Thumbplay Music Is Now In Public Beta; Launches On BlackBerry App World(TM)

NEW YORK, March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Thumbplay (www.thumbplay.com), the leading provider of mobile entertainment in the U.S., today announced that the cloud-based Thumbplay Music service is now available in Public Beta.  The service was previously available by invitation-only.  In addition, the free application is now on BlackBerry App World™, providing BlackBerry® smartphone users in the U.S. unlimited, on-demand access to millions of songs. Thumbplay Music (www.thumbplaymusic.com) is a next generation music service, built by experts in mobile content delivery to serve the rapidly growing market of U.S. smartphone users which is forecasted to grow to 160 million people by 2013.*

At the upcoming CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas (March 23-25, 2010), Thumbplay Music will be demonstrated at the BlackBerry booth (Booth #3506–Central Hall).  The service is currently available on select BlackBerry smartphones** and PCs/Macs®. Just weeks after its initial launch, Thumbplay has added support for three additional BlackBerry smartphones to the service, including the popular BlackBerry® Bold™ 9700, the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530 and the BlackBerry® Storm2™ 9550 smartphones.

Said Evan Schwartz, CEO and Co-Founder of Thumbplay:  "We're pleased to be building on our great relationship with RIM, particularly as we embark on our public launch.  Our Private Beta customers gave us extremely positive feedback, and countless smartphone users have requested access to the service, enabling us to now 'push play' and make Thumbplay Music widely available.  Our experience in this space has proven to be a tremendous advantage–I don't believe there is another company in the U.S. today that can offer a service built with mobile as its centerpiece that is this feature-rich, and with a catalog this deep. We are off to a great start."

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

• Unlimited, on-demand access to any artist or album; millions of songs to choose from
• Build a personal music collection with Favorites; auto-sync between smartphone and PC/Mac
• Online and offline access: No connection? No problem!  Listen to music on the subway or in-flight.  Available anytime, anywhere.
• Effortless playlist creation: Auto-sync's between smartphone and PC/Mac
• Playlist Genie for music discovery: Instantly generate customized recommendations from favorite songs
• Search: Find music by artist, song, album or genre; includes free previews of all songs
• Import existing iTunes® playlists within Thumbplay Music's companion desktop app. With a few clicks, recreate iTunes playlists and have them available on smartphone and PC/Mac.

Thumbplay Music has more than eight million tracks under license from all major labels and more than 25,000 independent labels.  The unlimited, on-demand service includes a free, three-day trial and subscriptions are then available for $9.99/month.

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

ABOUT THUMBPLAY

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

*Yankee Group (2009)

**Thumbplay Music supports the following BlackBerry smartphones: BlackBerry® Tour™, BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000, BlackBerry® Bold™ 9700, BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530, BlackBerry® Storm2™ 9550 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900.  Support for additional devices coming soon.

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

    
    
    Contact: 
    Susan Lietz
    [email protected]
    917.499.5053

SOURCE Thumbplay, Inc.