Thumbplay News

In 2008, Purchases of Mobile Entertainment Content Provide Unique Insights of
America’s Tech-Savy Electorate

NEW YORK – October 29, 2008 – According to Thumbplay® (www.thumbplay.com), the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S.*, the public is turning out in force to support their candidates through purchases of mobile entertainment content. While electoral votes are still up for grabs, the tech-savvy “e-lectorate” has clearly thrown its support – and its purchasing power – behind Senator Obama. Thumbplay customers are, on average, age 18 – 34, 59 percent of whom are female, and reside predominantly in the Top 20 U.S. markets.

As of 10/28/08, Thumbplay.com confirms that Obama-related content has out-sold McCain-related content by a 9 to 1 margin. The results are based on Obama and McCain related content -- including ringtones, videos and wallpapers – purchased on Thumbplay.com

Following provides a snapshot of top content for each candidate:

Top Obama-related entertainment content sold on Thumbplay.com:
• #1 Real tone -- Tell Yo Mama, Vote Obama
• #1 Video – Candidates-Obama Video
• #1 Wallpaper – Obama, My Homeboy (Election O8)

Top McCain-related entertainment content sold on Thumbplay.com:
• #1 Real tone -- McCain Love Ballad
• #1 Video -- Palin Moose Call
• #1 Wallpaper – McCain Republican Elephant Blue (Election 08)

Visit www.thumplay.com to check out the leading ringtones, wallpaper and video content from both candidates.

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Team Recognized For "Business Leadership & Innovation"

NEW YORK – October 29, 2008 – At the sixth annual New York Ten Awards™ Gala held yesterday by the Executive Council of New York, the premier business forum for leaders and innovators, Thumbplay® (www.thumbplay.com) received the award for "Best Executive Team." Are Traasdahl, Founder & CEO of Thumbplay, the #1 mobile entertainment service in the U.S.*, had the honor of receiving the award along with Evan Schwartz, co-founder and CMO; Scott Marshall, COO and CFO; Markus Thorstvedt, CTO; Joe Bilman, chief product officer; and Lasse Hamre, EVP/Technology. The Ten Awards is a selection of ten companies and individuals in the greater New York business community that display extraordinary innovation and leadership in their industries and beyond.

The Executive Council of New York selected the Thumbplay team as "Best Executive Team" from hundreds of entrants. Other finalists for the award included teams from The Blackstone Group and iSeatz. This is the third Ten Award given to Thumbplay by the Executive Council of New York. In 2006, the company received the "Best New Product or Service" award; and in 2007, for his innovation and leadership as CEO of Thumbplay, Traasdahl received the honor of "Best Emerging CEO."

"We have achieved our success by concentrating on three key areas: customer satisfaction, product innovation and building strategic partnerships," said Are Traasdahl, CEO and founder of Thumbplay. "This focus requires a dynamic, committed leadership team, and I could not be more proud of the executives who have brought us to such extraordinary heights. We’re extremely honored to have their daily guidance and thank the Executive Council for its recognition."

The Ten Awards winners were chosen from open nominations submitted to the Executive Council of New York. Hundreds of nominations were screened and evaluated by a panel of judges comprised of prominent journalists from New York-based local and national business media outlets, and evaluated based on the individual’s contributions to his or her organization’s objectives and leadership; the organization’s impact on business innovation, both in New York and nationally; and the individual’s industry leadership beyond his or her organization.

Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library currently consists of more than 100,000 pieces of licensed content. Their award-winning direct-to-consumer service is accessible on more than 2,000 devices among every major carrier in the U.S.

The company has maintained and grown its leadership position in the industry by providing its consumers with the best possible customer experience, including live, "24/7/365" customer service and a commitment to delivering the largest catalog of entertainment possible. Thumbplay’s "locker" service also allows users to automatically back-up and store purchased items.

Thumbplay features licensed music, video and gaming content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site.

Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

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By Antony Bruno, Denver

The music industry's bid to sell full-song downloads from ringtones gained an ally today with the unveiling of Thumbplay's new full-song mobile music service.

Hoping to do for full-song music downloads what it did for ringtones, Thumbplay's beta-store lets subscribers of all mobile operators buy and download music to more than 2,000 compatible phones. At launch, it has licensing deals with Universal Music Group and EMI Music Group, as well as independent aggregators The Orchard and INgrooves, totaling about 1.5 million tracks. Other independent labels, as well as majors Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, continue to be courted.

Tracks will be DRM-free, and will cost 99-cents through an eMusic-like subscription model. Thumbplay will charge $9.99 a month for access to the full-song service, for which customers will get 10 credits redeemable for one song each. New subscribers will get 10 free credits as a bonus for signing up.

Read the entire article on Billboard.biz here.

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Millions of Music Fans Now Have Instant Access to DRM-Free Songs, Downloadable to Multiple Mobile Devices and Players

NEW YORK –October 28, 2008 – Thumbplay® (www.thumbplay.com), the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S.*, has launched a full-service digital music store in Beta. Through Thumbplay, millions of music fans can now download -- wirelessly -- DRM-free songs directly to select MP3-enabled phones as well as PCs.

To date, Thumbplay has secured rights to more than 1.5 million songs from major labels including Universal Music Group and EMI Music, and from independent digital music providers The Orchard and INgrooves. Additional relationships and content deals are underway and are likely to be announced soon.

With access to music through both the Thumbplay web and mobile sites, customers now receive the instant gratification of fast, easy song downloading from any location. Moreover, audio quality has been optimized for superior mobile playback while file sizes have been kept to a minimum. In addition to the ability to download songs, to select MP3-enabled phones and PCs, the music can be transferred to most portable music players, including the iPod™. Customers can instantly and easily search for and purchase music in addition to the extensive array of other content the company offers, including games, videos and more. Thumbplay’s MP3 downloads are .99¢ per song through monthly subscriptions. For $9.99 per month, Thumbplay customers are given 10 credits to be used toward any content on the service; MP3s are one credit, or .99¢ each. The value to new customers is even greater, as they automatically receive 10 bonus credits in their first month of service.

"Right now, there are millions of customers who own phones that are already able to serve as excellent MP3 players; and, in fact, a significant number of consumers are now using their phones as their primary entertainment devices,"** said Are Traasdahl, CEO and Founder of Thumbplay. "The number of our customers with MP3-enabled phones has grown five-fold in the last 18 months alone. Naturally, we had to respond to such demand, and at the same time, we had to deliver the great customer-experience Thumbplay users have come to expect. I’m proud to say we’ve accomplished both goals today with our new digital music store, thanks in large part to such terrific launch partners as Universal Music, EMI Music, The Orchard and INgrooves."

Thumbplay offers a wide range of entertainment content, direct-to-consumers, on more than 2,000 devices among every major carrier in the U.S.

The company has maintained and grown its leadership position in the industry by providing its users with the best possible customer experience, including live, "24/7/365" customer service and a commitment to delivering the largest catalog of entertainment possible.

Thumbplay features licensed music, video and gaming content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites.

Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

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NEW YORK – October 23, 2008 – Thumbplay® (www.thumbplay.com), the #1 mobile entertainment content service in the U.S.*, has been named the winner of the Rising Star award in Deloitte & Touche USA LLP's Technology Fast 50 program for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The Rising Star award, presented last night in a ceremony in New York City, is a special designation for fast-growing companies that have been in business a minimum of three years, but less than five. Deloitte & Touche's New York, New Jersey, Connecticut Technology Fast 50 program ranks the 50 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, and life sciences companies in the tri-state area. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over three years (2005–2007).

Thumbplay's revenue grew 275% in 2007 over 2006. As of 2Q‘08, Thumbplay has widened its dominant leadership position even further and currently has more than 15% market share in the U.S. (Nielsen Mobile's "Mobile Content Storefront Revenue” Report).

"Thumbplay's ongoing commitment to technological innovation, exceptional customer service and strategic partnerships has definitely paid off,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and founder of Thumbplay. "This approach has placed us firmly at the forefront of what is happening in mobile entertainment, and it has allowed us to enjoy the accelerated growth recognized today by Deloitte.”

To qualify for the Technology Fast 50 Rising Star program, companies must have had operating revenues of at least $50,000 in 2005 and $5,000,000 in 2007, be headquartered in North America, and own proprietary technology or proprietary intellectual property that contributes to a significant portion of the company's operating revenues or devote a significant proportion of revenues to the research and development of technology. Using other companies' technology or intellectual property in a unique way does not qualify.

"To be honored by Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 Rising Star, companies within New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut must have had tremendous revenue growth over three years from 2005–2007,” said Kevin Buckley, Technology Fast 50 Program Director, Deloitte Services LP. "Deloitte applauds Thumbplay for having the long-term vision to develop technologies that change the way we work and play.”

Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay's extensive and ever-growing entertainment library currently consists of more than 100,000 pieces of licensed content. Their award-winning direct-to-consumer service is accessible on more than 2,000 mobile devices among every major carrier in the U.S.

The company has maintained and grown its leadership position in the industry by providing its consumers with the best possible customer experience, including live, "24/7/365” customer service and a commitment to delivering the largest catalog of entertainment possible. Thumbplay's "locker” service also allows users to automatically back-up and store purchased items.

Thumbplay features licensed music, video and gaming content from some of the world's largest entertainment companies, including EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay's mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web's leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay's reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant's mobile content site.

Each month, Thumbplay.com receives more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

About Deloitte
As used in this document, "Deloitte” means Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.

About Thumbplay
Thumbplay, Inc. is defining the mobile entertainment experience for U.S. consumers. As the largest and fastest growing mobile entertainment content destination, Thumbplay gives consumers access to the broadest and deepest catalog in the industry, spanning audio, video and gaming content from the leading music labels and artists, game publishers and media companies. Its innovative delivery and marketing platform makes it easy for users to discover, manage, store and share mobile content online and on their wireless devices.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by 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.

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