Shazam Goes Down a Storm

Shazam has launched its mobile music discovery application on the BlackBerry Storm. The app features full SurePress touchscreen support and is available to BlackBerry Storm users in the UK, US and Canada. Users can choose from a free, basic version of Shazam with limited functionality, or a full-featured version for $4.99 or £5 one-off fee. The full-featured version includes unlimited Tags, Tag charts, recommendations for similar tracks, biographies of artists, reviews of tagged music, discographies and the option to buy and share discovered music.
Shazam is currently offering a free, seven-day trial of the full-featured version.  All of Shazam’s applications for BlackBerry phones are now available for download directly from Shazam’s mobile website (http://is.gd/IWHh on the BlackBerry browser) and on BlackBerry App World.

Orange in DRM-free Music Move

Orange is to offer up to 2 million Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free music downloads for customers across Europe in a major refresh of its dual mobile and web portal service, the Orange Music Store. 
The new-look ‘Web and Wap’ music store went live in the UK last week, giving customers access to over 700,000 DRM-free tracks through a simpler interface. In a gradual roll-out, Orange will convert its entire catalogue of 2 million tracks from rights-protected to DRM-free. 
The Orange Music Store, first launched in 2005 and present in nine markets, already gives customers dual access on web and mobile to the full catalogue of 2 million downloadable tracks from the world’s largest record companies, including Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music, as well as prominent indie labels.  
All the tracks that appear in the store will now be DRM-free. Customers only need to make one payment to receive two files: a DRM-free MP3 file for the PC and an over-the-air (OTA) download for the mobile phone. They can then use their purchased music however they like, whether listening to it on their mobile phone, sharing it with another PC, burning it to CD or transferring to a personal MP3 player.
Following the UK launch, the new DRM-free Orange Music Store will open in France, Switzerland, Romania, Slovakia, Portugal and other countries throughout 2009. It will have a clearer and simpler format, with enhanced browsing and navigation to make it easier to discover and download music.
“There’s huge consumer appetite for music on the move, and with our DRM-free music catalogue and the new-look Music Store, we have effectively removed all the current barriers preventing customers from enjoying music the way they want to,” says Orange Vice-President of Music, Laurence Le Ny. “By providing a more seamless experience across PC and mobile, our music partners can make their content available to millions of European customers, letting them enjoy a vast collection of music any way they want.”
At launch customers can enjoy DRM-free music through the new portal. In the next phase, the Orange Music Store will also feature improved search, faster billing processes, personalized recommendations, user community features and more.

Isomob Celebrates Flirtfinder Success

Mobile communities and content company Isomob reports that, following the launch of its Flirtfinder.mobi mobile dating solution, it has seen a doubling in the nuber of messages exchanged between users during ther month of June.
Contrary to the current vogue for free or nearly-free mobile social networking platforms, Flirtfinder.mobi charges users to send messages to each other using the PayForIt billing solution The company believes the success of the service is due to its ease of use, which, coupled with convenient micropayments, enables it to fill the gap between casual flirting and serious dating.
“While we have worked hard to get the database to critical mass, the weather certainly made the job much easier,” says Isomob Commercial Director, Alisdair Anderson. “It seems the hot snap has people feeling frisky! Being out and about with a mobile phone gives members the ideal opportunity to interact with one another.”
Towards the end of 2008 Isomob announced a partnership with social networking company 4D Interactive, as part of its strategy to work with leading service providers who have not developed mobile dating platforms in-house. 

Kilrush Launches CSI Miami Mobile Site

FIVE has announced the launch of a mobile Internet site, built and hosted by Kilrush, the newly-formed division of Mobile Interactive Group (MIG), to promote the launch of the new series of ‘CSI Miami’ which premieres on Tuesday 30 June at 9pm on FIVE, marking a first for the broadcaster.
The site, powered by Kilrush’s proprietary mobile publishing technology, features exclusive made-for-mobile content, including a David Caruso ringtone, a selection of wallpapers, video previews and a gallery of images. Every week, the mobile site will be updated with a synopsis of the coming week’s episode.
The site will be marketed across a number of channels to ensure maximum exposure. These includes SMS pushes to FIVE’s opted-in database; online at www.five.tv/csimobile with a clear call to action text MIAMI to 80876; and on air on FIVE, again with the clear call to action to text in to receive a link to the site direct to the viewer’s handset.
“This is the first time we’ve opted to integrate a mobile site to promote the launch of a new series of any FIVE programme,” says FIVE’s Marketing Campaign Manager, Tessa Cannon. “CSI Miami has a broad viewing base and we wanted to provide a more integrated approach to promoting programmes on FIVE. The Kilrush team worked closely with marketing and the digital, technical and creative teams to deliver a great site and we’re planning to integrate more mobile Internet activity for other FIVE programmes throughout the coming year."

Oxygen8 Unveils Club Mobi

Interactive communications company, Oxygen8 Communications, has launched a mobile content portal, Club Mobi, which provides UK brands with access to thousands of ringtones, logos, picture messages and colour images, creating significant new revenue opportunities for businesses without requiring any upfront investment. 
Club Mobi is available as a fully managed solution, or alternatively, businesses can manage the site themselves. Oxygen8 says it will also manage all billing requirements, meaning that companies are free to stay focused on marketing the site to opted-in customers, rather than having to worry about the underlying technical infrastructure. 
Club Mobi currently offers over 11,000 logos, 4,000 picture messages, 2,000 colour images and 1,900 text and animated images, as well as hundreds of polyphonic tones and thousands of true ringtones.
The site is underpinned by Oxygen8’s core technology, the Oxygen platform, which provides UK brands with a ‘one-stop-shop’ solution, enabling them to create fully integrated interactive communications services utilising a variety of different technologies, including WAP, web, voice, video, SMS and MMS. The platform was designed to meet the requirements of customers who need to be able to roll out new services quickly and easily, both locally and internationally. Self-provisioning is at the core of the design of the platform, which means that brands have the option to develop and maintain services themselves, and new applications can be rolled out in just minutes.
“As marketing budgets are reduced and the marketing director comes under increasing board level scrutiny there is a growing demand for highly measurable tools that enable direct consumer interaction without incurring a massive investment,” says Oxygen8 UK CEO Colin White. “Club Mobi enables you to do just this; by using our online WAP Building tool and our vast database of content, you can create the look and feel of the perfect mobile entertainment site, without incurring any major upfront costs.”

Shamzam Updates iPhone App for 3.0

Mobile music discovery provider Shazam has released an updated version of its popular music discovery application on the App Store. The new version uses the iPhone OS 3.0 enhancements to offer iPhone and iPod touch Shazamers expanded features, enhanced functionality and added social networking capability, including access to Twitter. 
Shazam was present at the launch of Apple’s App Store last summer and now has over 7 million users and has accrued over 100,000 user reviews worldwide. The Shazam iPhone app enables users to identify music playing on a hi-fi system, the radio or TV by holding the iPhone towards the music and tapping 'Tag'. Users can buy  music they hear through a link from the tagged songs to iTunes. They can also view related videos and other music content on YouTube; personalize their Tags with a picture; learn more about the music; organise Tags by artist, title, or date; and store  pending Tags for when they don't have a data connection.
The new features include:

• Tweet your Tag: Users can share the tagged song with their followers – enabling them stay up to date with the artist and track details they discover.
• Share a music moment: users can send their Tags as a Postcard to friends who share their musical taste so they can add the Tag to their own collection in Shazam, as well as preview and buy direct in iTunes.
• Track your music journey: Users can see their Tag on Maps inside Shazam, along with their Tag history, to remind them where they were when they tagged the song.

“Since launching on the App Store last year, Shazam has achieved a huge following with iPhone and iPod touch users” says Shazam CEO, Andrew Fisher. “We have listened and learned from our iPhone and iPod touch users over the past year and we are confident that the millions of Shazamers around the world will enjoy the enhanced functionality of this latest release.”
Shazam is available from the Apple App Store. 

Meffys Winners Revealed

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) last night unveiled the winners of the sixth annual Meffys awards, held in association with Nokia, at a gala dinner in London.
The winning entries provide  a snapshot of the range of products, services, apps and projects, from the newly launched to the tried and tested, driving the mobile entertainment industry forward. This year’s winners represented America, Britain, Denmark, Finland, India, Norway, Russia and Turkey.
A new award for Business Intelligence highlighted the Industry’s growing focus on building definitive metrics and analytics, which the MEF says is key to sustaining investment and building on its long-term success.
Despite the technical problems that plagued its opening, Nokia’s Ovi store picked up the award for Best technology Innovation. Independent app store GetJar was also among the winners, collecting the award for Best D2C Service.
The full list of winners is:

Games
Gameloft - Real Football 2009  

Music Service
24-7 Entertainment - TDC Play 

TV & Video Service
BBC - BBC iPlayer on Mobile 

Content
20:20 London - Thmbnls Interactive Mobile Drama

Social Networking
Handmade Mobile Entertainment – Flirtomatic

Search & Discovery
MTS - MTS Super Search 

Ad Campaign
Turkcell - Tone&Win

D2C Service
GetJar – GetJar

Application
Opera Software - Opera Mini 4.2 

Technology Innovation
Nokia - Ovi Store

‘Mobile First’ Innovation
Hungama Digital Media -Tata Sky

Business Intelligence
comScore & the GSMA in partnership with all UK operators -  GSMA Proof of Concept

Innovative Business Model
Orange - Dolphin Pay-As-You-Go Package

Quality of Experience
Dolby Laboratories - Dolby Mobile

Handset
INQ Mobile - INQ¹ - The World’s First Social Mobile 

Mobile Entertainment Business in Confident Mood says MEF

The findings of the latest MEF (Mobile Entertainment Forum) Business Confidence Index (BCI), reveal that the global mobile entertainment industry, which the MEF says is worth the $32 billion (£20 billion), remains in confident mood, despite the current economic challenges, predicting average revenue growth of 28% for the coming year. The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) BCI is compiled by KPMG and the full results of the second BCI will be revealed at the 9th annual Mobile Entertainment Market conference today.
Commenting on the findings, Andrew Bud, Global Chair of MEF, says:
“A vital part of MEF’s mission is to provide insight in to the market and the BCI is a uniquely valuable tool to do so. This second release begins to reveal the trends in the industry and confirms its optimism about the future.
 “In spite of an incredibly difficult economic landscape, the prediction for average revenue growth in the mobile content sector is up 1% on the annual growth prediction from the last BCI to 28%. This echoes the finding that 81% of respondents are as confident about the future of their organisation as they were at the end of last year.”
The analysis also shows that the ‘marketing mix’ of communication channels within the industry is evolving. Mark Harding, Director of Digital Content at KPMG, notes that more organisations in the mobile entertainment value chain are moving their marketing budget towards the industry’s own platform of mobile, at the expense of online and sponsorship and events.
The MEF BCI is conducted on a quarterly basis, with a report on the findings of the Business Confidence Index available to MEF members via the MEF website. 

MEF Board Moves

The board of MEF (Mobile Entertainment Forum) EMEA has voted to elect Gerrit-Jan Konijnenberg as Chairman and Alberto Ciarniello as Vice Chairman following the departure of former Chairman Gerard Grech.
From the outset, Konijnenberg has been an active champion for MEF EMEA’s activities and was previously elected as MEF Vice-Chairman for the last two consecutive years.  Prior to joining the board, he headed up MEF’s Mobile TV initiative and was responsible for the membership consultation on the EU ‘Television Without Frontiers’ Directive. He has represented MEF at industry conferences and supported events in London, Istanbul and Dubai. As EVP of Sales at Comfone, Konijnenberg represents the worldwide roaming/hubbing company with its existing and prospective operator clients in 125 countries.
Ciarniello is Telecom Italia’s Service Innovation VP in the Product Innovation unit and oversees service incubation and prototyping for different market segments. He was elected to the EMEA board in 2008 and has been the driving force behind the setting up of a local chapter, MEF Italia; a localisation pilot offering local support to MEF’s Italian membership; and establishing strategic partnerships on innovation initiatives.
“I am delighted that the succession at MEF EMEA has been so smooth, with such an excellent and experienced new leadership,” says MEF Global Chairman, Andrew Bud. “I’d like to thank Gerard for his enthusiasm and vision in establishing and leading MEF EMEA, and to welcome Gerrit-Jan to the Global Board.”
Launched in November 2006, the chapter’s remit was extended to cover the Middle East and Africa regions in 2008. Since inception, the chapter has responded to vital areas of European policy – over 20 pieces - including the Byron Review, Audiovisual Media Services Directive and Unfair Commercial Practices Directive; organised more than 15 trade development events and entered brand new regions such as Turkey, Russia and the Middle East; and most recently set up an EMEA regulatory committee, with 30 members signing up to date.
Grech has stepped down as Chairman after taking up a new role at Nokia and has been appointed MEF EMEA Chairman Emeritus in recognition of the fundamental role he played in helping create and establish the EMEA Chapter. He will continue to be involved in an advisory capacity.
Other new directors welcomed onto the EMEA board include Dominique Rougié, TV/Video Director at Next.com/Orange Group, who replaces Grech, and Mark Kortekaas, Future Media Controller, Audio & Mobile at the BBC.

Billing Revolution To Power Dada Mobile Payments

Dada Entertainment and Billing Revolution have announced a partnership that will offer mobile billing services and payment options for Dada.net users looking to sign up for MP3 subscription services.
The partnership provides subscribers with a credit card checkout experience to facilitate purchases from Dada’s catalogue, which contains nearly 2 million tracks covering every genre of music. Dada Entertainment, a joint venture between Dada USA and Sony Music Entertainment, currently has content deals with three of the four major record companies, as well as several popular independent labels.
Dada.net is an online music store offering DRM-free MP3s, ringtones and other digital entertainment content. Dada’s community centres around music discovery, allowing users to stream full tracks, create playlists and share them with friends in the Dada community. Users who join Dada.net’s community can download three free MP3s.
“Dada Entertainment is thrilled to team with Billing Revolution to offer the best billing process for our customers,” says Warren Wan, Vice President, Product Management at Dada Entertainment. “Billing Revolution’s one-click procedure offers a streamlined and secure solution that our customers can feel confident using.”
Founded in 2008, Billing Revolution specialises in credit card payment technologies and expects to process more than $100 million (£61 million) in mobile payment transactions during 2009. The company’s technology currently works across all web-enabled handsets, carriers, and PCs and accepts payments in more than 150 currencies worldwide.

Love at First Download

Romance publisher Harlequin Mills & Boon has announced a partnership with Mobcast Services making Mills & Boon eBooks available for instant download to mobile phones via the GoSpoken service.
Mills & Boon sells over 200 million books every year and is the first publisher to simultaneously release all its books in both paper and digital formats. The company says that high eBook sales prove the success of this strategy. In partnership with Mobcast, all new Mills & Boon titles are now accessible to UK mobile phone users via GoSpoken.com.
Established by ex-SAS operative turned best-selling author Andy McNab, GoSpoken.com offers more than 1,500 eBooks for mobiles, with its collection rapidly expanding. EBooks can be bought via mobile phone bill or credit card payment.
“EBooks are an integral part of the future of publishing, and we are proud to be leading the industry on this,’ says Harlequin Mills & Boon’s Tim Cooper. “Romance is for everyone and publishing our titles as eBooks downloadable to mobile phones with Mobcast is a great way of making our stories available to all."

Mobile Magic

Trixcell and Fox Mobile Distribution (FMD) have entered into a partnership to distribute ‘Spoon!’ which Trixcell describes as its latest "mobile magic trick”. The game allows users to challenge spectators by bending a virtual spoon, or other pieces of cutlery, through sheer concentration, without touching their phone. To develop the game, Trixcell has facilitated a magic effect through the use of patented Man Machine Interaction (MMI) technology that enables users to control the mobile device without touching it.
Trixcell has established a new ‘Mobile Magic’ mobile content category with its tricks, such as ‘Pyro’, ‘digiWallet’, and ‘CardOmen’, which, according to the company, enable users to perform feats of psychic conjuration, mind-reading, future prediction, and telekinesis.Trixcell's content is distributed globally by mobile operators and off-deck web portals.
“Fox Mobile Distribution is always aiming to consistently provide innovative and engaging mobile entertainment to consumers around the world,” says FMD Chief Marketing Officer, Giovanni Montesanti. “We were the first to introduce the mobile magic content genre, and we are thrilled to add the latest mobile magic trick Spoon! to our exclusive content collection.”
Spoon! is now available through Fox Mobile Distribution's global brands Jamster and Jamba, as well as through other distribution channels.

Wattpad Report Sheds Light on eBook Usage

ebook community Wattpad has released its June 2009 Global Ebook Metrics Report.  The report covers both country and handset/manufacturer data, based on ebook usage among subscribers of over 450 mobile operators in 160 countries.
The report reveals that Wattpad is the world’s most downloaded mobile ebook application, with 3.1 million downloads, which the company says is at least 60% more than other mobile ebook applications, such as Amazon’s Stanza and Kindle. Java devices are still the most used mobile platform for reading ebooks. 63% of e-book usage comes from Java devices, while 33% comes from the iPhone.
Nokia dominates the top device list – four of the top six handsets are Nokia Series 40 devices. But the iPhone claims top spot. The iPhone also dominates US ebook usage, with 78% of iPhone usage coming from North America. Nokia dominates the rest of the world. Blackberry usage has grown over 400% since the launch of the Blackberry App World in April.
The reports also found that usage typically rise by 10% at weekends by 10%, and that daily usage peaks in the evening at bed time (local times). Blackberry users read the least per day, with an average of 1.6 sessions, while iPhone users have 2.3 sessions and Java phone users 2.6 sessions per day.
You can read the full report here, and you can subscribe to future reports by sending an email to: contact@wattpad.com

Sony Ericsson Launches Movie Downloads

Sony Ericsson has launched PlayNow arena with movies, the latest addition to the PlayNow arena content delivery platform.
PlayNow arena with movies is a bundled movie service, included out-of-the-box for selected handsets, allowing consumers to watch up to 60 movies a year on their mobile phone. Users can choose from a selection of around 15 movies at any one time, with additional titles being added to the catalogue each month. Movies are downloaded from the PlayNow arena website for sideloading to the phone for unlimited viewing for 90 days.
“Consumers are increasingly looking for exciting content and premium entertainment experiences wherever they are,” says Martin Blomkvist, Head of Content Acquisition and Management at Sony Ericsson. “By adding a bundled movie proposition to PlayNow arena, we continue to remove barriers for consumers to easily access entertainment through their mobile phone.”
PlayNow arena with movies will launch on the W995 Walkman, in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands this month.

GoSpoken Deal Brings 2,000 Penguin Books to Mobile

Publishing company Penguin has announced a partnership with Mobcast, the operators of GoSpoken.com, the mobile platform for audio books and eBooks, which will make Penguin’s titles available on mobile. The agreement includes all Penguin Group UK books in the epub format, a portfolio of around 2,000 titles digitized to date,and growing at a rate of around 150 titles a month. 
While Penguin titles have been available on mobile previously, this deal represents the first time that readers will have access to a fully integrated eReader service through mobile phones.  Consumers will be able to browse, sample, buy and download titles from Penguin’s growing library through any mobile handset with Internet access, by browsing GoSpoken.com. Given changing lifestyles and evolving technologies, says Penguin, the partnership is a significant step towards widening access to existing readers and making content available to new readers.
“We are very excited to be working with Mobcast, who we believe to be the most adventurous player in this emerging marketplace,” says Penguin Group Sales Director, Mike Symons. “The mobile market offers us exciting possibilities in terms of reaching existing consumers through a new medium, as well as new readers who may not be accessing our content through more traditional formats.”
Mobcast was co-founded by bestselling author and ex-SAS (Special Air Service) operative Andy McNab. The company offers thousands of titles from bestselling authors such as Marian Keyes, Stephen King, James Patterson and Sophie Kinsella. Mobile phone owners can browse and buy titles in either text or audio format and download each book in minutes over any operator's network.
GoSpoken.com has established relationships with Vodafone, 3UK and Orange. A GoSpoken app was pushed out to all BlackBerry 3G devices on Vodafone in February and launched worldwide on the BlackBerry App World Store in April. This week, it became the first company to publish digital books on the Nokia Ovi store.
Penguin is also working with GoSpoken on the exclusive mobile publication of ‘Besotted’ by Adele Parks. This is a short story written for a Penguin innovations project called ‘We Sell Stories’, the successor to 2008’s successful ‘We Tell Stories’ campaign, which won the Best in Show award at the SXSW Interactive Web Awards.

Orange To Offer Nokia Comes With Music

Orange and Nokia are to jointly launch Nokia’s ‘Comes With Music’ service exclusively for Orange customers in the UK, on the Nokia 5800.
Offering access to the Nokia Music Store with over 6 million tracks, ‘Comes With Music’ will be available from Orange on the device across a selection of Orange pay monthly price plans and upgrades from Friday 29 May. In addition, the Nokia 5800 Comes With Music handset will be available exclusively to Orange customers in black or silver.
Orange will be the only UK network to offer the service, which starts at £24.47 per month for 200 minutes of talk time, 300 texts and unlimited music downloads from the Nokia Music Store, which holds over 6 million songs. There are four other packages, all offering unlimited music downloads, the most expensive being a £44.04 per month deal offering 1200 minutes talk time and 500 texts. All are on 24-month contracts.
Once signed up, customers will be able to download unlimited free tracks from the Nokia Music Store to their PC, for transfer to their Nokia 5800 handset. Orange customers will also be able to download tracks over the air via their handset at standard mobile data prices. Consumers will be able to download as much music as they like for the length of the two year contract and can keep that music once that period ends.
“Mobile music is key to both Orange and Nokia, so we’re delighted to have them as our exclusive operator for ‘Comes With Music’ on our best-seller, the Nokia 5800,” says Nokia UK Managing Director, Mark Loughran. 

Mobile Streams Turns to Bango

Mobile Streams has revealed that it is using Bango's mobile payments services for the recent US launch of m.Ringtones.com, part of its mobile megastore, Ringtones.com. With a presence on dozens of mobile operator portals around the world, Ringtones.com now offers its extensive choice of content channels directly to the US mobile consumer through m.Ringtones.com with off-portal WAP payments powered by Bango.
For a subscription charge of $9.99 per month, m.Ringtones.com customers can choose from over 35,000 music tracks from artists including Katy Perry, Coldplay and Flex. The store offers polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, as well as wallpapers and games.
“With our mobile retail knowledge and expertise, we ensure that our customers receive a warm experience when shopping with us, including uncomplicated purchasing and trouble-free billing,” says Mobile Streams CEO, Simon Buckingham. “We selected Bango to power our mobile payments for the US as their service provides this simple and reliable payment experience." commented
Mobile Streams provides its customers with a mobile web browse and buy billing flow for m.Ringtones.com, which is as familiar as using a standard website. Bango notes that this safe mobile web approach is already powering subscription services for the big six content providers in the US, where subscription is the mainstay of the mobile content market. Bango says that compared to other payment methods, its WAP payment experience delivers the highest conversion rates and fewer consumer complaints.

Horse Around on Your Mobile

All Slots Mobile Casino and Wild Jack Mobile Casino have announced the launch of Royal Derby, a virtual horse racing game that’s available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, Android devices and over 1,400 Java mobile phones.
Royal Derby lets players study the form of the horses and jockeys, and also take into account the prevailing weather and ground conditions, before deciding on which horse to back each way, or to win.
Then the race is on, with six horses competing for the top honours. Each race is different and combines the latest in mobile animation and audio effects. If the race is a close call, it goes to a photo finish, with the image clearly visible on the players’ phone.
iPhone, iPod Touch and Android users can sign up for the game here. Owners of Java phones can get the game by texting DERBY to 89895, or by visiting the All Slots Casino website and following the instructions.

GoSpoken Launches on Blackberry App World

Following GoSpoken.com’s initial launch on BlackBerry handsets in February, the company has launched the first downloadable eBook and audio book application for the BlackBerry App World store, which launched on 1 April.
GoSpoken launched on App World with major book titles including the bestselling ‘Dreams of My Father’ by Barack Obama. The US President, who is a BlackBerry user and enthusiast, will be able to download and read or listen to his own book, or books by other bestselling authors including Dan Brown, Stephen King and John Grisham.
BlackBerry users can find GoSpoken in the Reference & eBooks category of App World, which is Blackberry’s latest bid to embrace customers outside Blackberry’s traditional business base. GoSpoken offers more than 2,000 titles in either eBook or audio format, which will grow to 5,000 by the end of the month, and 20,000 by the end of the year.
Ex-SAS (Special Air Service) operative turned best-selling author, Andy McNab, co- founded the audio-and-eBook-for-mobile company, which was then supported by Lord Ashcroft’s investment organisations.
“Having a books app like GoSpoken on BlackBerry seems like a natural progression, as BlackBerry’s are already fantastic reading devices,” says McNab, “Since leaving the armed forces, books have become my life, so making them easily accessible in this way is a revelation.” said Andy McNab.
The service is accessible to any mobile user at GoSpoken.com

Shazam Launches on the Blackberry

Mobile music discovery provider Shazam has announced the availability of its application for BlackBerry users, enabling them to discover, buy and share music anywhere they go. Shazam on BlackBerry is a featured application available within BlackBerry App World, the new app store from Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM), officially launched at CTIA in Las Vegas this week.
Shazam on BlackBerry will include the ability to identify music anywhere by simply holding a BlackBerry towards the music and selecting ‘Tag Now’. Tag details link directly to Amazon, and other merchants as available, enabling users to buy music immediately when it’s heard. Tags can also be sent to friends via SMS, email or BlackBerry PIN messaging. Shazam users can also read track and album reviews, artist biographies and (starting in North America initially) view song lyrics, and find other music available from the same artist. There are also options to find similar music, and users can access Shazam music charts generated by millions of other users in country. Finally, users can search a database of over 8 million songs.
“We continue to see increasing demand for multimedia applications and services from our customers and we believe Shazam adds multidimensional value to the mobile music experience for BlackBerry Smartphone users,” says Jeff McDowell, Vice President, Global Alliances at RIM. “Shazam’s unique features are perfectly suited to the BlackBerry platform. We are very pleased to prominently feature this innovative application in BlackBerry App World.”
BlackBerry users who download the Shazam application between now and 31 May will be given the option to try out the full-featured version on a 60-day promotional basis. If they wish to keep and continue to use Shazam they can pay anytime during the promotion or at the end of the period with a one-off fee of $4.99 / £5.00 / €4.99 depending on location. Alternatively, users can continue to use Shazam for free on a limited feature and tagging basis. 
Shazam allows users to identify music by simply holding a mobile handset to a song as it’s playing. Since September 2008, Shazam has enjoyed a surge in popularity around the world, growing its user base from 20 to 35 million, with more than 1 million tracks tagged each day.

Mobile Entertainment To Take a $13bn Hit, says Juniper

The recession will cut mobile entertainment growth by almost $13 billion (£8.9 billion) over the next five years. That’s the conclusion of a new report from Juniper Research.
‘Mobile Entertainment in a Recession’ uses a scenario-based approach to assess the impact of the recession on the mobile entertainment industry, and finds that average annual growth over the next two years declines from almost 19% under the best case scenario to less than 7% in the worst case, with Mobile TV, user-generated content and music amongst those sectors which are particularly exposed.
Under a worst case scenario of a prolonged global recession, the report found that mobile entertainment revenues would increase by nearly $13 billion over the next five years, against a pre-downturn forecast of more than $26 billion. It argues that the decline in consumer discretionary spend is likely to lead to both reduced adoption of, and churn away from, subscription-based content, while the frequency of ad hoc, one-off downloads of games and music would also be adversely affected.
Mobile Entertainment in a Recession presents a timely investigation of key regulatory issues pertaining to mobile entertainment in the form of case studies examining some of the major legal aspects of the mobile entertainment world.
Questions answered in the report include:

• What are the prospects for mobile entertainment under the best and worst case scenarios?
• What are the major constraints on the adoption and usage levels of mobile entertainment services?
• Which mobile entertainment services will generate the most revenues over the next five years?
• What are the main drivers behind mobile entertainment?
• Who are the major players in mobile entertainment today?

The report offers numerous forecasts across eight global regions until 2013, and provides top-line forecasts across all key market sectors and all major geographical regions, including best, median and worst case scenario revenues; median and worst case scenario growth rate comparisons; total global revenues; and a comparison of the negative impact on global revenues.
The report costs £1,750 for a single-user PDF licence or hardback copy, £2,500 for a multi-user PDF network licence, or £3,750 for an enterprise-wide PDF licence. There's more information about the report here.

MEF Calls for Awards Entries

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has announced the call for entries for the sixth international Meffys Mobile Entertainment Awards. The awards will be presented at a Gala dinner in London on 23 June.
The Meffys recognise outstanding achievements from across the mobile entertainment value chain around the globe. The entries will be judged by leading journalists, analysts and VCs.
This year’s awards include a new category, ‘The Business Intelligence Award’, that will recognise the industry’s continued need for comprehensive data and definitive metrics. It rewards companies who are helping the mobile media industry to better track, quantify and analyse data to support continued investment.
The Meffys also feature the consumer-judged ‘Quality of Experience Award’ celebrating projects that provide the most intuitive and engaging consumer experience. Judged by end-users themselves, the judging process for this Award will be run by we are: London, a user-centred design agency which specialises in multivariate testing and behavioural targeting.
In addition, the MEF board will once again present the ‘Outstanding Contribution Award’ to a talented individual whose work has had a seminal impact on the growth of the mobile entertainment industry. Previous winners of this award include: Vesa-Matti Paananen, who won the inaugural prize in 2004 for his pioneering work commercialising the ringtone; Taneli Armanto who received the accolade in 2005 for bringing the game 'Snake' to the mobile phone; Jim Brailean in 2006 for his ground-breaking work to make mobile TV a reality; the trio Alain Rossman, Chuck Parrish and Bruce Martin, creators of the mobile Internet in 2007; and Greg Clayman, Gordon Gould and Alex LeVine (founders of ‘Upoc’) in 2008, for the creation of the first mobile communities.
Companies wishing to enter the awards can do so via the MEF website.
Entry costs have been frozen from last year and are as follows: £100 per entry for MEF members, £200 for members of supporting organisations, and £300 for non-members. The deadline for submissions is 17 April.
The full list of awards categories is as follows:

• Games
• Music Service
• TV & Video Service
• Technology Innovation
• Content
• Social Networking
• Search & Discovery
• Ad Campaign
• Application
• Quality of Experience
• D2C
• ‘Mobile First’ Innovation
• Business Intelligence
• Innovative Business Model
• Handset

“From the heightened participation of handset manufacturers and the proliferation of widgets and app stores, to the emergence of multi-platform services and the meteoric rise of mobile social networking, over the last year the industry has risen to the challenge of revamping its business models and setting a new standard for mobile entertainment,” says MEF Executive Director, Rimma Perelmuter. “The Meffys present an ideal idea opportunity for the visionaries and leaders driving this remarkable evolution to showcase successes and compete to be recognised as the industry’s best.”

iheart for iPhone Hits a Million

Clear Channel Radio has revealed that its iheartradio application for the iPhone has been downloaded more than one million times in the five months since its launch. The company also says use of the application has been growing at an average of 13% per week since launch. All in, it says, the online and mobile audience for iheartradio is increasing the total audience for Clear Channel Radio by up to 15%. Separately, the company has announced that a beta of i heartradio for the BlackBerry Pearl, Curve and Bold is now available via the iheartradio website.
Clear Channel Radio streams iheartradio content at 64kbytes and uses the AAC audio codec format instead of MP3. iheartradio content includes more than 750 US radio stations, including the local radio, genre-defying channels like erockster and Pride Radio, top sports and talk personalities, and traffic reports for New York and Los Angeles.
According to Clear Channel Radio, i heartradio is now a Top 100 free iPhone app, out of some 25,000 currently available, and is the No. 4 free music application. In addition, weekly uniques are up 43% since launch, according to data from Limelight.
“The reception of iheartradio from iPhone users has exceeded all of our expectations,” says  Evan Harrison, Executive Vice President of Clear Channel Radio and President of the company’s Online Music & Radio unit. “Our commitment to a high-quality user experience has clearly been embraced by listeners.”

SLA Wins Fox Mobile Content Brief

Northern Ireland-based SLA Mobile has signed an agreement to provide multimedia technology platforms to Fox Mobile Distribution (FMD), a unit of Fox Mobile Group and one of the world’s leading mobile entertainment distributors. The deal will enable millions of mobile subscribers across Asia, the Middle East and Africa to enjoy content from hit US shows such as ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘24’.
SLA Mobile’s team will design, build and operate platforms to enable fans of popular Fox programmes to download content such as ringtones, wallpapers and screensavers.  The agreement will also allow Fox Mobile Distribution to put more targeted mobile advertising across a range of sites.
FMD’s Jamster service in Indonesia will be the first to integrate technology from SLA, with countries throughout Southeast Asia to follow. Additionally, opportunities exist for SLA’s technology platforms to be leveraged by FMD as it rolls out its Jamba and Jamster services to new regions.
“Partnering with SLA Mobile will enable Fox Mobile Distribution to reduce the time and cost involved with taking high-demand content to market,” says Fox Mobile Distribution COO, Kaj Hagros. “Using SLA’s custom-built solutions, we’ll be able to deliver the most compelling content experience to mobile consumers in a way that is efficient and cost-effective."
SLA Mobile recently opened an office in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, deepening its commitment to establish a global team of industry-leading experts and increasing its reach in the Asia Pacific region.

Voda Offers DRM-free Music

Vodafone has signed deals with record companies Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music to offer their tracks and albums DRM (Digital Rights Management)-free, across Vodafone markets, both for mobile phones and PCs.
Vodafone says the deals are the first of their kind for a mobile operator, enabling dual delivery of DRM-free music to a wide range of mobile phones and PCs, with no need to sideload or synchronize. With over a million tracks available from every music genre, for the first time, customers will be able to play and enjoy music bought from these three labels via the Vodafone Music store, which is powered by RealNetworks, without any limit to the type of device.
In addition, those customers who have already bought tracks or albums from Universal Music, Sony Music or EMI in WMA format (with DRM) will be able to upgrade them to MP3 at no extra charge within the existing download allowance.  DRM-free music will be available in a number of Vodafone countries by the summer, and will complement Vodafone’s current music offerings.
“Vodafone has been a business partner of Universal Music for six years,” says Rob Wells, SVP, Digital, at Universal Music Group International. “This new deal shows how serious Vodafone is about music, and opens up new opportunities for both companies - but, more importantly, for consumers and artists.”

We Love Mobile Handed Music Brief by Orange

London based creative mobile agency, We Love Mobile, has been appointed by Orange to help in the re-design of the Orange Music Store. The deal will see We Love Mobile working with the Orange Group Design and Usability team and marketing department to produce what it calls “an exciting evolution to Orange's next generation of mobile music discovery services”. We Love Mobile will use its expertise in mobile design and user experience to create a product to drive music usage within the OrangeWorld portal.  
“I am delighted to announce the latest in a series of major client wins for We Love Mobile,” says Managing Director Simon Liss. “Working with Orange is testament to the level of mobile expertise and creativity within the team. Our unique combination of mobile product experience and highly creative, user-centred design processes means we are a good fit with one of the most stylish and effective mobile brands in Europe.”

Report Analyses Impact of Downturn on Mobile Music

Juniper Research has published its report, ‘Mobile Music: Videos, Streamed, Full Tracks, Ringbacks, Ringtones & Downturn Analysis 2009-2013 (Fifth Edition)’, which looks at the mobile music market, offering strategic analysis and market breakdown across each of the key market segments, and assessing the impact of the current and future global economic downturn, with forecasts across eight key global regions until 2013.
These include mobile music user numbers; mobile music service downloads (average and total number); the price paid for mobile music service (average and total); mobile music revenues & ARPU; and mobile music advertising revenues (scenario-based).
The report examines: 

• What strategies should operators, vendors and aggregators employ to maximise their respective returns in the mobile music sector?
• What are the prospects for the rental music market?
• Are there further opportunities for growth in the ringtone market?
• To what extent are current music content retail prices sustainable?
• What impact has 3G had on the mobile music market?
• What are the major hurdles to greater adoption of mobile music?
• How has the mobile music value chain developed?
• Who are the major players in the mobile music market?

With 70 forecast charts and tables, the report includes an analysis of the collapse of the ringtone market and detailed discussion of the various music delivery business models. It also profiles key players within the mobile music services market, including major record labels, operators, aggregators, handset vendors and applications providers. The report also considers the impact the iPhone has had on the market, as well as the various billing models for mobile music services and a number of strategic recommendations for network operators and vendors.
The report costs £1,750 for a single-user PDF or hardback copy, £2,500 for a 2-5 user PDF licence; or £3,750 for an enterprise-wide PDF licence.
There’s more information here. A brochure here. And a free Whitepaper here.

MEF Launches Smart Pipe Enablers Initiative

The Mobile Entertainment Forum has announced the launch of its global ‘Smart Pipe Enablers Initiative’ to create an industry-wide framework that will lay the foundation for the next generation of mobile entertainment services. The MEF says the impact of the initiative will be more useful services, taken up faster by the industry.
Smart Pipe Enabler Services are to be provided by operators to third-party providers of content and services, enabling the delivery of a simpler, faster, more intuitive and more enjoyable user experience for the consumer. The MEF says initiative will make a major contribution to industry efforts in this area by devising a coherent, profitable and workable model for enabling services, and accelerating their uptake through education and promotion. The initiative has been founded by three full MEF members - the BBC, mBlox and Vodafone Group.
Enabler services offered by network operators will deliver many capabilities to content providers, including age verification, location, identity authentication, reliable phone applications, specific tariffs to consumers, and delivery with specific quality of service. Enabled by these services, content providers can offer the consumer a better user experience, a key objective for much of the MEF’s work.
The Smart Pipe Enablers Initiative will create an industry-wide framework of business requirements for standards, complementing and supporting work in other bodies, such as the GSM Association, on the development of technical standards.
The MEF says it will form a working group with its members and will be liaising with regulators and other industry bodies to ensure the guidelines become the de facto reference point for enabling services across the globe. 
The MEF says the Enablers Initiative is fundamental to the future growth of the mobile entertainment industry, half of whose revenues come from off-portal services. It says the value of creating a coherent and co-ordinated approach to enablers is highlighted by the enabling services that operators offer today, such as bulk SMS, premium billing, short code rental and location look-ups.
“The mobile industry is at the dawn of a new era with many new services becoming available,” says MEF Global Chair Andrew Bud. “As mobile content becomes richer and more sophisticated it is important for the industry to create common standards to enable the next phase of growth.  Some operators are doing this individually or in groups, evolving into ‘smart pipes,’ but without a fully co-ordinated approach, the market is in danger of developing a fragmented landscape that will inhibit the take up of consumer services. The MEF Enablers Initiative will address this and lay the foundation for the next generation of mobile operator services for years to come.”
The MEF Enablers Initiative is global in scope and the first phase will be the production of a white paper, due in June 2009.

Samsung Embeds Shazam in New Handsets

Mobile music discovery provider Shazam has embedded its technology in the Samsung Beat DJ (M7600) and Beat DISC (M6710) handsets announced earlier this week at Mobile World Congress. The phones will initially include Shazam’ ‘Find Similar’ and ‘Find Tag’ features to give customers an even better music experience. The Beat DJ goes on sale in April, the Beat DISC in May.
The Find Similar feature uses Shazam’s collaborative filtering technology to offer customers other tracks they might like based on the individual track they’ve just tagged. When an end-user tags a particular track, recommendations are provided for similar tracks, based on the behaviour of more than 35 million other ‘Shazamers’ around the world.
Find Tag enables users to trace details of existing tracks on their phone where all or some of the information is missing or incorrect. By selecting a track within the Find Tag feature, the song is analysed and the correct metadata, including title, artist, album and genre, is returned and the information added to the track. Shazam says that Find Tag enables users to fully explore their collection from searching, sorting or creating a playlist by artist or genre to enjoy a deeper engagement with all their music. It adds that the feature does not work on DRM-protected files, that it has to be done one track at a time, and that it cannot replace or overwrite album artwork.
“We’ve been working with Samsung for several years and our service has been embedded in many of their handsets,” says Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher. “We’ve worked closely with Samsung to incorporate feedback on how we could build on the existing Find Music service, and these new features for Samsung’s latest handsets offer an even greater music experience for their customers.”

MEF Confidence Index Reveals, er, Confidence

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has launched the first quarterly Business Confidence Index (BCI) for the global mobile entertainment industry, which it says is worth $32 billion (£22.6 billion). It reveals that the industry is confident it will continue to grow, despite the economic downturn. The respondents, MEF members, predicted an average revenue growth of 27% in 2009.
The MEF BCI, compiled in collaboration with KPMG, is the first of its kind, and was undertaken to gauge the confidence of the mobile entertainment industry and to highlight specific trends over time. Every quarter, the MEF will survey its members across the globe. This first Index found that 88% of respondents anticipated that their company’s headcount will grow or remain stable in the next quarter.
As well as being optimistic about the growth of the industry as a whole, the MEF BCI identified a number of areas within mobile entertainment which are set to grow throughout 2009. The top five areas of growth  were social networking, music, video, games and infotainment
When asked whether demand for mobile entertainment consumption would be impacted by the credit crunch, over half of respondents said they saw mobile entertainment as a ‘feelgood’ affordable purchase that would therefore be resilient to the effects of the downturn.
The MEF BCI also reveals the spread of mobile entertainment revenues across the globe, with China and Central & South America being seen as hotspots over the next 12 months and respondents predicting growth in excess of 50% in both regions.
‘I believe that the BCI’s positive outlook reflects ROI that our industry expects to see in 2009 and beyond after almost a decade of investment in mobile media,” says
MEF Executive Director, Rimma Perelmuter. “With growth anticipated across key segments of the industry, MEF will be working with our members to help them capitalise on new opportunities and address existing bottlenecks presented over the next 12 months.”
MEF members were surveyed from across the mobile entertainment value chain, from operators to content owners, billing aggregators and service providers. They were asked a total of 15 questions relating to their confidence in the mobile entertainment value chain. Questions relating to investments plans, revenue, headcount and marketing decisions were asked alongside those about the confidence in different types of mobile content.
A report on the findings of the first Business Confidence Index can be accessed by MEF members via the MEF website.

You’re Surround Sounded

There’s more news coming in all the time, we’re just busy flitting from briefing to briefing and then writing them up, but we’ll get through it all in due course.
I’ve just had a brief catch-up with Rapid Mobile Media CEO Jeremy Copp, in which he told me about the company’s new Ad2txt solution. According to Copp, when companies send out text messages with a WAP link, they can’t count the number of people that end up on the WAP site by clicking on that link. I found this hard to believe, but he generally knows what he’s talking about, so I’ll take his word for it. In any event, Ad2txt, which is currently being tested with some of Rapid’s clients, solves the problem.
After that, it was off to see Dolby Labs, who I used to write about in a previous life, when I spent far too long reviewing home cinema systems being played far too loud. Last year at MWC, Dolby announced Dolby Mobile, its surround sound solution for mobile phones. This year, it can tell the world that the solution is deployed on two handsets, both from LG, (plus some in Japan from Sharp). The Renoir launched last year and the Arena has just been announced.
Surround sound on a phone is a great idea, especially if you’re going to use it for listening to music and watching movies, as people increasingly are. On the way out to Barcelona, I had a call from a hi-fi PR, who was going out representing his client Sennheiser at the show. Clearly, the hi-fi companies have started looking at the phone and taking it seriously as a music device.
The audio processor on the Renoir was music-focused, with bass and high frequency enhancers, and SoundSpace, which widens the soundstage when listening through headphones. The processor on the Arena is more focused on movie sound reproduction.
The other development from Dolby is called Dolby Media Generator. This is a software solution that encodes content prior to being sent down to phones. Dolby is targeting the solution at content owners and aggregators, basically anyone selling music and/or video content.
“The benefit for the operator or content owner is that customers will be more satisfied with the content and more likely to download more,” Dolby Account Manager Simon Arnold told me. “Heavily compressed video and sound and video can look and sound awful, but this will be fantastic.”
On that point, it’s hard to argue. Dolby has long been synonymous with high quality audio processing, and the lengths it goes to in order to police its royalties and ensure that anything with a Dolby badge on meets its exacting standards, which were explained to me on a trip to the company’s San Francisco head office many years, ago, have to be seen to be believed.
An additional benefit is that the solution can include metadata to help the content owner sell more content. So when someone downloads one Oasis track, for example, they could get a link to sample another, or to a band that sounds a bit like Oasis.
The only slight caveat is that the MPEG-4 files that will come out of the Dolby Media generator will only work on around 40% of the handsets on the market, though as Arnold pointed out, the sort of mobile user who downloads lots of music and video files is more likely than not to have an MPEG-4-equipped handset.

Mobile Content Sales to Fall, Study Finds

The economic downturn will have a disruptive effect on the mobile content and services market in the UK, as consumers limit their monthly spend to voice and messaging services. That’s the conclusion of the latest research data from mobile research and analyst, Direct2Mobile.
In its monthly consumer survey, conducted by Lightspeed Research, Direct2 Mobile asked a representative sample of 1,000 UK consumers about their changing spending attitudes and habits on mobile. While 53% of respondents said that the worsening economic climate will have no affect on their mobile phone spending behaviour, over 7% of consumers have stopped, or intend to stop, their spend on content and services until brighter economic conditions emerge. That represents 3.96 million users and almost 50% of the existing mobile content and service user base.
Additionally, around one-fifth of respondents (17.8% of men and 16.3% of women), amounting to almost 10 million users, said that they will not subscribe to mobile content and service subscriptions, such as mobile Internet access, Mobile TV and mobile music services, until the economic environment changes. While 53% of respondents said that the worsening economic climate will have no affect on their mobile phone spending behaviour.
“The glass is half full for the mobile operators and half empty for the mobile content and service industry,” says Direct2 Mobile Chief Researcher, Nick Lane. “Over 50% of mobile users are unaffected by the recession and a sizable chunk of mobile data users reverting to talk-and-text only usage will protect mobile operator revenues during this period of financial hardship.
“As almost half the advanced data users are reverting to talk-and-text only usage, the mobile entertainment companies should remain vigilant for the foreseeable future. And with 20% of the UK’s mobile population unlikely to subscribe to mobile data subscription services during the recession, it threatens to seriously impact on growth in the mobile content and services sector.”
According to Direct2 Mobile, the UK mobile entertainment market was worth approximately £505.8 million in 2008. The company had previously forecast that the UK mobile entertainment market would be worth £973 million by 2013, but says that this latest consumer research casts serious doubt over that growth.
The complete survey results and analysis are featured in the latest issue of mobileSQUARED, a new monthly analysis bulletin focussed specifically on the mobile content and services market, available for download here.

Aardvark Signs Russian Ringback Tone deal

Independent record label Aardvark Records has signed a deal with Russian mobile content and service provider United Fun Traders (UFT), to supply music for the burgeoning Russian audio Ringback Tone market.
UFT, which supplies one of the biggest Russian mobile operators with music content, has licensed over 700 songs from the label’s catalogue. The partnership combines Aardvark's expertise in building successful relationships with mobile entertainment content providers with UFT’s strength in the Russian mobile telecommunications technology market.
Best known for the chart-topping dance and electronica acts from its sub-label Aardvark Dance, the Cornwall-based label’s pop, folk, rock and soul acts are also included in the deal. The partnership with UFT features songs from dance acts Yahel, Zetan Spore and EricM, rock act Little Spitfire, singer-songwriter Everett Young and folk acts including Steve O’ Connor, Satya Graha and Moondragon.
“This marks the first time our music will be legally available to buy in Russia,” says
Aardvark Records director, Alex di Savoia. “The security of UFT’s delivery platform and its knowledge and relationships within the Russian mobile content market make them the ideal company for us to partner with.”
In recent years personalised Ringback Tones have become extremely popular in some markets. Callers hear audio playback that has been selected by the party being called. The audio can be music, voice messages and greetings or sound effects. Users have a subscriber account that allows their audio selection to be modified through the Internet, WAP, SMS, USSD or Voice User Interface.For Aardvark Music, the deal with UFT is the latest in a series of digital entertainment ventures, including high profile online partnerships. Last year, Aardvark struck a content deal with the online computer gaming company Audio-Surf.  It was also one of the first music companies to embrace the power of user-generated content by signing video distribution and revenue partnerships with ROO TV, as well as distributing its videos through YouTube and then Google Video. Additional ventures have include Bebo, ReverbNation and Last FM.

Shazam Expands on Android

Mobile music discovery provider Shazam has announced that its mobile application is now available across Europe on the Android platform, following its successful launch in the UK and US markets in 2008.
Shazam allows users to identify music by holding their mobile phone towards an unknown song and ‘tagging’ a track. Users can then go on to buy tracks through the Amazon MP3 store, automatically access more information, and become ‘friends’ with artists through their MySpace pages. Shazam was the third most popular application when the Android Marketplace launched, and since launch, has generated more than 6,000 reviews, with reviewers giving it a 4.5 out of 5 star rating. 
Shazam says its 8 million-strong track database will take Android users in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands and Poland on a musical journey that blends music discovery with individual music tastes and social experiences. Shazam users can access music from every corner of the globe and every era, including the latest pre-release and local music to offer an unrivalled music experience on their mobile phone.
“We’ve enabled huge numbers of users to shape their own unique music experience through Shazam on Android, and extending our top rated service into new markets across Europe brings Shazam to an even wider audience,” says Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher.
Shazam’s music recognition technology has been used by more than 75 operators around the world for several years.

GSMA Reveals Mobile Backstage Line-up

The GSM Association (GSMA) has announced that Black Eyed Peas front man, writer and producer, will.i.am, will be among the headline speakers at Mobile Backstage, a one-day, mobile entertainment-focused conference on Thursday 19 February, as part of the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Two-time Academy Award-winning actor and director Kevin Spacey will host the Mofilm Short Film Festival, while social networking entrepreneur Chris De Wolfe, the Founder and CEO of MySpace, leads the speaker line up for the one-day conference. Mobile Backstage brings together leading music executives, filmmakers, broadcasters and gaming industry insiders in a program that aims to get to the heart of the challenges and opportunities for the mobile phone as a global entertainment medium.
The event will feature case studies and panel sessions that explore the role of mobile entertainment within the vision of a mobile lifestyle. Topics will include how to harness the potential of the mobile device as the fourth screen; creating a new mobile gaming experience; the role of mobiles in the changing face of broadcast; innovative new business models; social networking on mobile; and the power and potential of Mobile Broadband to deliver multimedia digital entertainment.
In his keynote interview, Emmy Award-winning musician will.i.am will share his perspective as a world-leading music artist on the potential to reach a global fan base via the mobile phone. The role of mobile as a distributive, collaborative and creative tool for music will also be explored, as well as the political impact of music, with will.i.am drawing upon his experiences of writing and performing the Barack Obama song ‘Yes We Can’, using sound bites from Obama’s speeches.
“Mobile is the medium for the masses,” said will.i.am. “With nearly four billion mobile connections across the globe, the potential for mobile to change not only how the world consumes entertainment but also interacts with it is enormous. Mobile Backstage provides a unique forum for discussing both the business of delivering and the art of creating content.”
Other confirmed speakers include Dan Keegan, Head of Games at Orange, Elizabeth Schimel, Head of Global Music at Nokia, Pete Watson, Head of Business Development at RIM, and Ty Roberts, SVP and CTO at Gracenote.

MEF "not convinced" by Premium Rate Measures

We’ve had a couple of reactions to telecoms regulator PhonepayPlus’ announcement of new measures governing the marketing and supply of premium rate content on mobile phones. The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) says it welcomes the sentiment of the measures.
“Our members support measures that promote transparency for consumers without hindering their access to and enjoyment of mobile services,” says MEF Policy and Initiatives Director, Suhail Bhat. “It is encouraging that so many consumers are using phone-paid services, nearly 50% according to the PhonepayPlus consultation document. Our main concern is that the proposals appear to collectively punish the majority of content providers by creating a layer of red tape, without actually addressing a small number of rogue elements that persistently mislead consumers.
“We believe that all forms of non-compliance and consumer harm should be dealt with immediately and we would have liked elements of the new rules to allow for consumer complaints to be resolved more quickly. While we are still studying the changes, at this stage we are not convinced that the new regulations achieve anything that wasn’t possible under the previous Code of Practice. However, we will be studying the consultation further following discussions with our members and working with (law firm) Denton Wilde Sapte LLP to produce a guide to its implications for MEF members.”
Meanwhile, Alex Haffner, a Senior Associate and Regulatory Specialist at Denton Wilde Sapte LLP, who participated in the consultation which PhonepayPlus undertook before finalising its measures, says the measures imposed on the industry by the regulator are far-reaching and likely to be controversial.
“Most notably,” says Haffner, “under a new regime, PhonepayPlus will require the providers of certain services to obtain ‘prior permission’ to do so, and this will only be granted once they have agreed to comply with specific conditions governing the nature and content of those services. These will apply over and above the conditions to which all providers are currently subject. PpP has given those affected by these changes just six weeks to obtain the necessary permission from them."

Ralph Simon to Speak at Mobile Entertainment Event

E.Factor, a global business network for entrepreneurs with almost 900,000 members around the globe, is staging an event titled ‘Commercial opportunities in mobile phone entertainment’ at the offices of law firm Davenport Lyons in London on 23 February.
The event kicks off at 6pm, with the main part of the evening being a talk by Ralph Simon,  President and CEO of The Mobilium Group, a strategic advisory firm that guides international media companies, networks, and brands to grow revenues and market share from mobile content, properties and technologies. He is also Chairman Emeritus & Founder of the Mobile Entertainment Forum – Americas.
In 1998, Simon co-founded and funded the world's first ringtone company, Yourmobile/Moviso (now known as Infospace Mobile), while in 2005, he executive produced the mobile messaging for the Live 8 world concert events.
After the talk, there’s a Q&A session, and opportunities for networking. If you want to attend the event, you need to register as a member (it’s free) on the E.Factor website, after which you can sign up for the event, at a cost of £28.

PlayNow Uncut Adds Universal Content

Sony Ericsson has announced a content deal with Universal Music Publishing Group for PlayNow Uncut, its promotional platform for breaking emerging artists online  and via Sony Ericsson mobile phones.
Launched in October 2006 as M0BUZZ PlayNow Uncut offers music videos, interviews, tracks and tour dates. Sony Ericsson says the addition of Universal Music Publishing Group to the mobile music platform guarantees users access to an enormous range of top artists and introduces a content partner with the shared ambition of making good music truly accessible. Upcoming artists such as Gavin Thorpe, Flykkiller, The Answering Machine, and Ironweed Project are already benefitting from the exposure provided by PlayNow Uncut.
The collaborative partnership offers potential as a platform for exposing new music through Sony Ericsson's marketing and sales channels and complements Sony Ericsson’s existing music services such as PlayNow arena (the over the air music and mobile content download service); and PlayNow plus (PlayNow arena’s unlimited, over-the-air music download service available to Sony Ericsson customers on phones and PCs). The companies’ collaboration will also extend to initiatives such as preloading music on mobile phones. 

Jenkins Takes MEF Marketing Role

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has appointed of Stephen Jenkins to the role of Global Marketing Director. He will play an instrumental role in communicating and driving awareness of MEF’s initiatives and activities to drive mobile entertainment adoption, shape regulation and deliver competitive advantage to its members.
In this new role, Jenkins will evolve MEF’s digital marketing to engage and inform members around the world about key developments. He will also work to raise awareness of MEF’s industry reports and initiatives, including critical work on content sales reporting and mobile video. Jenkins brings extensive music industry experience to the forum and will work closely with the global MEF team and chapters.
“With Stephen’s wealth of experience in the content industry and his broad marcoms expertise, we are confident he will deepen awareness of MEF’s industry-changing initiatives and activities on behalf of our members to key stakeholders,” says MEF Executive Director, Rimma Perelmuter.
Jenkins joins the MEF from the PIAS Entertainment Group, where he was Head Of International Marketing and instrumental in driving marketing campaigns for labels including Wall Of Sound, Independiente, Full Time Hobby and Fabric. Prior to this, he spent seven years at the EMI Group, initially as part of the trade marketing team and subsequently as part of the international marketing team at Virgin Music. He says:
“It is a hugely exciting time for the mobile content industry. I am looking forward to ensuring our members’ views are represented, and demonstrating the value of a single strong voice for the mobile entertainment industry."

MEF Launches Social Media Press Office

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has launched an online Social Media Press Office at www.m-e-f.blogspot.com.
The MEF says it has launched the site to enable it to communicate quickly and dynamically with the mobile content industry and the world’s media. The site includes a blog, photos, videos and RSS feeds, providing an integrated communications resource on MEF activity.
“We’ve created this site so that our members and the press can find out about what MEF and the industry are up to,” says MEF Executive Director, Rimma Perelmuter. “You will find news announcements, up-to-the-minute insights from around the world and updates on MEF initiatives to keep our members and the media informed. As the site is quickly adaptable, we will provide a rapid response to industry news and insights from MEF representatives, making this the first place to come to for the industry's thought leadership and MEF news.”

Gamesys Deploys Rapid's ThinkPhone Suite

Rapid Mobile Media, which provides mobile application and service delivery software platforms, has announced the availability of the first gaming titles delivered by Gamesys using the ThinkPhone suite of technologies. The graphically-rich and interactive slot games offer users the chance to win huge progressive jackpots and include a ‘Deal or No Deal’ theme; the 1920s-themed ‘Diamond Bonanza’; and a seasonal release, Christmas Bonanza, which has already enabled one lucky winner to pick up a jackpot of over £5,000.
Rapid Mobile says that the ThinkPhone Deliver provisioning platform enables the downloadable applications to automatically be delivered to the widest possible range of handsets, maximising the reach for the service whilst ensuring every user experiences the best possible quality gaming experience.
The provisioning platform is fully integrated with Gamesys’ gaming servers and back office systems, providing a secure, real time transactional environment for mobile gameplay. Gamesys will be launching its first casino product, Blackjack, at Christmas, while Roulette, Bingo and a Mobile Scratchcard are scheduled for early 2009, with more products expected to follow.
“An important feature of our approach is that our mobile products can offer the same games our members already enjoy on the web”, says Steve Clark, Strategic Operations Director at Gamesys. “Aside from the familiarity and loyalty this brings, it means that we share jackpots between the web and mobile, dramatically increasing the possible win. Mobile will become a significant part of our overall business; it’s a very attractive product for new players, and it gives our existing members a platform to use when they’re not near a PC.”
The ThinkPhone development philosophy focuses on user interaction to create easy-to-use, intuitive applications. Porting and testing effort is minimized, thanks to a provisioning process which automatically optimises applications at the point of delivery to match individual handset capabilities. This means that engineering costs and time to market for applications are minimised, and the service provider does not have to expend resources addressing the increasingly diverse universe of mobile phone types.
The latest mobile Jackpotjoy games are available by visiting www.jackpotjoy.com/mobile/ on the web, or http://jackpotjoy.mobi via a mobile browser.

Mobile Content to Boom in 2009, says Screen Digest

Media analyst Screen Digest has released its forecasts for key media markets in 2009, which look at the impact of the recession on these markets. In addition to looking at the home entertainment (including TV viewing and videogames), and cinema industries, the forecasts also cover mobile. Screen Digest concludes that as consumers start to reduce their mobile phone bills, premium content such as Mobile TV and video on demand will be the first to go. With their planned launches of entertainment on hold, the company says, operators and handset manufacturers will offer more ‘free’ bundled subscriptions, using music content as a value-add to attract and retain customers and aggressively pushing mobile broadband as a viable alternative to fixed-line Internet.
“Content providers will be looking at application stores such as Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market to compensate for the loss they will make on mobile operators’ portals,” says Screen Digest Head of Mobile, Ronan de Renesse. “The economic downturn will push operators to release their grasp on the mobile content industry and open up mobile Internet. So against all odds, 2009 will turn out to become the most successful year for mobile content so far.”

Shazam Improves iPhone App

Mobile music discovery provider Shazam has enhanced its iPhone application to support second-generation iPod Touch devices and deliver improved functionality for a better music experience.  One of the enhancements is an improvement in the amount of artist information available. Now when a user tags a song, Shazam delivers artist discographies, biographies, track and album reviews. Users in North America can also view song lyrics.
In addition, as each user’s Shazam collection grows, they can take control and organise their tags by artist, title or date, making it easier to find the tagged song they want. Tags can also be personalised; when a user takes and adds a new photo, or attaches an existing one, they will see their shots seamlessly added to their iPhone photo album. Finally, Shazam now offers ‘Store Pending’ tags. When a user does not have a data connection, they can still capture the music moment as the untagged track can be sent later when they are back in wi-fi or cellular coverage.
The existing Shazam application has been downloaded by more than 3 million users to date since its launch in July. iPhone users have tagged more than 50 million songs and over 6,000 reviews posted by Shazamers on the Apple App Store.
“There has been a tremendous response to Shazam’s iPhone app and we’ve received really positive feedback from our user base, including suggestions on how we could make the Shazam experience even better,” says Shazam CEO, Andrew Fisher. “We’ve turned this feedback into new features and powerful new ways to capture and share music moments and stories. We are delighted to offer an improved experience to the millions of users who are passionate about their music journey.”

Shazam Adds 2 Million New Tracks

Mobile music discovery service Shazam has increased its music database from six to eight million tracks, following new major partnerships and direct sourcing activities. The new tracks include additional North American, Asian and European content. The extra two million tracks will be linked to Shazam’s other assets, taking users on a music journey from discovery to knowledge, with artist biographies and album reviews through to purchase of the music through affiliated partners.
“This increase in our database cements Shazam’s position as the leading mobile music discovery service in the world,” says, Shazam Head of Music, Will Mills. “With our strong music alliances, we gain access to the most relevant music well before many other music services, which ensures users can discover popular and niche music all over the globe."

Mobile Music Has To Be Free, says Screen Digest

Mobile music revenues from consumer sales will doubled from €1.6 billion (£1.4 billion) in 2007 to €3.2 billion by 2012. That’s the conclusion of a new report from media analyst Screen Digest, which examines the market for mobile music in 27 countries worldwide, covering Europe, the US and Asia Pacific. With a number of companies now offering mobile music bundled for 'free' at the point of delivery via the mobile, ‘Mobile music, the end of the beginning: market assessment and forecasts’, examines the different business strategies the players have adopted, and forecasts the state of market in 2012.
Although personalisation services such as mastertones and ringback tones will account for more than half of the €3.2 billion, full track and video service revenues will have increased to 46% in 2012 from 29% at 2007 year end, Screen Digest believes. Whilst at €219 million, the Western European and North American full track and video mobile music market is a fraction of online music's current value of €1.31 billion, it has an extremely important role in influencing customer handset choice, upgrade frequency and retention - all crucial in the fiercely competitive mobile market, and even more so in today's economic climate. But the big question remains: is music a revenue stream for the mobile market?

Nokia not yet a serious contender for iTunes
The report points out that two prominent players in this market are adopting different business strategies which reveal their views on the viability of music as a revenue stream. Nokia is already trying to move away from being primarily a handset manufacturer into service provision. Its Comes with Music (CWM) offer revolutionized the mobile music market by introducing unlimited music downloads simply by purchasing specific Nokia handsets.
With Nokia looking to make money from digital services, it must contend with Apple and Sony Ericsson, which use music as an add-on to support the sale of hardware, and less to make significant money in its own right. In Apple's case, this means running iTunes music sales at around break-even, an approach at odds with Nokia’s intended strategy and one that is almost impossible to compete with directly.

Wholesale prices must drop for mobile single track downloads to be profitable
iTunes’ near break-even pricing has set consumer expectations for buying individual tracks. Faced with the same wholesale demands from labels, it is hard for mobile operators to turn a profit directly from music sales. This is compounded by high over the air (OTA) delivery costs associated with every track sold via mobile. For operators to benefit from music, either wholesale prices must fall, or they must embrace new business opportunities that go beyond simple retail models. The report assesses operator strategies for maximising the potential of music to positively affect the bottom line.

Subscription music and video revenues to double by 2012
Screen Digest believes that the introduction of affordable subscription models such as Vodafone's MusicStation in the UK will lead to a marked rise in the uptake of mobile music services. Some are bundling it with voice packages, others are offering it via handsets, and others still are offering cheap OTA downloads. Bundles already available to consumers make music ‘free’ at the point of delivery. The rise of these offers means that by 2012 Screen Digest forecasts full track music and video mobile subscription service revenues will be worth €928 million, almost double that of a la carte (ALC) full track and video revenues (€508 million).
“All players in the mobile market know they need to increase their efforts to attract and retain customers, especially in the current challenging economic climate, and music is a key way to do it,” says report Author Christine Binns. “Operators and service providers are using music in different ways to add value to their service and make money. But increasingly, a consensus is emerging that music has to be offered free.
“Paying for music is progressively becoming a niche activity as the value of recorded music is already in steep, possibly terminal, decline. Bundled music attempts to tackle this problem head-on, providing a way for every player in the value chain to benefit. Even offering music for 'free' at point of delivery is not going to be enough to ensure uptake of the service – the customer experience and handset design have to be right if mobile music services are to become lasting propositions."
The report costs £995. For more information, or to order a copy, send an email to: rob.morrod@screendigest.com

MEF Releases Ad-funded Entertainment Findings

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has published new research investigating the impact of Ad-funded Mobile Entertainment (AFME) on the South East Asian market. The research shows that AFME will help offset the revenues lost to piracy on mobile content such as games, music and ringtones. This will help grow the mobile entertainment industry in the region beyond ‘network-controlled’ content such as Ringback Tones.
MEF’s members-only report: ‘Ad-Funded Mobile Entertainment: AFME’s impact on SE Asia’, forecasts that Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand will achieve $2.6 million (£1.75 million) AFME revenue by 2013. Although these revenues appear relatively small, the MFE says, they represent a significant amount of activity of 52 million clickthroughs on AFME content.   
In addition to protecting revenues, AFME will play an important role in the overall growth of the mobile entertainment market, the report says, with around 50% of AFME revenue being used to upsell other premium content by 2013. 
“Our membership is telling us there are clear benefits to ad-funded content,” says MEF Asia Chair, Stefan Rust. “This is not just replacing revenues lost through piracy, but also helping to grow mobile entertainment revenues in the long-term. This growth in mobile entertainment revenues reflects a maturing mobile data market across Asia,  and will also drive innovation for mobile advertising to develop beyond messaging and banner advertisements.”
To address its members’ needs, MEF discussed its recommendations as part of a workshop during its official annual Asia event, the Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, last week to educate local content providers on the benefits of ad-funding premium content to exponentially increase the total market; and to develop working guidelines and timeframes for the re-introduction of value chains for mobile entertainment presently lost to piracy.
MEF members can receive a free copy of the South East Asia AFME report by sending an email to: ksenia@m-e-f.org

Fun Text is Having a Laugh

Mobile messaging service provider Fun Text is bringing comedy clips to peer-to-peer mobile messaging. The deal with Comedy Time, the most watched comedy channel on mobile and the 7th most popular mobile video channel across all genres in the US, will see live stand-up gigs recorded and edited into 30-second jokes that can be viewed and shared through the Fun Text service.
Content will include live comedy events coordinated by Bob Fisher, owner of the Ice House in Pasadena, California, which nurtured talents such as Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, David Letterman, and Jay Leno. The deal with Fun Text spans all of Comedy Time’s brands including ‘ChickComedy’ and ‘Comedy Time Latino’ and will initially be launched on Fun Text’s US channels, starting with Sprint.
“We want to expand the enhanced messaging category,” says Fun Text Business Development Director, James Pycock. “That is why we have not only partnered with greetings card giant American Greetings but have also brought in smileys and emoticons from the world of instant messenger, pokes and gifts from social networks and movie clips from Mogreets. By working with the leaders in comedy video we are creating a ‘just for fun’ section so that customers can share ‘boredom busters’ with each other.”
The Fun Text solution connects content with communication and provides integrated access across clients (Java, Symbian and Brew) as well as Wap and web store fronts. It is already deployed by carriers such as Sprint, T-Mobile and 3. The service is offered from the messaging menu of many handsets and displays managed galleries of online professional content for fun, social and emotional messaging.

Come On Kids, Get Your PhoneBrain In Gear

Industry regulator PhonepayPlus has launched a consumer confidence campaign aimed at secondary schools, and designed to increase trust in the premium mobile content industry. As part of the campaign schoolchildren will have the chance to create their own ringtone, and to come up with their own idea for a phone-paid service business idea.
PhoneBrain is a curriculum-based ICT and Enterprise schools programme, available to all secondary schools and youth/education centres across the UK, to teach young people aged 13-18 about how to use phone-paid services safely. The aim is to build trust in the phone-paid industry by giving young consumers the information they need to be able to make informed purchasing decisions.
Working with Ministry of Sound, the Peter Jones Foundation and the Government-sponsored enterprise body Make Your Mark, PhonepayPlus says that PhoneBrain combines real educational needs, while tapping into young people’s passions. The youth education programme will help pupils learn about the opportunities and threats afforded by the £1 billion premium mobile content market, and how they can protect themselves and their friends and family from the few providers that employ misleading text promotions, or overcomplicated terms and conditions.
Recent research commissioned by PhonepayPlus shows that, in 2008, 47% of 11-17 year olds will have used these services every day to download ringtones and other mobile personalisation products, or to use one of the many other phone-paid services on offer. According to PhonepayPlus, most enjoy using them and never come to harm.  Unfortunately, however, some others are subject to scams and misleading marketing practices.
“Chargeable promotional messages, misleading pricing and unclear subscription charges have brought increased negative perceptions around the phone-paid service industry among some young people and their parents,” says PhonepayPlus Acting CEO, Paul Whiteing. “We want to make sure that anyone can use phone-paid services with absolute confidence, and the schools programme will help us to do that. It’s an ambitious project, but one we are confident will mean that young people get the phone-paid service they wanted, at the price they expected to pay. This will breed trust and potentially pave the way for growth in the market.”
As part of the programme, students will create and be able to download their own animated ringtone using audio-visual content provided by Ministry of Sound artists. Young entrepreneurs will also be given the chance to enter their own ‘Dragons’ Den’ with the help of full Enterprise lesson plans, a business plan template and inspirational real-life cases studies – all available on the PhoneBrain website.   
Teenagers are challenged to come up with their own phone-paid service idea – the kind of thing they and their friends would love to use but is not currently available – and to create an accompanying business plan. These business plans can then be entered into a nationwide competition for the chance to pitch to Peter Jones from Dragons’ Den – and get involved with the new National Enterprise Academy.

IMI Buys dx3

IMI, the India-headquartered global provider of mobile value added services (VAS) for content providers, mobile operators and media agencies, has announced its acquisition of dx3, the London-based digital content delivery services provider which pioneered the first legal digital music downloads in Europe, for an undiscllosed sum. The acquisition is effective immediately.
Already established in over 40 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, IMI says its acquisition of dx3 is the first step in an aggressive European expansion plan designed to establish the company as one of the largest managed service providers for digital content and converged VAS in the region.
The acquisition will combine IMI’s experience in the mobile sector, where it already enables 80 operator deployments globally to drive profitable new revenue streams, with dx3’s expertise in the web domain. dx3 has relationships with all of the world’s major music labels, and a library of over two million music tracks. It provides marketing solutions to major brands and creative agencies, including members of WPP and OMD. The arrangement will bring the combined services of the enlarged group under the IMI brand and see its carrier-grade DaVinci platform used as part of a managed service offering to power the mobile and online digital marketing initiatives of major brands, publishers and retailers across Europe.
“We see two key growth areas emerging,” says IMI CEO and founder, Vishwanath Alluri. “Firstly, converged media campaigns that use both mobile and online platforms. Secondly, off-deck, direct to consumer mobile and fixed-line operator promotions, working with big name brands to offer innovative offers and marketing inducements to their subscriber base. We are well positioned to exploit this growth with our innovative technology platforms and considerable experience in driving new revenue streams for our global customers.”
Anu Shah, formerly Executive Director of dx3 and now CEO of IMI Europe, says the  acquisition gives the company fantastic access to a converged online and mobile platform that can glue together growing areas of the market, such as digital music, social networking, advertising, user-generated content and subscription services.
“dx3 and IMI believe offering these products under a managed service model offers the best risk/return profile for our clients as evidenced by our growth over the last year,” says Shah. “Together, we are now in a great position to design and deploy compelling new products and services on a pan-European basis.”

Mobile Content Under the Spotlight

IIR Telecoms & Technology's ‘Mobile Content’ conference takes place next week from 18-21 November at the Hilton Kensington, London, and Mobile Marketing Magazine readers can benefit from a 15% reduction on the rate-card delegate price.
Speakers at the event include Author and Consultant, Tomi Ahonen; Jonathan MacDonald, ex-Blyk, now a senior consultant at Ogilvy Worldwide; and David Cushman, Director of Social media at Brando Media. There will also be presentations on mobile advertising from Orange, Bouygues Telecom, AKQA and Ringring media and Digitalsunray Media; and on Mobile 2.0 from Bebo, Vodafone, Turkcell, Flirtomatic Tony Fish.
Playboy TV, MTV and itsmy.com will outline the latest developments in Mobile TV, while Vodafone and Orange Israel will explain how they are generating revenues and subscriber growth from mobile music. There’s also a Mobile SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) workshop lead by MSearchGroove, Accuracast, Latitude, Mobile Commerce and Mippin.
Places at the event cost £1,295 for any one day, £1,895 for any two, £2,895 for any three, and £3,895 for any four, not including the 15% discount.
There’s more information about the event, including the full agenda for each day, here.
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