Thursday, February 5, 2009

Wallets May be Light, But Hearts (and Mobile Phones) are Filled With Love

-- Thumbplay Data Indicates that the Mobile Generation is Feelin' the Love this Valentine's Day, Despite Tough Times --

NEW YORK, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Thumbplay (http://www.thumbplay.com), the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., continues to keep a finger on the evidently racing pulses of the mobile generation. Today, the company reports that from November 2008 through January 2009, they have seen a 40 percent rise in love ballad downloads compared to the same period a year ago. Despite depressing economic indicators, it appears romantic indicators are decidedly on the rise heading into Valentine's Day '09.

As of Feb. 4, following is the top love-inspired content helping to spread the "mobile love" at Thumbplay.com and m.thumbplay.com:

Top-Selling Favorite Valentine MP3s:

  • Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It"
  • Kanye West's "Love Lockdown"
  • Keyshia Cole's "Heaven Sent"

Top-Selling Love Tunes "Country Style:"

  • Taylor Swift's "Love Story"
  • Brad Paisley's "Waitin' On A Woman"
  • Rascal Flatts' "Love You Out Loud"

Top-Selling "Naughty or Nice" Videos:

  • Beyonce's "Single Ladies"
  • Akon's "Don't Matter"
  • Robin Thicke's "Lost Without You"

Top-Selling Valentine's Day Voicetones:

  • "I'm Taken"
  • "Cupid Calling"
  • "Who Needs A Man"

Top-Selling Tear-Jerkers:

  • Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman"
  • Lionel Richie & Diana Ross' "Endless Love"
  • Foreigner's "I Want to Know What love Is"

Top-Selling Anti-Love Downloads:

  • Ne-yo's "So Sick"
  • Pussycat Doll's "I Hate This Part"
  • Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name"

Dedicated to providing the best and most sought-after entertainment for the mobile generation and beyond, Thumbplay.com is home to the broadest selection of seasonal content available.

ABOUT THUMBPLAY

Thumbplay's award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world's largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony 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. The recently-launched Thumbplay Open provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers (open.thumbplay.com).

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.

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.

    For More Information:
    Sumika Bajaj / Brent Harney            Susan Lietz
    Bratskeir & Company                    Thumbplay
    212.679.2233                           646.808.1556
    sbajaj@bratskeir.com                   susan.lietz@thumbplay.com
    bharney@bratskeir.com