Telecom Italia Mobile and Buongiorno Announce Mytones

Buongiorno announced an agreement with Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) to launch Mytones, a multimedia store for original ringtones, available exclusively to TIM customers with 2G or 3G handsets. Buongiorno conceived Mytones for TIM clients interested in creating and promoting their own music to an audience which demands the best original music. Mytones innovates by combining mobile user-generated content and social networking.

Consumers can access the Mytones website here or the WAP site at wap.tim.it, where they can easily create and upload ringtones, making the content available for streaming and downloading. User feedback is encouraged and creators of highly-rated ringtones will be rewarded with prizes such as free top-up credits.

Under the agreement, Buongiorno provided TIM with its expertise in conceiving, developing and delivering the Mytones websites, as well as in managing mobile content through B!3A, its proprietary technology platform conceived to design, build, manage and provide high quality services to businesses and mobile consumers around the world.

"Buongiorno's content distribution strategy is aimed at offering high quality services and content globally, both directly and in partnership with the largest mobile operators globally. The development of an interactive multimedia product in Italy, which is able to offer an original and involving approach such as Mytones, represented a stimulating challenge for the Group," commented Pierpaolo Cervi, Country Manager Italy of Buongiorno. "We see Mytones as potentially appealing to mobile audiences also outside of Italy, in territories where TIM and Buongiorno work very closely, such as Greece and Brazil."

Consumers' interest in mobile music is rapidly increasing and this is one of the main reasons that brought TIM and Buongiorno to design and launch Mytones. According to Ovum's analysts, mobile entertainment content will be worth $56 billion by 2010 and the related mobile music market will reach $25 billion dollars within the same timeframe.