Planet Funk to Release Single Exclusively on 3G Mobile

Europe UK : History is made today as the UK’s first “mobile only” single is announced by mobile media company 3. The single "Stop Me", by Planet Funk will be released on 8 May 2006.

This breakthrough follows the trend of bands using new media like the internet to build a fanbase before ‘coming from nowhere’ to top the charts. These “blog bands” such as Nizlopi, Arctic Monkeys (both had number 1 hits) and more recently OK Go (whose £13 video has been the most downloaded video on the internet) have shown that artists are adopting technology to break their music, rather than following a traditional promotional route.

Planet Funk is taking this concept one step further by releasing their debut single in the UK on the 3 mobile network, following their success on 3’s sister music service in Italy. The track will be available exclusively to 3’s 3.5 million customers in the UK .

This first for the UK market comes as 3 celebrates the millionth audio track download in just four months since the launch of the service, and soon after being named ‘Best Digital Music Service’ at the Music Week awards.

With average sales of over 200,000 tracks per month, 3’s audio service has made up over 53% of mobile track downloads since the start of 2006, according to the Official Charts Company (OCC), the body responsible for compiling the UK charts.

Its figures also show that 3’s audio sales already account for 3.7% of the combined singles chart and 7.5% of the download chart this year.

Alex Neri of Planet Funk said: “Releasing "Stop Me" on 3 makes perfect sense for us. People’s musical habits are changing and millions of people now effectively have a record shop in their pocket 24 hours a day. We know that 3’s customers are huge music fans and releasing "Stop Me" solely on their network opens up our music to a whole new audience of over 3.5 million people in the UK.”

With 3’s pioneering dual-download service, Planet Funk fans can download the full-length audio track to both their mobile and PC with one single purchase of 99p. The "Stop Me" video, featuring iconic robot Alphio, and behind-the-scenes footage into the making of this internationally acclaimed music promo will also be available.

Graeme Oxby, 3’s Marketing Director believes in the growing importance of mobile as a way to promote and sell music: “Mobile is a great way to reach impulsive consumers who want to buy and listen to music wherever they are – we understand this, having sold over 16 million music downloads – and we believe it should be open to anyone and everyone.”

Planet Funk has enjoyed success with their international hit "Chase the Sun" and are looking to "Stop Me" to break the band in the UK. Their original sound has been compared to New Order and Massive Attack and with an internationally acclaimed video for "Stop Me", they expect to make huge inroads in the UK pop market.

3 will be mounting a marketing campaign to promote the single to its 3.5 million customers in the run-up to release in May. This will include a dedicated microsite offering information on the band, competitions and free downloads as well as promotion on 3’s Today on 3 portal. The track will also be seeded as a free dialtune available to 3 customers, so anyone calling them will hear the track while they are waiting for the phone to be answered.

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