Muve Music™ from Cricket Inks Deal with Independent Rights Agency Merlin

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Cricket Communications, a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless services, today announced that its Muve Music service has signed an agreement with the global Independent rights agency Merlin to bring its members catalog of more than two million songs to the first wireless music service designed specifically for the phone. Merlin's repertoire of leading independent labels and artists will be fully part of the Muve Music service by year's end.

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"We're pleased to welcome Merlin to the Muve Music family" said John Bolton, Sr. Director, Product Development for Muve Music. "With the addition of Merlin's amazing roster, Muve Music will expand its catalog to bring an even richer content experience to our customers."

Merlin represents the most commercially valuable basket of rights outside of that held by the major labels, including leading independents such as Koch/E1, XL, Rough Trade, Warp Records, Merge and Redeye, whose artists include chart-topping and award-winning artists such as Arcade Fire, Jim Jones Vampire Weekend and DJ Khaled, amongst thousands of other great music artists.

"Muve Music is a truly exciting development in the US digital music sphere, and we are excited to have our labels represented on the service," said Charles Caldas, CEO of Merlin. "With more than 200,000 customers signed up in such a short time, Muve Music has that independent spirit that our artists embody and we are sure that Muve's users will enjoy the access they now have to the many amazing artists and labels that our members represent directly on their handheld device."

How to Get Muve Music

Muve Music is available on the Samsung Vitality, ZTE Score and Samsung Suede at Cricket company-owned stores and at www.mycricket.com, as well as through select partner retail outlets such as Best Buy. Additional accessories are available for purchase including premium headphones, expandable memory an audio jack and Bluetooth adapter to connect to home and car stereos, either wired or wirelessly.

For more information about Muve Music, visit www.muvemusic.com, and for Cricket's dynamic device lineup, visit www.mycricket.com. To follow Cricket's latest news and updates online, go to Facebook at www.facebook.com/cricketwireless and Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cricketnation.

About Cricket

Cricket is the pioneer of simple and affordable unlimited wireless services with no long-term commitments or credit checks required serving approximately 5.7 million customers. Cricket products are available nationwide. Cricket offers wireless voice and broadband Internet services over the latest technology, high-quality, all-digital 3G CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO wireless network. Cricket's nationwide wireless voice service plans include unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited text and picture messaging, unlimited text to Mexico, unlimited Mobile Web, unlimited directory assistance, as well as a variety of calling features and feature-rich mobile applications such as popular games, ringtones and wallpapers. For more information on Cricket, visit www.mycricket.com. Cricket is offered by Leap Wireless International, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, Calif. For more information on Leap, visit www.leapwireless.com.

About Merlin

Merlin, the virtual fifth major, represents the world's most important set of independent music rights. Merlin seeks to ensure its members have effective access to new and emerging revenue streams and that their rights are appropriately valued and protected.

Merlin offers the most efficient means for digital music services to license repertoire from the largest and most compelling basket of independent rights in the world.

Since commencing operations in May 2008, Merlin has struck deals with digital services including Spotify, Rdio, Youtube, Zvooq, MySpace Music, Grooveshark, Simfy, Muzu TV, AT&T, and Eircom. Merlin has also achieved settlements for its members with Grooveshark and XM Satellite radio.

Members include Rough Trade, Warp Records, Epitaph, Naïve, Tommy Boy, One Little Indian, Redeye, Yep Roc, Kontor New Media, Naxos, XL Recordings, Beggars Group, Merge, The Mushroom Group, !K7, PIAS, Domino and Koch/E1.

Their artists include Adele, Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, The XX, Neko Case, The National, Tom Waits, Spoon, Grizzly Bear, DJ Khaled, Dorrough, Martin Solveig & Dragonette, Tiësto, Scooter and many, many more.

Merlin is not an aggregator. Its members may opt in or out of any deal that it brokers and it is a non-profit organization, with all dividends from its commercial investments being shared among its members.

A global organization, Merlin's member labels released 72% of the top 60 independent albums issued 2008–2010, and commanded an 11% digital UK market share in 2009. Most recently, streaming service Spotify publicly announced that Merlin's repertoire represented over 10% of the usage on its service.

SOURCE Cricket Communications, Inc.