscribers.

Prior to Thumbplay, Phenner was director of business development at Audible, Inc., business development manager at CNET Networks' Download.com and director of business development at Napster (1.0). He was also business development manager at RollingStone.com and in marketing with Spyglass, Mosaic's original licensor.

Phenner has a B.A. in Political Science from Miami University and an MBA from a dual-degree program with U.C. Berkeley and Columbia University.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY

Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site.
Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at http://www.thumbplay.com/ or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

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Exclusive Mobile Downloads from Rihanna, Kanye, Ludacris, The Killers and The-Dream Available Now, Only on Thumbplay

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:40:00 +0000

New York — December 23, 2008 — Five hot new mobile downloads from chart-topping Rap, Hip-Hop, Pop, Alternative and R&B artists will be available exclusively on Thumbplay.com and its mobile site, m.thumbplay.com. These downloads have been made possible through an agreement between Thumbplay, the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., and Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s leading music company.

Effective immediately, fans can download the following:

· Kanye West’s, “Love Lockdown (Outro)”
· Ludacris’, “Press the Start Button”
· Rihanna’s, “Disturbia” (Craig C’s Disturbstamental Mix)
· The Killers’, “Tidal Wave”
· The-Dream’s, “Rockin’ That Thang”

Dedicated to providing the best and most sought-after mobile entertainment, Thumbplay.com is home to the broadest selection of trendsetting content available and is guaranteed to take care of all your mobile entertainment needs.

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Thumbplay Wins a "Best Mobile Infotainment Portal" Award

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:35:00 +0000

THUMBPLAY WINS A “BEST MOBILE INFOTAINMENT PORTAL” AWARD
FOR NEWS/ENTERTAINMENT IN VISIONGAIN’S
2008 MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS AND CONFERENCE

NEW YORK – December 23, 2008 – Thumbplay® (http://www.thumbplay.com/), the #1 mobile entertainment provider and destination in the U.S.*, has won an award for “Best Mobile Infotainment Portal” for News/Entertainment in Visiongain’s 2008 Mobile Entertainment Awards and Conference. Hosted in central London, the Mobile Entertainment Awards recognizes the technologies, companies, innovations and campaigns that have enabled the industry to move forward over the years. The winners were chosen by a panel of judges, not affiliated with either Visiongain or any other participating company, who reviewed all of the submissions and sent in their votes for the winners without conferring with each other.

“Thumbplay’s ongoing commitment to technological innovation, exceptional customer service and strategic partnerships continues to pay off,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and founder of Thumbplay. “This approach has placed us firmly at the forefront of what is happening in mobile entertainment, and it has allowed us to enjoy the accelerated growth recognized today by Visiongain.”

Thumbplay, Inc. is defining the mobile entertainment experience for U.S. consumers. As the largest and fastest growing mobile entertainment content destination, Thumbplay gives consumers access to the broadest and deepest catalog in the industry, spanning audio, video and gaming content from the leading music labels and artists, game publishers and media companies. Its innovative delivery and marketing platform makes it easy for users to discover, manage, store and share mobile content online and on their mobile phones.

Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library features music, videos, games and more. Their award-winning direct-to-consumer service is accessible on more than 2,000 mobile devices among every major carrier in the U.S.

The company has maintained and grown its leadership position in the industry by providing its consumers with the best possible customer experience, including live, “24/7/365” customer service and a commitment to delivering the largest catalog of entertainment possible. Thumbplay’s “locker” service also allows users to automatically back up and store purchased items.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY
Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site. The recently-launched Thumbplay Open provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at http://www.thumbplay.com/ or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

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Billboard and Thumbplay Team Up in Exclusive Deal That's Off the Charts

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:25:00 +0000

-- Thumbplay.com to Exclusively Power Billboard.com Mobile Music Downloads --

NEW YORK – December 11, 2008 – Thumbplay (www.thumbplay.com) – the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S. – and Billboard – the world’s premier music brand – today announced that they have joined forces to offer Billboard.com visitors direct access to Thumbplay’s extensive catalog.

Links to mobile music previews and downloads, available exclusively from Thumbplay.com, will be available on all chart and artist pages throughout the Billboard.com site, effective immediately. Whether you are checking out the latest Hot 100 chart where TI’s “Live Your Life” is #1, a historical chart from 1979 where The Knack’s “My Sharona” is #1 or Zac Brown Band’s #1 Country Song “Chicken Fried,” Thumbplay has you covered. Thumbplay’s unparalleled content library has something to please everyone.

“Thumbplay is thrilled to be a part of this partnership,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and Founder of Thumbplay. “Obviously, Billboard.com is a must-visit online destination for music enthusiasts and, through access to all of our chart-topping artists, we give them a chance to take that experience with them on their mobile phones.”

Billboard Publisher Howard Appelbaum added, “As the authoritative source for music fans, it’s our goal to provide our readers with the deepest possible connection to their music. As of today, with Thumbplay’s extensive library and exceptional service, Billboard.com will deliver the instant gratification fans demand.”

Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library is accessible on more than 2,000 mobile phones among every major carrier in the U.S. The company has maintained and grown its leadership position by delivering an optimal user experience, which includes its live, “24/7/365,” customer service and an unparalleled catalog of entertainment options.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY
Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site. The recently-launched Thumbplay Open provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

ABOUT BILLBOARDNow in its 114th year, Billboard is the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends. Billboard magazine is the flagship property for the brand, which also consists of Billboard.biz, Billboard.com, Billboard en Español, Billboard Chart Alert, Billboard Information Network (BIN), Billboard Directories, Billboard Books, and Billboard Licensing & Events. Billboard’s many strategic partners include Microsoft, Reuters, Sirius Satellite Radio, Telemundo, ABC Radio Networks, AT&T, Sandisk and Billboard sister companies Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. These partnerships leverage Billboard’s proprietary data, charts and information resources to develop broadcast entertainment, digital and mobile platforms and contextual commerce applications that expand Billboard’s franchise and consumer reach. Billboard is published by the Entertainment Group at Nielsen Business Media, a part of The Nielsen Company, a global information and media company.

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Sounds of Faith are Everywhere this Holiday Season, Including Your Mobile Phone

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:01:00 +0000

Faith Hill Debuts Holiday Ringtone, “O Holy Night,” Exclusively on Thumbplay

New York — December 11, 2008 — With a promise to fill hearts and phones with the joyous sounds of Faith this season, Thumbplay launches Faith Hill’s exclusive holiday ringtone, “O Holy Night.“ The song is from her critically-acclaimed new album, Joy to the World, Faith Hill’s first holiday collection.

Fans can download “O Holy Night” exclusively on Thumbplay, either directly from mobile phones by visiting m.thumbplay.com or online at http://www.thumbplay.com/. While there, fans can also try the other mobile downloads from Joy to the World, including:

· “A Baby Changes Everything”
· “Joy To The World”
· “Silent Night, Holy Night!”
· “Holly Jolly Christmas”
· “Little Drummer Boy”

Dedicated to providing the best and most sought-after mobile holiday entertainment, Thumbplay.com is home to the broadest selection of seasonal content available.

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Island Def Jam & Thumbplay Introduce Jay-Z Videos for Mobile Phones

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:58:00 +0000

Chart-Topping Videos Debut Exclusively on Thumbplay

New York — December 2, 2008 — Island Def Jam Music Group, a division of Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s leading music company, and Thumbplay, the one-stop entertainment shop for today’s mobile devices, today announced that, for the first time ever, nine of JAY-Z’s most popular video clips will be available for download on mobile phones exclusively through Thumbplay.com and its mobile site, m.thumbplay.com. The video clips from JAY-Z are available for download immediately, and are made possible through a pre-existing agreement between Thumbplay and UMG. Thumbplay customers can now personalize their mobile phones with a collection of 9 exclusive chart-topping videos from the multiplatinum-selling, Grammy Award-winning artist. These include:

Blue Magic
Dirt Off Your Shoulder
Do It Again (Put Ya Hands Up)
Excuse Me Miss
I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)
I Know
Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
Money, Cash, H**s
Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)

Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library and award winning, direct-to-consumer service is accessible on more than 2,000 mobile devices among every major carrier in the U.S. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site — m.thumbplay.com — receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

Thumbplay's Automated Open Service Is a Hit With Artists & Developers

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:24:00 +0000

-- In Just Two Months, Thousands of Developers and Artists Join Service;

New Marketing Dashboard with Online Reporting System and “Top 10 Charts” API Launch --

NEW YORK – November 20, 2008 – Thumbplay OPEN, which launched in Beta in September 2008, already has thousands of developers and independent artists on board. Today, the company announced the launch of the Thumbplay OPEN online reporting system as well as a “Top 10 Charts” API.

Through the fully-automated Thumbplay OPEN service, anyone – from bloggers, bands and beat makers, to Web developers, marketers and business development executives – can sell digital content to the more than 230 million mobile customers in the U.S. Both independent artists and site publishers/Web developers generate income through OPEN, ranging from $5 - $8 per new Thumbplay subscriber. Artists also receive 50 cents each time their content is downloaded.

Thumbplay OPEN’s new marketing dashboard allows all members to track every click, subscription referral and content download from their Web sites, widgets and social profiles. OPEN developers can now employ Thumbplay’s dynamic landing pages (click HERE for sample landing page), and they can access detailed click-through tracking information, allowing them to test and measure the impact of online marketing campaigns.
In addition to the online reporting system, the service now also offers a “Top 10 Charts” API for developers. This provides an automated way to showcase the “Top 10” music, graphics, videos and games directly from any Web site, mobile site, widget or mobile application.

“It is very gratifying to see the enthusiastic support of our OPEN service by so many developers, business partners and independent artists,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and Founder of Thumbplay. “I believe the enhancements we launched today make it an even greater service.

In particular, the daily reporting tools provide a great way for all OPEN members to assess their marketing efforts, vital in today’s competitive business climate. And, by being fully-automated, we are able to effortlessly continue to expand our offerings and meet the growing demand for the service.”

HOW THUMBPLAY OPEN WORKS:
ARTISTS – In just minutes, independent music and visual artists can begin selling their content. There is no charge to the artists for the service and artists retain all rights to their content. After uploading music and images, artists can see their unique artist page appear on the Thumbplay Web and mobile sites.

Artists are also given access to a number of promotional tools, such as customized widget creation. They can hand-select content, personal images and even preferred colors and buttons for their widgets, reaching millions of new fans through social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, blogs and Web sites. For offline promotion, artists have the ability to promote their content through the Thumbplay GET program. GET allows fans to text “GET,” plus the artist’ name (e.g., “GET TAY ZONDAY”), to 84862 (THUMB) and download the content directly to their phone. Click HERE to see the artist’s demo video. For more information, send a blank e-mail to: artists@thumbplay.com.

DEVELOPERS AND SITE PUBLISHERS -- Web site developers and publishers are able to add mobile downloads to any site, application or widget. They can access the Thumbplay API for rich Web and mobile integrations, while increasing their page views and return visits. Unique tracking parameters for URLs and API keys can be accessed in less than five minutes and generate additional revenue on a same-day basis. For more information, please send a blank e-mail to devs@thumbplay.com.

Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library currently consists of more than 100,000 pieces of licensed content. Their award-winning direct-to-consumer service is accessible on more than 2,000 devices among every major carrier in the U.S.

The company has maintained and grown its leadership position in the industry by providing its consumers with the best possible customer experience, including live, “24/7/365” customer service and a commitment to delivering the largest catalog of entertainment possible. Thumbplay’s “locker” service also allows users to automatically back-up and store purchased items.

Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

LET'S 'CHAT': Thumbplay's Unparalled Customer Service Bolstered; Targets '24-7' Generation

noreply@blogger.com (S. Lietz) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:58:00 +0000

First-of-its-kind Live Mobile Chat and New Spanish Language Services Round Out Thumbplay's Extensive Customer Service Offerings

NEW YORK – November 18, 2008 – Thumbplay® (http://www.thumbplay.com/), the #1 mobile entertainment provider and destination in the U.S., today announced several key customer service enhancements and innovations to its award-winning service. Dedicated to providing optimal service to the 24-7 generation, the company has launched live mobile chat support, a first in the customer service sector. With four touch points – phone, e-mail, live chat and, now, mobile live chat – Thumbplay offers an unparalleled number of options among retailers for helping customers troubleshoot and manage their accounts.

Something to chat about:
For customers who prefer to “IM” their way to a solution, Thumbplay now offers a new mobile chat customer support service. This innovation allows customers to connect to customer service representatives through Thumbplay’s mobile phone Instant Message (IM) service. Subscribers simply need to visit m.thumbplay.com from their mobile devices and click the “live chat” URL under the “Help” area. This service is available on all of the more than 2,000 phones supported by Thumbplay.

In addition to the ability to IM with Thumbplay’s customer support team, the service also provides the following options:

--24/7/365 live voice support (1-877-848-6299). Thumbplay’s North American call center responds in 20 seconds or less more than 80% of the time;

--Expedient e-mail support, with response times averaging less than two hours
Live, IM support on the Thumbplay.com site;

--A do-it-yourself, 24/7/365, self-care section where subscribers receive step-by-step
instructions on how to manage their accounts on-line;

--A robust, 24/7/365, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that answers customers’ questions through a series of voice prompts; and,

--Support with downloading and/or technical issues on more than 2,000 different phones.

¡Nosotros Hablamos Espanol!:
Additionally, to better serve its ever-growing Hispanic customer base, Thumbplay has added new Spanish-language customer support in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) area of the site as well as in its 24/7/365 IVR system.

"Thumbplay is committed to delivering the highest-quality service and support for our customers," said Michael Biondo, Senior Director, Customer Operations. "Customers want fast, friendly and effective service and support. We are proud to offer these new, industry-leading services that will make the customer experience even more convenient."

Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library and award winning, direct-to-consumer service is accessible on more than 2,000 mobile devices among every major carrier in the U.S. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site — m.thumbplay.com — receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.