Sprint First to Announce One Million Song Downloads for Mobile Music Service

Posted by Admin on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 03:26 pm:

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Sprint (NYSE: S) announced today that the Sprint Music Store(SM), the first music service in the U.S. to allow song downloads over the air, is now the first service to announce another industry milestone - one million songs have been downloaded by customers since the Sprint Music Store first launched on Oct. 24, 2005.

"The popularity of the Sprint Music Store is due largely to its ability to instantly deliver the songs people want when they want them on their Sprint phone, the one device that is likely always with them. This feature along with the easy-to-use storefront appeals to a mass audience in addition to tech-savvy early adopters. Our customers, many of whom may have never used a portable music player before, can quickly access the Sprint Music Store and use it immediately," said Jeff Hallock, vice president, product marketing for Sprint.

The Sprint Music Store allows customers to browse, preview and purchase songs while on the go anywhere on the nationwide Sprint Power Vision(SM) network. A growing selection of more than 320,000 songs from virtually every genre is available via EMI Music, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group.

Key advantages of the Sprint Music Store are:

• Instant ability to download songs right over the air to the phone
• Second song copy is available for download to a computer
• Intuitive easy-to-use interface and menus
• Quick access directly from the phone's main menu
• Fast downloads (generally less than 45 seconds per song)
• Storage is increasable (for example, up to 1,000 songs with 1G optional memory card)
• Ability to transfer additional unprotected CD or MP3 files to the phone via a USB cable

For $2.50 per song, customers receive two copies of the song – one for their phone and another for their PC. Customers can also burn their music to a CD using Windows Media Player. To use Sprint Music Store, a Sprint phone enabled for the Sprint Power Vision network is required, and a data plan is recommended.

About Sprint Music
Sprint continually provides wireless data services that are first, better and unique, and Sprint's music offerings are a distinct example of this leadership. Sprint was the first U.S. mobile carrier to provide:

• service that allows full-length songs to be purchased and downloaded over the air via the Sprint Music Store,
• live TV and exclusive video and audio of a full-length rock concert (Bon Jovi),
• streaming music and continues to provide exclusive streaming music channels, including SIRIUS Music and Rhapsody Radio,
• ringers that sound like actual song recordings via Music Tones and to allow customers to create their own original ring tones via ToneMaker DJ,
• gold and platinum awards when artists' albums sell 500,000 and one million Music Tones respectively

About Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business and government customers. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two robust wireless networks offering industry leading mobile data services; instant national and international walkie-talkie capabilities; and an award-winning and global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit www.sprint.com/mr.