Omnifone was a UK-based company that was an independent provider of cloud-based unlimited music services to consumer electronics vendors, mobile carriers, Internet service providers and consumer brands including RIM,

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

, HP, and

rara.com rara was a music streaming media service. It operated between December 2011 and March 2015. It offered ad-free, on-demand music streaming from a range of major and independent record labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainm ...

.BBC News, 13 December 2011
Omnifone enabled legitimate

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

-based unlimited music consumption and a viable alternative to piracy across multiple in-home, in-car, mobile and PC platforms, having launched its MusicStation-powered unlimited music services across five continents on a wide range of devices. On 4 May 2016 the company was placed into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...

, laying off a substantial part of its staff and looking for a buyer, whereupon the company ceased its operations. Some of its assets have been acquired by

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

Licensing

Omnifone operated licensed music services in 34 markets for its customers, which included

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainme ...

Unlimited,

Guvera Guvera was an online music and entertainment streaming service founded in 2008. Guvera had agreements with the music labels in the regions where the product was available, which allowed for legal free music streams. As of May 2017, Guvera has ...

, SiriusXM and rara.com. In June 2007 Omnifone secured the first international licensing agreements for unlimited music services with all four major music labels;

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainmen ...

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

and EMI Music. In January 2011 Omnifone secured Germany's first global subscription licensing with GEMA. In July 2012 Omnifone licensed and launched Sony Entertainment Network's Music Unlimited service in Japan, the region's ever first global music subscription service.

Services

MusicStation was Omnifone's multi-award-winning unlimited music service platform. The cloud-based technology platform worked across a wide range of different digital device types and was tailored specifically for each market, platform and partner. Omnifone provided a number of different variants of MusicStation: Omnifone's Desktop applications enabled consumers to stream, download, play and share music, direct to their desktop computer. The service was provided in partnership with personal computer vendors, mobile carrier networks, and broadband providers. MusicStation Desktop Edition provided a personalised user experience, which featured play-based music recommendations, connected community services and features, and an automatic back-up of private and public playlists to the cloud, plus online search and discovery capabilities. The service was able to synchronise with all other MusicStation-powered services and mobile devices via the cloud. In April 2009 Hutchison Telecom became the first Omnifone partner to introduce MusicStation Desktop Edition to users in Hong Kong on its 3 network provided 'in concert' with MusicStation Mobile Edition providing unlimited access to music across mobile and PC. In January 2010 MusicStation launched across Europe on HP desktop and laptop PCs in the UK, France,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Omnifone provided a range of white label and co-branded mobile apps for all major mobile platforms including Android, iOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Java. Omnifone partnered with mobile carriers and handset manufacturers to deliver mobile app based services which give consumers the ability to stream, download, play and share unlimited amounts of music, direct-to-mobile. MusicStation was pre-installed by partner carriers or downloaded for free from carrier portals such as

Vodafone Live! Vodafone live! was the brand name for the multimedia portal service of mobile phone operator Vodafone, offering news content, picture messaging, instant messaging, email, and downloadable ringtones and games. The service officially launched on 24 O ...

. Omnifone rolled out mobile apps with partners across five continents with

Vodafone UK Vodafone UK is a British telecommunications services provider, and a part of Vodafone Group Plc, the world's second-largest mobile phone company. Vodafone is the third-largest mobile network operator in the United Kingdom, with 16.9 million su ...

, Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, Telenor Sweden,

3 Hong Kong 3 Hong Kong (also known as 3HK or Three HK; ) is a telecommunications and internet service provider operating in Hong Kong by Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings, a subsidiary of CK Hutchison, operating under the global Three b ...

Vodacom Vodacom Group Limited is a South-Western African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to over 55 million customers. From its roots in South Africa, Vodacom has grown its operations to include ...

South Africa.

Funding

Omnifone was privately funded by the company's founders Rob Lewis, Phil Sant and Mark Knight with additional funding from diversified alternative investment fir
Sofaer Capital

Partnership with Gracenote

Omnifone announced a partnership with

Gracenote Gracenote, Inc. is a company owned by Nielsen Holdings that provides music, video and sports metadata and automatic content recognition (ACR) technologies to entertainment services and companies, worldwide. Formerly CDDB ("Compact Disc Data Ba ...

in January 2009 to bring interoperable cloud based unlimited music services to multiple device platforms including in-car, in-home, PC and mobile devices. A demonstration of the Omnifone/Gracenote technology won a Best of CES award at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2009 followed a year later by an announcement at CES 2010 that Omnifone had introduced digital music services with Gracenote technology in 20 countries in 2009.

History

UK entrepreneurs Rob Lewis, Phil Sant and Mark Knight established Omnifone in January 2003 after more than seven years working together in the internet space founding software development company Cromwell Media (sold to InterX for £850m in 2000) and IT industry news site Silicon.com (sold to NASDAQ-listed

CNET Networks ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

, part of

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

in 2001). The trio founded Omnifone to enable the next generation of digital content services to be delivered globally. The company spent four years developing its unlimited music service platform before announcing MusicStation in February 2007. *14 January 2003: British Entrepreneurs Rob Lewis, Phil Sant and Mark Knight form Omnifone *12 February 2007: Omnifone announces MusicStation *14 June 2007: MusicStation goes live with its first rollout in Sweden with Telenor *22 October 2007: MusicStation launches in Hong Kong with 3 *1 November 2007: MusicStation launches in South Africa with Vodacom *1 November 2007: MusicStation launches in the UK with Vodafone *12 February 2008: Omnifone launches MusicStation Max, a pre-licensed unlimited music phone development programme with LG signed up as a handset manufacturer *15 September 2008: MusicStation launches in New Zealand with Vodafone *22 September 2008: MusicStation launches in Australia with Vodafone *24 September 2008: Omnifone announces partnership with Sony Ericsson to power PlayNow plus, its pre-licensed unlimited downloads service across Walkman mobiles *14 November 2008: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Sweden with Telenor *8 January 2009: Omnifone announces partnership with Gracenote to bring unlimited music to multiple device platforms *12 January 2009: Omnifone powered in-car entertainment system CarStars wins CNET 'Best of CES' Car Tech award at the 2009 International Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas; the largest consumer electronics event in the world *16 February 2009: Omnifone announces MusicStation Next Generation unlimited music service for ISPs to fight piracy online, confirming reports that it is in discussions with BSkyB as its first ISP customer *13 March 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Switzerland with Swisscom *2 April 2009: MusicStation Desktop Edition launches in Hong Kong *23 April 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Singapore with Singtel *9 June 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Austria with Orange *8 September 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in The Netherlands with T-Mobile *14 October 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Hungary with T-Mobile *19 October 2009: BSkyB launches Sky Songs streaming and downloads service in the UK *23 October 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Brazil with Vivo *9 November 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Mexico with Telcel *20 November 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Croatia with T-Mobile *21 November 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Singapore with M1 *8 January 2010: Omnifone extends relationship with Gracenote, allows for cloud-based music solutions in more than 30 countries in 2010 *25 January 2010: Omnifone announces partnership with HP for MusicStation on PCs in 10 countries across Europe *15 February 2010: Omnifone announces MusicStation for Android *16 February 2010: Omnifone first to encode its global music catalogue into Dolby Pulse file format for cloud based digital music services in 2010 *16 April 2010: Omnifone appoints Jeff Hughes as CEO *22 December 2010: Sony launches Q Music Unlimited cloud music service powered by Omnifone in the UK and Ireland *22 January 2011: Sony launches Q Music Unlimited cloud music service powered by Omnifone in France, Germany, Italy and Spain *17 February 2011: Sony launches Q Music Unlimited cloud music service powered by Omnifone in the US, Australia and New Zealand *25 August 2011: RIM launches BBM Music social music service in beta – powered by Omnifone in the US, Canada and the UK *13 December 2011: rara.com launches across Europe and the USA – powered by Omnifone *14 December 2011: rara.com launches across New Zealand – powered by Omnifone *4 May 2016: Omnifone Group Ltd and Omifone Ltd placed in Administration (bankruptcy) *7 November 2016: Apple hired 16 employees and purchased select technology from Omnifone, player in streaming music services.

Awards

Omnifone has won a number of awards for its unlimited music services including: * Omnifone ranked 4th place in the Deloitte 2012 UK Technology Fast 50 and 1st in EMEA Fast 500 Media & Entertainment category * The Sunday Times Hiscox

Tech Track 100 The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 is an annual league table published in association with The Sunday Times newspaper in the UK. It ranks Britain’s 100 private technology (TMT) companies with the fastest-growing sales over their last three years. ...

: Omnifone was ranked 20th in the 2012 league table for continued growth over the past three years * Ernst & Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2009: London & South – Rob Lewis, CEO, Omnifone * Oracle UK Partner Awards 2009 – Most Innovative use of Oracle Technology * CNET 'Best of CES' Car Tech Award 2009 – with Gracenote * Global Mobile Awards 2008 – Best Mobile Music Service Award * Mobile Industry Awards 2008 – Best Mobile Internet Service * Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) Meffys 2007 – Music Service Award Meffy * Juniper Research Future Music Awards 2008 – Gold Award for Mobile Music * PwC UK Technology, Innovation & Growth Awards 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year – Rob Lewis, CEO, Omnifone * Oracle Magazine Editor's Choice Awards 2008 Embedded Architect of the Year – Phil Sant, COO and Mark Knight, Chief Architect, Omnifone * Mediatech 100 2008 * MCA (Mobile Content Awards) 2008: Silver Award: Best entertainment service * MAMA (Mobile Advertising & Marketing Awards) 2008: Gold Award: Most Effective Use of Music * AO (Always On) Global 250 2008 * Red Herring 100 2007 – EMEA Award 2007 * Red Herring 100 2007 – Global Award 2007

Locations

Omnifone was headquartered in Brook Green, London, with offices in Asia Pacific and the US.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Official website
Digital audio Music companies of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in London Software companies of the United Kingdom Companies established in 2003