U2 and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) have great news for digital music fans who miss the visual experience that came with music albums. RIM today announced the U2 Mobile Album, a new mobile application for BlackBerry® smartphones that invigorates the album experience for the digital age. Developed in collaboration with the band, the exciting new U2 Mobile Album brings a rich visual experience with evolving content and an interactive dimension for the band's current Number 1 album No Line On The Horizon. The application is now available for free from www.blackberry.com/u2.
Reinventing the Album Experience for the Digital Age
The U2 Mobile Album reintroduces a wealth of material that was the norm for CD or vinyl releases, which included photos and other information that brought the listener closer, and gave a fuller picture of the artist's world. In the digital age, these elements have eroded to a pick list selection and a keyhole snapshot of visual content. The BlackBerry platform, supporting advanced multimedia features, push-based wireless connectivity and social interactivity, offers a very powerful platform to support a new type of album experience for mobile users.
"As music fans, the band has always enjoyed all the detail of an album gatefold or CD booklet. They want to make visual material available with their albums and this app is the ideal way to do it," says U2-manager, Paul McGuinness.
The new U2 Mobile Album is a free, downloadable application for BlackBerry smartphones that brings a rich, visual and interactive dimension to the music. It brings together a range of content for fans with photos, videos, interviews, news, lyrics and samples of the music, plus individual tracks or the complete album can be purchased online from a BlackBerry smartphone. A second phase of the application is also already in the works, which will add social networking elements that engage fans around the world.
"With today's announcement, we are reinventing the album experience for the digital age. We're extremely excited by the U2 Mobile Album and the opportunity to enhance the mobile music experience for U2 fans on the BlackBerry platform," said Jeff McDowell, vice president, Global Alliances, Research In Motion.
