Omnifone’s MusicStation rocks the Mobile Industry Awards
- Musicstation recognised as Best Mobile Internet Service at Mobile Industry Awards
- 1,800,000 tracks now available on Vodafone MusicStation in the UK
Mobile Industry Awards, London, 6 June 2008 - Omnifone, which provides unlimited music download services in partnership with major mobile network operators and handset manufacturers, has won Best Mobile Internet Service at the Mobile Industry Awards for Vodafone UK’s rollout of its revolutionary unlimited downloads service, MusicStation. Omnifone received the award at the Mobile Industry Awards last night in London.
“We are honoured to receive the Mobile Industry Award for Best Mobile Internet Service,” said Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone. “Partnering with Vodafone has enabled UK consumers to be some of the first on the planet to get unlimited access to a vast catalogue of music, now over 1.8 million tracks, any where, at any time, on a wide range of Vodafone handsets.”
“As one of the first operator’s to rollout MusicStation, Vodafone UK has pioneered the introduction of unlimited music downloads in Europe, fundamentally changing the way people consume music on mobile,” said Al Russell, Head of Mobile Internet and Content Services of Vodafone UK. “Since launching MusicStation in November last year the service has proven a groundbreaking success, with users making millions of track plays on the service each month on a wide range of Vodafone mobiles.”
"Vodafone’s decision to rollout MusicStation was a masterstroke; differentiating it from other UK operator networks with a service that realises the potential of mass market mobile music, dramatically increasing music revenues and providing consumers with the best unlimited music experience available on mobile today,” said Rob Wells, SVP, Digital, Universal Music Group International.
Judges voted for MusicStation over nominations from Google, Nokia Music Store, Yahoo! Connected Life and Sky Mobile TV.
Launched in the UK by Vodafone just seven months ago, MusicStation is the first digital music service providing unlimited music downloads over the mobile data network to virtually all music mobiles for small weekly fee of just £1.99 including data charges or bundled into selected price-plans..
Ends
Notes to editors:
About the Mobile Industry Awards 2008
The fifth annual Mobile Industry Awards event was organised by Noble House Media, publishers of Mobile magazine. The Awards deliver the most authoritative verdict on the UK’s best industry performers, bringing together the biggest and best names in mobile in a rigorous and challenging selection process. Judged by national media, leading trade journalists and industry analysts, the awards have developed a reputation as the industry’s most fiercely contested prizes.
The Awards begin with a survey of both independent and big store retail staff to find out what they think has made the mobile industry sing. No fewer than five panels, populated by big names from the mobile industry and retail sector with panellists drawn from the chiefs of big retailers, operator retailers and independents, right through to smaller dealerships. It’s an exhaustive process, but one that ensures the Mobile Industry Awards delivers the industry’s verdict on excellence..
For full details of the Mobile Industry Awards 2008 please visit:
www.mobiletoday.co.uk/awards2008
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 MusicStation
MusicStation is an unlimited music download service that will run on virtually all
2.5G/3G/HSDPA music compatible mobiles. MusicStation provides a virtually
identical next generation community based user experience across all
manufacturer handsets. Built-in networked functions provide the ability to make
friends, build and share playlists and individual tracks with other mobile users
and receive music news and recommendations based on player behaviour using
collaborative filtering and nearest neighbour technology.
MusicStation stores downloaded tracks on the phone's internal or removable
memory and these and the related meta-data are fully backed up so that if a
user’s mobile is stolen, lost or upgraded, the replacement handset will
automatically restore the customer’s music, playlists, friends and references to
the replacement handset. MusicStation users can listen to downloaded tracks
when in Flight Safe mode and have unlimited access to the full catalogue when
connected to a 2.5G/3G/HSDPA network.
About Omnifone
Omnifone is Europe's leading direct to mobile unlimited music download service provider. Partners include the likes of Vodafone, Telenor, 3 Hong Kong and Vodacom, all of whom have rolled out Omnifone's MusicStation service. In 2007 Omnifone won the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) Music Service Award, Red Herring EMEA & Global 100 Awards, and in 2008, the Juniper Research Future Mobile Award’s Gold Award for Mobile Music, the MAMA Mobile Advertising & Marketing Gold Award for Best Use of Music & Image and the most prestigious award in mobile music; Best Mobile Music Service Award at the Global Mobile Awards, part of Mobile World Congress 2008. Omnifone CEO Rob Lewis is PwC UK Technology, Innovation & Growth Awards 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year. The company is based at Island Studios, London with regional HQs in Asia Pacific. For further information please visit; www.omnifone.com.
Contact details
Omnifone
Tim Hadley
PR Director, Omnifone
Tel: + 44 (0) 797 641 0001
thadley@omnifone.com
Vodafone Group Media Relations
Tel: 01635 664444
