The MoPR Blog

Ethan Smith and Jessica Vascellaro of the Wall Street Journal recently reported on MySpace’s new tinkering in the digital music arena. By offering a new service, MySpace Music, the social networking site will host free streaming and downloads of music provided by major record labels.

MySpace has already held meetings with some of top labels—Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group—in attempts to partner for content that would be supported by advertisements. Users could enjoy free music via their computers and almost any mobile device, like their mobile phone, MP3 player or iPod.

This development is very interesting, as MySpace is looking to amp its entertainment offerings to compete with sites like Facebook and free entertainment dotcoms like Slacker.

While MySpace provided no official comment on the online entertainment news, they are many competing music services that could be affected by the online giant’s foray into the digital music realm.

As I read this article, I thought of new MoPR client Unicorn Media, a soon-to-be-launched digital music service that offers free content to users based on an ad-supported business model, much like MySpace Music will be.

Unicorn stands out from the competition in quality and innovation, as well as service to the consumer and artist. The major difference between Unicorn and sites like MySpace Music and Pandora is Unicorn Media’s unique offering to the musician and the listener.

Unicorn presents content from unsigned and emerging artists, providing free exposure to up-and-comers trying to break into the business. Musicians then have access to a new audience and a platform to launch their success.

Artists will be posted to Unicorn’s site for free and their music sold to a growing audience, while retaining full rights to the content. This means no distribution contracts or exclusivity rights—artists are free to post their music elsewhere, cross-promote and publish work with no restrictions.

On the other end of the headphones, the listener gets access to the newest, most promising bands and the opportunity to be there from the beginning, offering support to budding artists in many musical genres. The artists launching Unicorn Media represent the best and brightest upcoming talent.

Unicorn will not officially launch until the SXSW Music and Media Conference in Austin, TX the second week in March, but free music from fresh artists is a hard deal to beat. The site will go live in about 2 weeks, so keep an eye out!

Thanks to Ethan and Jessica for the great article.

Stay tuned for more updates on Unicorn Media and all MoPR clients in the upcoming months.

Next week, MoPR client Hovr will head out to California for the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) in San Francisco with a message for the developers behind the mobile games that make up the Hovr service: “We can make you money!” Now what game developer won’t want to hear that message?

By providing mobile games to users free of charge, supported by short advertisements before and after game play, Hovr eliminates the cost barrier for mobile game adoption—a strong value statement in the eyes of mobile game developers looking to have their games played.

The value gained from working with Hovr is a no-brainer for game developers—Hovr offers worldwide exposure for their games and financial gain through ad revenues. For some mobile game developers it’s the consumer audience that Hovr brings to their hot new mobile games that is key, while other developers find Hovr’s ability to make them money from games they can no longer sell or that have been long ignored is the strongest value statement. No matter which message is resonating with mobile game developers, GDC will be a great opportunity for Hovr to make its presence known in the gaming industry and to get the message out about its great service.

GDC will be held in San Francisco, February 18-22 and includes many social events, networking opportunities and sessions on every aspect of the game development industry. Topics covered will include the future of gaming, music in video games, game design and mobile.

In addition to the conference itself, GDC hosts a two-day mobile event beginning on the first day of the conference. Operators, developers and independent content distributors will hear the latest results from mobile market research studies and have the opportunity to attend over 50 sessions, lectures, panels and roundtables about mobile gaming.

GDC just announced two of the keynote speakers for the mobile event: Anssi Vanjoki of Nokia and N-Gage and Michel Guillemot of Gameloft. Guillemot will focus on the ways to overcome the obstacles of technology, distribution and design in the $3 billion mobile games industry. In short, how can mobile games become a mass market phenomena in the global marketplace?

If you are heading to show and are interested in some advance perspective from Hovr on this topic, drop us a line. Hovr is happy to discuss the future of mobile gaming and the ways in which companies can overcome the obstacles standing in the way of mass market adoption.

Hovr can speak from experience about its success using a combination of social networking, free access to a broad catalog of games and unlimited access to get its service in the hands of consumers all over the world.

If you’re interested in learning more about Hovr or would like to speak with CEO and co-founder, Vipul Sawhney, please contact me directly and I’ll be happy to set it up.

Good luck to Hovr at this upcoming industry conference!