News

RetroFolio™ receives two prestigious Mobile Music Awards

Impressive debut for Ringtone Asset Management System

Mobile MusiCon, Miami, FL, December 6th, 2004 – Consect, the leading provider of US market mobile analysis, today announced the results of the second annual Mobile Music Awards. Best of Show and Best New Technology were awarded to RetroFolio 1.0, the first ringtone asset management system created for the ringtone supply chain. The awards were presented by Devo’s Gerry Casale to Retro’s founders, Thomas Dolby Robertson and Till Tönshoff, co-creators of RetroFolio.

RetroFolio is a custom toolset that streamlines the ringtone production and delivery process by providing asset management, file validation, WAP publishing and an efficient B2B distribution mechanism. More than thirty companies from the music and wireless industries have already signed up for RetroFolio. They range from major music labels, to mobile content aggregators, to wireless operators.

"We’re honored and delighted," said Thomas Dolby Robertson, founder and president of Retro. "We identified and solved a bottleneck that insiders know is hampering the ringtone industry’s progress towards higher profits."

RetroFolio™ automatically analyzes each ringtone 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, hierarchal WAP site for testing and approval. Exported libraries conform to a target carrier’s data schema, handset list and network requirements.

A full list of the Mobile Music Awards winners is available at http://www.mobilmusicon.com.

RetroFolio Launches Innovative Ringtone Production and Delivery Tool

Groundbreaking technology protects digital assets while accelerating time to market and maximizing revenues from consumer ringtone sales

Mobile MusiCon, Miami, FL, November 18, 2004 – Retro Ringtones LLC, a leading ringtone content provider, today announced the release of RetroFolio 1.0™, 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 1.0 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 process of sharing ringtone files is often hampered by complex logistical problems for record labels, producers and mobile operators, including delays in bringing ringtones to market as well as coping with files that fail or crash the user’s mobile phone," said Thomas Dolby Robertson, founder and CEO 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 standardize, manage, deploy and protect their digital assets."

RetroFolio automatically analyzes each file and validates it against a matrix of current handsets and networks specifications, flagging any likely incompatibilities. 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, hierarchal 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 Folio 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 sales@retrofolio.com.

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About Retro Ringtones LLC

Retro Ringtones LLC is one of the first companies to recognize the need for a managed ringtone service linking producers, labels and operators. Staffed by some of the individuals that made polyphonic ringtones and ‘truetones’ a reality, Retro understands the musical, technological, legal and business aspects of the ringtone market. Retro was founded by musician Thomas Dolby Robertson—original co-developer of the Beatnik ringtone technology used by the world’s phone manufacturers—and Till Tönshoff, formerly Head of Technical Co-operations at handy.de, the mobile content division of Bertelsmann GmbH. Retro has developed a suite of server tools that form the core of this service offering. 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™ 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.

Thomas Dolby Robertson became known in the early 1980’s for his groundreaking hits and MTV videos such as “She Blinded Me With Science.” In the 1990’s, he founded Beatnik Inc and was one of the creators of the polyphonic software synthesizer technology now used by Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and others. He has since consulted with carriers and record labels, and taught dozens of musicians to program ringtones, prior to forming Retro Ringtones LLC in 2002.

Contact information:
Till Tönshoff
VP Technology
Retro Ringtones LLC
mailto:till@retroringtones.com

Simon Pitkeathley
UK Business Development
Retro Ringtones LLC
simon@retroringtones.co.uk

Thomas Dolby Robertson
CEO/US Business Development
Retro Ringtones LLC
mailto:thomas@retroringtones.com

For more information, please refer to www.retrofolio.com or www.retroringtones.com.