9th Jan 2006 07:01
Vodafone Group Plc09 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 globalroll-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 recordcompanies, and many smaller independent labels. Customers can access streamedradio channels, bespoke collections, and channels defined by customersthemselves. 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 theirown 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 tothe 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 havecharacteristics in common with songs that are liked, whilst avoiding songs withcharacteristics 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 orgenre. If the customer indicates that they don't like the song, the channelskips to the next track within the channel. Customers can also buy any songsthat they like and these will be automatically available for download to theirphone and PC. Personal Channels. By rating songs on the existing radio channels, the customercan create a number of new, personal channels corresponding to their desiredgenres, moods or specific themes. Collections. Vodafone Radio DJ also presents programmed collections of songs tothe customer on mobile phone or PC. These collections will be created by localmusic experts around a theme (eg Christmas Hits, or the Best New Hip-Hop), beupdated regularly, and will comprise about 15 songs. Songs purchased on either mobile phone or PC will be available to download onboth devices, with a separate high quality stereo copy being deliveredindividually to each. Personal settings and personal channels created on themobile phone will also be accessible from the PC. The Radio DJ service will be offered on the basis of a monthly subscription forunlimited listening to music on both mobile phone and PC. There will be no extracharge to the consumer for the data traffic needed to deliver the music to thephone or PC. Vodafone Radio DJ will be launched in six European countries in the comingmonths, namely UK, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It is intended itwill then be rolled out to more than 20 countries worldwide over the followingtwelve months. "This is the beginning of a new era in portable music. This partnership withSony will drive Vodafone's strategy to become a leading global music provider.Vodafone Radio DJ is a revolutionary new way to discover personal music, anytimeand anywhere, and we anticipate it will have widespread consumer appeal amongstour customers", said Lee Fenton, Director of Consumer Platforms at Vodafone. "Subscribers to Vodafone Radio DJ can listen to all the music they like, anddiscover new music to love. Vodafone Radio DJ opens a world of music discoveryand listening pleasure on both the mobile phone and on the PC", said RobertAshcroft, Managing Director Sony NetServices and Senior Vice President SonyEurope. - ends - NOTES TO EDITORS For more information, please contact at Sony:Jean-Baptiste Duprieu, Sony EuropeTel: 0044 1932 817349 / email: [email protected] Or Martina Boyles, Sony EuropeTel: 0049 302515 5161 / email: [email protected] For more information, please contact at Vodafone: Media RelationsTel: +44 (0) 1635 664444 Investor RelationsTel: +44 (0) 1635 664447 About Sony: Sony manufactures audio, video, communications and information technologyproducts for the global consumer and professional markets. With its music,pictures, game and online businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be one ofthe World's Leading Consumer Brands. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales ofEUR 53.43 billion (yen 7,160 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005and it employs approximately 151,400 people worldwide. In Europe, Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of EUR 12.03 billion (yen1,613 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, based on an averagemarket 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 responsiblefor the company's European electronics business and registered consolidatedsales 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 innovativecontent services for various media platforms such as mobile phones, homeentertainment equipment and PCs. SNSE supports the Sony Corporate Goal ofgenerating 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 Servicesin Europe: StreamMan, CONNECT Europe and Tvtv. Sony NetServices, a 50/50 jointventure of Sony DADC and Sony Europe, was founded in April 2000. For more information on Sony Europe, please visit http://www.sony-europe.com andhttp://www.sony-europe.com/presscenter About Vodafone: Vodafone is the world's leading mobile telecommunications group with operationsin 27 countries across 5 continents, as well as 28 partner networks. As at 30September 2005, Vodafone had 171 million proportionate customers worldwide. Forfurther information, please visit www.vodafone.com. (c) Vodafone Group 2006. VODAFONE, Vodafone live! and the Vodafone logos aretrade marks of the Vodafone Group. Other product and company names mentionedherein may be the trade marks of their respective owners. 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