Vodafone Radio DJ
Vodafone Group Plc
09 January 2006
9th January 2006
Vodafone and Sony NetServices introduce 'Vodafone Radio DJ'
• Service enables customers to tailor music to their tastes through its
unique personalisation ability
• The world's first fully convergent music service
Today, Vodafone and Sony NetServices are announcing a partnership for the global
roll-out of the world's first fully convergent music service - Vodafone
Radio DJ - offering interactive, personalised radio channels streamed to both
3G mobile phones and personal computers.
With Vodafone Radio DJ, customers have access to hundreds of thousands of songs,
both current popular hits and back catalogue, from the world's largest record
companies, and many smaller independent labels. Customers can access streamed
radio channels, bespoke collections, and channels defined by customers
themselves.
The key feature of Vodafone Radio DJ is its easy-to-use personalization system,
which enables customers to 'train' the pre-programmed radio channels to their
own personal tastes by simply pressing a button to indicate 'like' or 'dislike'
while listening to a song. If a customer presses 'dislike', the music skips to
the next song.
Through Sony NetServices' detailed classification of each song in the
catalogue - analysing beat and harmonies as well as genre and mood - the radio
channels that individual customers receive will feature more songs that have
characteristics in common with songs that are liked, whilst avoiding songs with
characteristics similar to those that the customer dislikes.
The Vodafone Radio DJ service consists of three elements:
Pre-defined channels. Customers can select a radio channel based on mood or
genre. If the customer indicates that they don't like the song, the channel
skips to the next track within the channel. Customers can also buy any songs
that they like and these will be automatically available for download to their
phone and PC.
Personal Channels. By rating songs on the existing radio channels, the customer
can create a number of new, personal channels corresponding to their desired
genres, moods or specific themes.
Collections. Vodafone Radio DJ also presents programmed collections of songs to
the customer on mobile phone or PC. These collections will be created by local
music experts around a theme (eg Christmas Hits, or the Best New Hip-Hop), be
updated regularly, and will comprise about 15 songs.
Songs purchased on either mobile phone or PC will be available to download on
both devices, with a separate high quality stereo copy being delivered
individually to each. Personal settings and personal channels created on the
mobile phone will also be accessible from the PC.
The Radio DJ service will be offered on the basis of a monthly subscription for
unlimited listening to music on both mobile phone and PC. There will be no extra
charge to the consumer for the data traffic needed to deliver the music to the
phone or PC.
Vodafone Radio DJ will be launched in six European countries in the coming
months, namely UK, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It is intended it
will then be rolled out to more than 20 countries worldwide over the following
twelve months.
'This is the beginning of a new era in portable music. This partnership with
Sony will drive Vodafone's strategy to become a leading global music provider.
Vodafone Radio DJ is a revolutionary new way to discover personal music, anytime
and anywhere, and we anticipate it will have widespread consumer appeal amongst
our customers', said Lee Fenton, Director of Consumer Platforms at Vodafone.
'Subscribers to Vodafone Radio DJ can listen to all the music they like, and
discover new music to love. Vodafone Radio DJ opens a world of music discovery
and listening pleasure on both the mobile phone and on the PC', said Robert
Ashcroft, Managing Director Sony NetServices and Senior Vice President Sony
Europe.
- ends -
NOTES TO EDITORS
For more information, please contact at Sony:
Jean-Baptiste Duprieu, Sony Europe
Tel: 0044 1932 817349 / email: jean-baptiste.duprieu@eu.sony.com
Or
Martina Boyles, Sony Europe
Tel: 0049 302515 5161 / email: martina.boyles@eu.sony.com
For more information, please contact at Vodafone:
Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 664444
Investor Relations
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 664447
About Sony:
Sony manufactures audio, video, communications and information technology
products for the global consumer and professional markets. With its music,
pictures, game and online businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be one of
the World's Leading Consumer Brands. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of
EUR 53.43 billion (yen 7,160 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005
and it employs approximately 151,400 people worldwide.
In Europe, Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of EUR 12.03 billion (yen
1,613 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, based on an average
market exchange rate for the same period of yen 134 to the EUR. Sony Europe,
headquartered at the Sony Center am Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, is responsible
for the company's European electronics business and registered consolidated
sales of EUR 8.87 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005.
About Sony NetServices:
Sony Network Services Europe (SNSE) creates, develops and operates innovative
content services for various media platforms such as mobile phones, home
entertainment equipment and PCs. SNSE supports the Sony Corporate Goal of
generating growth through device and content convergence.
Sony Network Services Europe has invented StreamMan (Music Personalization &
Streaming to mobile phones). SNSE is currently operating three Content Services
in Europe: StreamMan, CONNECT Europe and Tvtv. Sony NetServices, a 50/50 joint
venture of Sony DADC and Sony Europe, was founded in April 2000.
For more information on Sony Europe, please visit http://www.sony-europe.com and
http://www.sony-europe.com/presscenter
About Vodafone:
Vodafone is the world's leading mobile telecommunications group with operations
in 27 countries across 5 continents, as well as 28 partner networks. As at 30
September 2005, Vodafone had 171 million proportionate customers worldwide. For
further information, please visit www.vodafone.com.
(c) Vodafone Group 2006. VODAFONE, Vodafone live! and the Vodafone logos are
trade marks of the Vodafone Group. Other product and company names mentioned
herein may be the trade marks of their respective owners.
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