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MIAMI--Nov. 18, 2004-- Groundbreaking Technology Protects Digital Assets While
Accelerating Time to Market and Maximizing Revenues from Consumer Ringtone Sales
Retro Ringtones LLC, a leading ringtone content provider, today announced the
release of RetroFolio 1.0(TM), the first-ever Web-based ringtone management toolset
for music producers, copyright owners and mobile operators. This custom toolset
streamlines the ringtone production and delivery process by providing asset management,
file validation, WAP publishing and an efficient B2B distribution mechanism.
RetroFolio is a Web-based tool enabling collaboration between all those involved
in the ringtone supply chain. Individual users or entire teams can build a complete
database and archive for every existing ringtone filetype, including monophonic,
polyphonic, 'truetone', and MP3 or WAV preview files. Production teams can keep
content and data centralized, restricting or sharing access between different
organizations.
"The business of creating and selling ringtone files is often hampered by complex
logistical problems for record labels, producers and mobile operators. This causes
delays in bringing ringtones to market, and sometimes leads to files that fail
or crash the user's mobile phone," said Thomas Dolby Robertson, founder and President
of Retro. "To meet this market challenge, we have created a next-generation software
toolset that gives ringtone creators and distributors a collaborative environment
to manage, deploy and protect their digital assets."
RetroFolio automatically analyzes each file and validates it against a matrix
of current handsets and networks specifications. This matrix maps 51 ringtone
formats to an astonishing 224 handsets, flagging any likely incompatibilities.
Metadata (e.g., title, artist, MIDI polyphony, MCPS TuneCode, vendor ID, etc.)
is stored together with multiple versions and formats for each ringtone. Ringtones
can be sent direct from RetroFolio to a given mobile phone number, or even 'staged'
as a private, hierarchical WAP site for testing and approval. Exported libraries
conform to a target carrier's data schema, handset list and network requirements.
"Retro identifies and addresses a key bottleneck facing this $3 billion industry,"
said Adam Zawel, director, Wireless/Mobile Enterprise & Commerce Strategies
group at Yankee Group. "RetroFolio provides a toolset for the industry by offering
third parties a way to standardize ringtone metadata and file formats, potentially
enabling a faster route to market."
Top carriers can see clear benefits to RetroFolio. "Creating the innumerable
formats to a wide range of specifications is a massive headache to composers and
IP content holders," said Jonathan Jowitt, head of enhanced multimedia development
at Orange UK. "Retro has a deep understanding of the workflow and processes involved
and RetroFolio offers a unified view, enabling content to be delivered with guarantees
of quality and compliance."
"As the mobile distribution partner for top labels like Domino, Sanctuary and
V2 Records, we work with many producers to assemble ringtones for current Top
40 hits, and it is vital that we meet tight deadlines," said Daryn Wober, International
Licensing Director of Pocket Technology Ltd. "We believe RetroFolio offers a great
collaborative solution for all the players in the chain."
A 45-day free trial account is available by special arrangement. Please visit
the Retro Ringtones booth at Mobile MusiCon 2004 for a complete demonstration.
For full pricing, features and availability, please contact
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.
About Retro Ringtones LLC
Retro Ringtones LLC was founded in 2002 by musician Thomas Dolby Robertson --
original co-developer of the Beatnik polyphonic software synthesizer technology
now used by Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and others -- and Till Toenshoff, formerly
Head of Technical Co-operations at handy.de, the mobile content division of Bertelsmann
GmbH. Retro has developed a suite of server tools to streamline the ringtone and
production delivery process. The tools were road-tested while Retro assembled
thousands of ringtones from multiple producers, and delivered unique content libraries
to customers all over Europe. These customers include Orange, Vodafone, O2, WES
and Buongiorno. RetroFolio(TM) 1.0 is the heart of this powerful web-based tools
suite, and is now being offered for the first time as a custom service to third
parties.
For more information, please refer to www.retrofolio.com or www.retroringtones.com.
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