October 21, 2001
BMI Deal Gives Zingy Ringtone Rights to Millions of Songs
Press Release
New York (October 29, 2001) — Zingy, a leading wireless entertainment portal, today announced a comprehensive agreement with leading performing rights group BMI that allows Zingy to distribute ringtone versions of any of the millions of BMI-represented songs. Ringtones are digitized melodies that play on wireless phones in lieu of a traditional ring. Zingy, which provides thousands of downloadable ringtones at zingy.com, is one of the first wireless content providers to aggressively secure blanket performance rights for this new medium.
“Based on the success in Japan and Western Europe, we believe that ringtones could develop into a significant music market for the U.S. “ said Richard Conlon, Vice President of BMI’s internet licensing group. “With pioneering companies like Zingy ensuring that composers and publishers are properly compensated, ringtones could become one of the fastest growing forms of digital music.”
“Customized ringtones will have all the buzz that P2P had last year, without the legal issues that clouded that mode of content distribution,” said Zingy founder and CEO Fabrice Grinda. “Zingy is setting the tone: wireless entertainment companies who want to win will play by the rules.”
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Zingy Signs Ringtone Rights Deal with BMI
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About BMI
Founded in 1940, BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers from around the world and in all genres of music. Through its music performance and reciprocal agreements, it grants businesses and media access to its repertoire of approximately 4.5 million musical works. It was one of the first established music companies to embrace the Internet to proactively develop new revenue streams for songwriters.
About Zingy
New York-based Zingy is the first comprehensive wireless entertainment portal in the U.S. geared to the unique wireless personalization, communication and entertainment needs of teens and young adults. Wireless entertainment – a billion dollar business in Europe and Asia – is just taking off in the U.S., as teens and young adults become an increasing part of the domestic wireless market. Zingy.com features thousands of downloadable ringtones and logos and allows users to send text messages to virtually any wireless phone. For more information, see Zingy.com.
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