PRESS RELEASE
As Moodagent Music App Picks Up Steam on iTunes, Syntonetic Seeks to Fine-tune Business Model
Listener choices slated for coming months; changes to help bolster Syntonetic’s growing music recommendation and playlisting business
SAN FRANCISCO, January 25, 2010 – Syntonetic Inc., creator of Moodagent music profiling and recommendation technology, today announced plans to modify its business model to offer customers a number of different ways to enjoy Moodagent. The move is intended to help strengthen the company’s fiscal resources and enable it to continue offering the iPhone app for free on iTunes.
Moodagent creates instant playlists by utilizing touchscreen sliders to help express the desired mood of the music added to that playlist. The sliders can be moved up or down to indicate the level of sensual, tender, joyous and aggressive qualities of the desired music, and to adjust the tempo. Additionally, the company continues to work to license the technology for music distribution services.
To start, Syntonetic will employ an advertising-based strategy that will make it possible for customers to continue using Moodagent free of charge. The company plans to work with an ad server provider to help maximize inventory with advertisers that specifically want to target people interested in music. Later, that strategy will be expanded to include mood-based targeting: Advertisers will have the ability to attach mood tags to their ads, enabling the app to serve up ads that correlate to the emotions or mood of the listener’s playlist. A paid, ad-free version will be available for those who do not wish to view ads. Moodagent listeners can expect to see the ads emerge during the early Spring timeframe.
Another potential choice for Moodagent listeners is a Premium vs. Lite option, where certain features would be provided in both the free and paid versions, and other features bundled exclusively into the Premium, non-ad version.
“During the past few months, we have carefully deliberated the best way to market and sell our music profiling and recommendation technology, and ultimately settled on a multi-pronged approach. Since one model may not be enough to sustain the business, we are considering potentially augmenting with three other models as well,” said Richard French, CEO of Syntonetic. “Unlike many in the mobile app arena, Syntonetic has so much more to offer consumers than just a great app. The Moodagent technology has really put the company at an advantage, and we intend to capitalize on that differentiator as much as possible.”
Making the most of the technology behind Moodagent, Syntonetic is looking to put its capacity for music recommendation to work within the mobile app. As music playlists are created based on a persons mood, the Moodagent engine could then recommend music he or she does not already own that would be appropriate for that specific playlist. Moodagent would direct the listener to the iTunes store for purchase as part of the iTunes affiliate program.
Finally, at the request of many Moodagent listeners, Syntonetic is considering an iTunes plug-in that would grant the ability to create playlists using sliders or a seed track on the desktop. The plug-in would also work in conjunction with the listener’s iPhone or iPod Touch.
The first modification of Syntonetic’s business model will occur within the next 2-3 months, with other changes transpiring throughout the rest of 2010.
For a closer look at Moodagent, Syntonetic will exhibit the mobile application and music profiling and recommendation technology at next month’s Macworld 2010, in the Mobile Application Showcase, Booth #1366, Kiosk #57. Moodagent experts will give live demos for event attendees.
About Syntonetic
Syntonetic delivers powerful solutions for leading mobile device manufacturers, mobile operators, online music businesses and streaming music services, and provides applications direct to consumers. The company’s intelligent applications automatically decode unique properties within songs, including moods and emotions, to create new music services that attract and retain users, and applications that change the way people listen to music. More than 1,000,000 customers from 187 different countries have synced over 1 billion songs to create instant playlists based on moods and emotions. Syntonetic offices are located in Frederiksberg, Denmark, and San Francisco, Calif., and can be found online at www.syntonetic.com.
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