Vodafone brings Unlimited Music Downloads to the UK With MusicStation - Available on Vodafone UK’s New Christma

* Unlimited music downloads direct to your mobile for just £1.99 per week
* Choice of over 1 million tracks from all the major labels and the leading independent labels available on Christmas handsets
* Exclusive phones with high speed access to the best of the internet including eBay, Googleâ„¢ search, MySpace and YouTube
* Widest choice of 3G and 3G broadband handsets
Vodafone UK today announces that customers will have unlimited access to over a million tracks from all the major record labels, as well as leading independents, on a range of new handsets for Christmas.
This follows the launch of Vodafone Mobile Internet in June this year which brings the best internet brands and services to customers on the widest range of mobiles in the UK. This service has been highly praised by Mobile magazine who rated it the number 1 mobile internet service in a review in August 2007.
Through an exclusive agreement with Omnifone, the UK based mobile music company, Vodafone will roll out their award-winning MusicStation, giving customers the ability to download tracks from Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI Music and Warner Music Group direct to their handsets, even while on the move.
Customers will be able to sign up for unlimited downloads from MusicStation for just £1.99 per week. The service will be easy to use on new Vodafone UK handsets as well as existing 2.5G and 3G mobiles, ensuring that most customers do not need to upgrade their phones to access tracks.
Vodafone UK’s new range of mobiles comprises models from many of the major brands allowing customers access to internet leaders including eBay, MySpace and YouTube on Vodafone Mobile Internet and the best in downloadable music.
Vodafone UK-exclusive handsets include: the new Nokia N95 (8Gb) with its 5 mega pixel camera, the touch-screen activated Samsung F700, and the Sony Ericsson W910i (Havana Gold Design) with its 40Mb memory and innovative shake control, making it perfect for music lovers. The handsets for the UK are from a broader Vodafone Group range announced today.
The MusicStation service will be accessed through Vodafone live! on a wide range of music handsets, including new Christmas models like the Sony Ericsson W910i from November.
“We’re building on the momentum of our Vodafone Mobile Internet launch and our commitment to music through the Vodafone TBAs and our Vodafone Live Music Awards,” says Tim Yates, CMO, Vodafone UK. “Today’s announcement is a first for music on the mobile in the UK and means a fundamental change to the way people experience music on their phones. Vodafone is bringing unlimited music downloads on a wide range of handsets for under £2 a week.
“Our new handsets will enable customers to make the most of both music and Vodafone Mobile Internet services. We have a range of mobiles from value for money pay as you talk handsets to more sophisticated models offering a huge range of features. There will be something for everyone from Vodafone this Christmas.”
“MusicStation is the first mass-market, unlimited mobile music download service in the UK,” adds Rob Lewis CEO of Omnifone. “We are delighted Vodafone is making MusicStation available to its customers on Vodafone music mobile phones ahead of Christmas.”
The backing of the four major music labels and leading independents, coupled with the attractive pricing, means that Vodafone UK customers will have the freedom to make the most of their time and discover new musicians and songs whenever and wherever they wish. MusicStation’s huge catalogue will provide an enormous range of artists and genres while a charge of just £1.99 per week for unlimited downloads lets customers cost-effectively discover new artists and tracks to broaden their musical horizons.
In addition to being an attractive proposition for the customer, the subscription service from Vodafone also marks an important development for the music industry as it means more underground artists will be accessible to the mass market, alongside major artists, for an all-inclusive weekly charge.
Built-in networked functions, including the ability to share playlists and tracks with other people, mean that MusicStation delivers a truly compelling music experience on the mobile for the first time. MusicStation customers will be able to build a music-based social network by receiving gig news and dates, messaging their friends and sending recommended tracks using ‘collaborative filtering’ and ‘nearest neighbour technology’ to identify new tracks and artists others are likely to be interested in.
Downloaded MusicStation tracks and user playlists are stored centrally so that if a customer’s mobile is stolen, lost or upgraded, the replacement handset will automatically restore the customer’s music, playlists, friends and preferences the first time MusicStation is switched on.
MusicStation automatically stores a customer's favourite tracks on the phone's internal or removable memory. Whilst some phones can store thousands of tracks, others store less than one hundred. MusicStation maximises the capabilities of any mobile phone using unlimited downloads from the network to provide access to any of the catalogue at any time. MusicStation's technology also ensures that the memory allocated on the phone is always used to store the customer's favourite and about-to-be-played music. This means that users can listen to their favourite tracks when in Flight Safe mode and have unlimited access to the full catalogue when connected to a 2.5G or 3G network.
MusicStation will be available to download to new and existing mobiles before Christmas. The new range of Christmas handsets will be available in Vodafone and Phones 4u stores and online at www.vodafone.co.uk.
For further information please contact:
Vodafone Group Media Relations
Tel: 01635 664444
Notes to editors:
Music Industry Views:
Rob Wells, Senior Vice President, Digital, Universal Music Group International, says: “MusicStation is the most compelling music experience on mobile today. Rolling out a mobile music service with Vodafone that works on almost any phone and gives users unlimited access to our and other labels’ catalogues, all for £1.99 a week, creates the UK’s first digital music experience on mobile that has true mass market appeal.”
Mike McMahon, Senior Vice President, Commercial & Digital, EMI Music UK & Ireland says: "Millions of Vodafone customers will now have the choice to access music by EMI's artists quickly and easily anywhere in the UK using the MusicStation service on the Vodafone network. MusicStation’s innovative subscription based model has opened up new digital music revenue streams for EMI in the UK market which builds on existing pay per track and streaming models used on mobile."
Eric Daugan, VP, Digital Business, Warner Music Europe says: "Pairing MusicStation's easy-to-use subscription service with Vodafone’s base of 17.4 million UK mobile customers opens up an important new route through which our artists can connect with their fans. Making our content available across multiple media is key as we tap into all the different ways people are now enjoying music.”
About Vodafone UK
Vodafone UK has 17.4 million customers and is part of the world's leading international mobile telecommunications Group, offering a wide range of voice and data communications. The company is committed to providing mobile solutions that allow both consumer and business customers to make the most of now. In addition, Vodafone connects customers across the globe with roaming agreements worldwide. It provides 3G roaming in 29 countries and offers great roaming value with Vodafone Passport. On June 6 2007 Vodafone launched Vodafone Internet On Your Mobile which was rated number 1 mobile internet service in the UK in a review by Mobile magazine*. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.co.uk.
*August 2007
About Omnifone
Award winning mobile music company Omnifone was founded in 2003 by leading technology entrepreneurs Rob Lewis, Phil Sant and Mark Knight. The founders, along with Chairman Jim Feeney, established Omnifone with the aim of bringing legal and affordable digital music to the mass market over the only digital medium that is ubiquitous globally; mobile handsets.
Omnifone's next generation music service MusicStation is a low cost all-you-can-eat subscription-based mobile music service that is pre-installed on participating partner operator handsets and delivers the world's music to most mobile handsets for a small weekly fee. Omnifone uses its unique Device Adaptive Architecture to instantaneously port MusicStation to multiple operator handsets, reducing time to market and giving the highest possible handset reach of any mobile music service globally.
Omnifone has gained global support for MusicStation from the music and mobile industries winning the prestigious Music Service Award Meffy, at Mobile Entertainment Market (MEM) 2007 in Monte Carlo on 5 June 2007 and also the Red Herring 100 award. The company has an established network of 30 partner networks, reaching across 40 European, UK and African countries. Omnifone's founders sold the successful internet software development company Cromwell Media for £850m in March 2000 and subsequently sold Silicon.com and associated European assets they founded, to major online publishers, including NASDAQ-listed CNET Networks. Omnifone has offices in London, Scotland, UK, Sweden, Hong Kong and South Africa. For further information, please visit www.omnifone.com.
UK Christmas Handset Range
Includes:
Nokia N95 8GB
Nokia N81
Samsung F700
Samsung F210
Sony Ericsson W910i
Sony Ericsson V640i
Sony Ericsson W960i
Vodafone 810
Vodafone 716