Sony Leads the Convergence of Mobile Phones and PCs With the New Personalized Music Service StreamMan
Berlin, Germany (ots/PRNewswire)
- The Beginning of a New Era in Mobile Phone Entertainment in Finland
Sony Network Services Europe and telecommunications operator TeliaSonera Finland are launching today the latest version of StreamMan, the world's first mobile music streaming service. StreamMan is an exciting new service that responds to a rapidly increasing consumer demand for personal music entertainment on the mobile phone. As well as offering instant access to a vast library of music on demand, the new version allows users to download songs to their phone, access special community features such as messaging and even listen to personalized channels and playlists on their PC via broadband. StreamMan is the next generation of mobile phone entertainment and represents a major opportunity for telecommunications providers across Europe to enhance their service to customers. At the heart of StreamMan is a personalization engine that is easy-to-use, making the new service an individual music library for everyone!
"With the launch of StreamMan in Finland, the mobile phone has entered an exciting new era of personalized music entertainment. Enjoy old favourites, new favourites and discover a whole world of new music! The unique personalization technology allows you not only to define personal radio channels, but also to refine them by interacting with the service. We are really excited about the future of this service and look forward to developing a successful partnership with mobile phone operators in other countries in the near future." Says Robert Ashcroft, Senior Vice President of Sony Network Services Europe. "New features including the ability to download tracks and listen to personal channels and playlists at home on the PC, make StreamMan one of the most innovative developments in mobile music entertainment for years. StreamMan is an entirely new concept, enabling the users to get most out of a vast library of content via an easy-to-use, intuitive interface!"
Ultimate Choice and Convenience
Today's digital consumers want instant access to their favourite music with the freedom and flexibility to listen to what they want, when they want, where they want. StreamMan uses the mobile phone as the key content provider to offer an extensive range of music from major labels such as Sony Music, BMG and Warner Music, as well as leading independents and representatives. With over 400,000 licensed tracks from international and local artists on the StreamMan database, the service offers customers an unrivalled choice of music. In addition to streaming, subscribers can browse through the database, listening to a number of tracks in various theme-based channels or search by genre for favourite songs or artists which can then easily be stored in personal playlists of up to 40 tracks. This is a great way for consumers to discover new music tailored to their individual tastes. StreamMan also allows users to access up-to-the-minute news, sports and business bulletins from local news providers plus a variety of music and entertainment content such as artist and band biographies, photos and samplers of new recordings. With content updated regularly and including special features such as local event coverage and weekly highlights, the service always remains fresh and original.
The Beginning of a New Era
The launch of StreamMan in Finland is the first step in redefining convergent music entertainment for a new generation of consumers. With a rapidly growing demand for a more personalized music experience using the mobile phone and the PC, telecommunications providers across Europe are already looking to adopt the service as part of their product portfolio. Sony expects a major rollout of StreamMan to other countries throughout 2005.
About Sony Network Services Europe
Sony Network Services creates, develops and operates innovative content services for various media platforms such as mobile phones, home entertainment equipment and PCs. Sony Network Services supports the Sony Corporate Goal of generating growth through device and content convergence. StreamMan was created, developed and implemented by Sony Network Services in Salzburg, Austria.
www.sonynetservices.com
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 become a leading personal broadband entertainment company in the 21st century. In Europe, Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of EUR 13.47 billion (yen 1,765 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004, based on an average market exchange rate for the same period of yen 131 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 8.71 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004.
For more information on Sony Europe, please visit http://www.sony-europe.com and http://www.sony-europe.com/presscenter
Contact:
For more information, please contact: Sylvia Shin, Corporate
Communications Europe, Sony Europe GmbH, tel: +49-30-2575-5156 email:
Sylvia.Shin@eu.sony.com Shusuke Kanai, Corporate Communications
Europe, Sony Europe GmbH, tel: +44-(0)1932-817357 or
+44-(0)-7786-115086 email: Shusuke.Kanai@eu.sony.com