UrFilez Launches DRM-Free MP3 Music Service in the Gulf

State-of-the-art technology delivers one of the most advanced music platforms available anywhere in the world

Algorithm-based recommendation engine enables superior user experience

Technology enables easier use of mobile music, creating new revenue generators in the developing world

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Sep 26, 2010, 07:00 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- (http://www.myprgenie.com) -- UrFilez, (http://www.urfilez.com), a leading digital music service for the Middle East, Africa and Asian markets, today announced a new digital rights management (DRM)-free MP3 service in Bahrain with content from all four major record labels.

UrFilez has launched its new music download service together with on-demand streaming and personalized radio mobile applications for Blackberry, iPhone and Android users. Consumers will now be able to use their MP3 downloads without restrictions across the full array of playback devices, including PCs, mobile phones, portable media players and CD players. The streaming services and mobile applications give consumers portability and access to the full library for extremely affordable prices.

"UrFilez's senior executives were at the forefront of the digital music revolution when it was launched in 1998 and have been involved with many of the leading technologies and advancements in this space over the last 12 years," said Hassan Miah, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of UrFilez. "Our technology has been developed by an international team comprised of PhD qualified engineers, who have been educated at the most advanced music technology universities in the world. Music has the power to bring people together and we are proud to play a part in being able to now bring it into people's lives in new and exciting ways."

The UrFilez platform is highly advanced, offering a state-of-the-art algorithm-based recommendation engine and global music discovery, made possible through the use of One Llama technology, a company that UrFilez recently acquired. It is the only software in the world designed to analyze music from all over the world, in any language, tempo or genre and exposes consumers to new music that fits their own personal tastes regardless of its country of origin.

"We are very excited that our groundbreaking technology is being integrated into the UrFilez platform. From day one, our goal was to help people all over the world discover new music, and we believe UrFilez is uniquely positioned to make this happen," said One Llama CEO Rob Schultz.

One Llama uses a combination of collaborative filtering (CF) and audio similarity (AS) modeling to generate recommendations. Its model harvests cultural references and social networking data about each track and listens to the audio using an advanced "virtual ear". The result is a stronger combined logic for all its recommendations. The One Llama method has the advantage of being able to give intelligent recommendations for new audio tracks immediately while becoming increasingly smarter as additional information is collected about the tracks from playlists, downloads and user feedback.

UrFilez also uses the envIO Networks (envIO) ringtone and ringback service, another technology UrFilez recently exclusively licensed for the emerging markets. envIO, which is backed by the leading venture capital firms, Matrix Partners and Northbridge Venture Partners, has had over 4 million downloads for its ringback and ringtone service. Operating since 2008 in India for Bharti Airtel, the application enables users to search, share, purchase and organize ringtones and ringback tones. The envIO service includes java applications that work on virtually every handset now being sold and server technology to browse, preview, select, pay and acquire content. Ringtones/Ringback tones are currently the largest source of music related revenue for telecommunication companies, accounting for over 90% in the emerging markets.

"We are excited that envIO's proprietary ringtone and ringback tone technology is being integrated into the UrFilez platform. The UrFilez platform complements envIO's ringtone and ringback tone technology and provides envIO with an opportunity to serve targeted ads in emerging markets," said Manish Jha, the CEO of envIO Networks.

The mobile revolution

UrFilez is revolutionising the development of mobile music in emerging markets, with consumers now also being able to easily access content via the web or any data connected phone. The company has developed mobile applications for the major platforms (BlackBerry, iPhone, Android-based handsets) to make it easy to play, find, and discover music.

Telecommunication companies recognize how this technology can facilitate greater consumption of mobile music. They are investing heavily in upgrading their networks to include high-speed data transfer and are actively seeking increased revenue from value-added services.

Payment mechanisms are made easy with UrFilez offering convenience for mobile users, with individuals able to pay for the service via their prepaid or post-paid mobile account with participating telecommunication partners. Consumers can also pay on-line with a credit card and then access content via the phone or web. Soon, consumers will also be able to purchase prepaid cards at retail outlets to use the service on any mobile network. UrFilez's advanced content delivery and billing platform for mobile music creates new revenue generators for emerging markets.

For further information, please contact:

Tim Mullen
Bell Pottinger Middle East
Dir: +973 16 536 142
Email: [email protected]

Claire Mercuri
Claire Mercuri Public Relations
Dir: +1 212 535 7189
Email: [email protected]

ABOUT URFILEZ

Based out of New York City, USA and founded in 2007 by established digital entrepreneurs, UrFilez is the leading digital media download community providing music and video content over broadband and mobile networks to emerging markets around the globe. The company is integrating the world's best technologies and partnering with the most innovative international telcos. For more information, please visit, www.urfilez.com.

ABOUT ONE LLAMA

One Llama Media Inc. (OLMI) is a software technology enterprise based out of the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois. Seed funding has been provided by Illinois Ventures and the Illinois Accelerator Fund. The company is the brainchild of veteran computer scientists and software engineers at the University of Illinois, who applied their love of music towards creating an "artificial ear" which uses advanced waveform analysis to extract hundreds of musical features from a tune and make deductions about tune-to-tune similarities and differences.

Applications of the One Llama technology include music search and recommendations by track, artist, and playlist, providing contextual ad serving based on almost any metadata set, and pattern and anomaly detection in almost any type of signal that can be expressed as a waveform.

The One Llama team has collaborated with world-class experts in Information Sciences, Semantic Web and Music Information Retrieval in a relentless quest to hone their technology. Over the past two years the know how has been leveraged into a best in class, collaborative filtering engine that is capable of analyzing even very large datasets of almost any kind, and returning a wide variety of recommendations to users. Proprietary algorithms include advanced mathematical techniques, including latent semantic analysis.

ABOUT ENVIO

envIO's patent-pending Social Genome(TM) technology helps consumers discover apps and content from the people they trust most -- their friends! envIO works with leading carriers, handset manufacturers, publishers and advertisers globally to drive discovery and merchandising of mobile content and targeting of relevant advertising. envIO's branded service, Chorus, is currently available as a standalone app from iTunes and the App Store for iPhones and iPod Touch. The company is backed by premier venture capital companies, Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.

envIO has been operating since 2008 in India for Bharti Airtel, which has over 100 million subscribers in India and is the 5th largest mobile operator in the world. To date, over 4 million users have downloaded the envIO application. It is the only service that enables consumers to preview ringback tones from the mobile handset and is integrated with Bharti Airtel's Hello Tunes service.

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SOURCE UrFilez