gridMob Introduces 'iOKi' State of the Art Karaoke for iPhone Featuring
Built-In Mobile Karaoke Song Storefront; Award-Winning Lady Gaga to Launch
First Artist-Branded iOKi Player
Company partners with EMI, Sony/ATV, Universal Publishing, Disney,
Warner/Chappell, Chrysalis, Interscope, Disney Music Group and SBI to create
the first-ever karaoke store for iPhone and iPod Touch owners
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile entertainment innovators gridMob
are poised to release this month the first true karaoke experience for iPhone
and iPod Touch, with more than a touch of flair: branding by Interscope hit
artist Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga worked with gridMob to develop a customized
version of iOKi, gridMob's new application that delivers true Karaoke anywhere
including the ability to browse and purchase karaoke tracks from a vast and
fast-growing selection of songs, from right within the application. Lady Gaga
iOKi includes four Lady Gaga karaoke tracks featuring her master recordings,
plus the newly released "Bad Romance" from her soon to be released album "Fame
Monster" and is timed to release in connection with the release of Fame
Monster.
Turning any iPhone or iPod Touch into a fun and professional karaoke machine
featuring the theme, images and video of Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga iOKi is
expected to be available later this month for U.S. $4.99 through the iTunes
App store. Details are available today at www.iokikaraoke.com. Supported
languages include in English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. gridMOB expects to
deliver other versions of iOKi branded by many of the industry's leading
artists later this year, as well as its own version of the application.
gridMOB is the first company to bring together the world's best music
libraries with a fully functional, fully portable karaoke machine that people
can take anywhere, right in their pocket. iOKi also benefits the music
industry as a new platform for content distribution and artist promotion. In
addition to giving artists and labels a new means of delivering interactive
and original content to fans, it enables music publishers to broaden their
reach and make their content catalogs available in a karaoke format for
immediate purchase to tens of millions of iPhone owners around the world.
To open the first-ever karaoke track store for iPhone, gridMOB entered into
agreements with Disney Music Group for the use of original master recordings
and publishing, music publishers EMI Entertainment World, Sony/ATV Music
Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music and
Chrysalis Music Publishing as well as record label Interscope and karaoke
soundalikes company SBI America. For its artist-branded content, gridMOB
converts master recordings from the original artist into the karaoke format to
deliver the most fun and compelling karaoke experience possible.
"iOKi puts a world-class karaoke experience right in your pocket - one that
industry-leading artists, labels and publishers are getting behind," said Les
Borsai, founder of gridMob. "Lady Gaga is the perfect artist to launch with.
She's a pioneer in her art and now she's breaking ground again as the first to
deliver a very different entertainment experience that extends her music and
fashion in a completely new way."
Lady Gaga's manager Troy Carter said, "The Lady Gaga Karaoke app is a great
way for her fans to experience the music in a non-traditional way. We
constantly look for new ways that allow her community of fans to interact with
each other with the music as the centerpiece, and gridMob nailed it."
With iOKi, people can use their iPhone or iPod Touch to easily search their
karaoke song library by artist, song title, era, genre, gender or album title.
In the seamlessly integrated iOKi store, song selections are regularly updated
and range from the 1950s to today's hits from genres such as crooners, pop,
rock, country, show tunes, hip-hop, folk, ballads, indie, emo and more. Songs
can also be searched by popularity and by new releases. iOKi's easy setup only
requires a headset microphone. With Lady Gaga iOKi, a slide show featuring
images of Lady Gaga are shown behind the words during play.
iOKi also brings karaoke enthusiasts together through popular social
networking sites. The iOKi community feature can link to Twitter accounts to
let friends know when and what people are performing. More social network
connectivity is expected in the near future.
About gridMob
gridMob helps entertainment companies extend their reach through digital
technology. The company develops direct-to-consumer mobile solutions that
connect artists, record labels and publishers to fans. Focused on the
intersection of entertainment and technology, gridMob's mobile application
platform delivers innovative digital experiences that bring entertainment
brands to life. gridMob brings digital and mobile solutions together with
entertainment content in ways that are both delightful for consumers and
meaningful for the industry. The company was founded in 2007 and is located in
Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA.
SOURCE Interscope Records
Brian Domingo, +1-650-762-2916, brian.domingo@ar-edelman.com, or Meredith
Payette, +1-650-762-2921, meredith.payette@ar-edelman.com, both of A&R
Edelman
