Mobile Phone and Music

Ringing the Soundbuzz headquarters hotline got us nowhere, confirming that its doors have been shuttered in preparation for its pending closure. On the Soundbuzz site, a notice tells readers that the music downloads site will closing down on July 15, 2009.I may not be a regular user of its online store, but I first came across Soundbuzz when a coupon for a couple of free song downloads fell out as I was unboxing my 128MB Creative Muvo TX player way back then.

Yup, the online store has around that long, and news of its upcoming closure evoked sweet nostalgia and that song Video Killed the Radio Star, which describes a singer whose career is cut short by TV.Founded in 1999, the company was one of the first online music stores in Singapore legalizing music downloads. In the face of rampant piracy, this was already a struggle for the site. However, keeping relevant became increasingly difficult as mobile phone giants like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, even Apple started to launch their own music download stores or partner with telcos for one.

Motorola, which bought Soundbuzz in 2008, was to have been its trump card. However, even the US company wasn't able to help itself when its mobile phone and Motomusic business started to falter in the face of aggressive competition and the current downturn. Motorola had acquired Soundbuzz originally to expand its MotoMusic service out of China and into the rest of Asia. Before its closure announcement, Soundbuzz operated in the Southeast Asia region, Australia, Hong Kong, India and China.The Singapore company's history is far from whimsical. In 2000, Soundbuzz formed a partnership with Lycos Asia to provide the portal with downloadable digital music.

It also attracted Creative which took a 18 percent stake in the company. Creative went on to launch the Soundbuzz Music Video Store in 2005, with partners that included Indiatimes, Bharti/Airtel and TATA-VSNL in India, Telstra BigPond, Optus Zoo, and Woolworths Group in Australia, and SingTel and M1 in Singapore.It's an ironic end for a company that held its own ground when it came out selling legit music in 1999, a year when services such as Kazaa and Napster were famous for providing free music and survived the dotcom bust in 2001. As a final service to its customers, Soundbuzz advises its customers to back up their songs into an audio CD before it shuts down for good on July 15.

What can we say but so long, Soundbuzz, and thanks for all the... music.

 Soundbuzz, one of the first online music sources in Singapore, is officially shutting its store comeJuly 15, even as more online music stores are opening with a wave of optimism surrounding music downloads. In a note to subscribers last Friday, as well as on its website, the company said everything will be taken down after July 15 midnight, marking a sorry end to a bright dot.com poster boy of yesteryear. The closure will come just 18 months after Motorola said it was acquiring the Singapore-based Soundbuzz, in a bid to boost its MotoMusic service and sell its music-enabled phones.The service had been launched in India in June 2008, though prices were still higher than what you could get with a CD, which offered higher-quality music. Along with the dramatic demise of Motorola’s mobile phone business in the past two years, Soundbuzz now also faces closure of its own.

It’s an ironic end for a company that seemed ahead of its time when it came out selling legit music in 1999 - at the dawn of illegal downloads. Many were surprised at the time, when Soundbuzz CEO Sudhanshu Sarronwala, a former MTV stalwart, managed to court the music labels even when they were more interested in blocking people from ripping CDs. Its music collection was built up very fast, providing users in Singapore with a legit alternative to pirated songs. But soon, the competition came for “Suds” and his company.Though Apple iTunes is still not officially here in Singapore now, Nokia has recently launched its music store here. And Sony Ericsson too, has partnered SingTel to offer a direct-to-mobile music download service.

Soundbuzz, meanwhile, was a much smaller player and had a less extensive music collection. Plus, it somehow only supported the Internet Explorer browser, likely because of its Windows Media back-end, which kept out a lot of users. The final nail in the coffin must have been its sale to Motorola, a company that invented the cellphone and won millions over with the iconic Razr phone, but somehow still managed to lose direction in its cellphone business thanks to poor management and decision-making. Before Soundbuzz shuts its store, it advises users to download and back up all the stuff they bought. Users should burn the tracks into CDs, because they would not be available for re-download and no licences will be given for them – should you transfer your songs to a new PC or hard disk. According to Soundbuzz:“We recommend that you burn these songs (in CD-Audio format using Windows Media Player or other compatible software media players) to a CD-R so that you have a back up of your tracks and can enjoy them over time.

Further downloads or license re-issues will not be possible after July 15th, 2009. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition, which is subject to customary conditions, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.Through its Motomusic service, Motorola has more than two years experience delivering mobile music to consumers with its carrier customers in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The acquisition of Soundbuzz allows Motorola to expand Motomusic C beyond China, into India, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

With well over 90 percent of all digital music content in Asia sold via mobile channels, a level expected to remain in the coming years, Motorola's strength in music delivery will help its carrier customers access this growth opportunity.Soundbuzz's multi-region music delivery platform enables the purchase and distribution of digital content through over-the-air and wired broadband connections. The company's end-to-end system includes subscriber management, content management, payment, client software and media delivery technologies. The company maintains a consumer-facing brand, Soundbuzz, and will continue to provide "white-label" services to carrier customers that offer tailored solutions for Multimedia delivery."We are very pleased to announce this transaction with Soundbuzz. It will provide Motorola with one of the most extensive music libraries in the Asia Pacific region, advance our music and video offerings in Australia and South East Asia, and build on the success of our Motomusic C Services in China," said Bill Werner, senior vice president, future solutions and technology for mobile devices.

"We are delighted to welcome Soundbuzz's strong management whose extensive region specific experience in the music and video industries will enhance the strength of our mobile device teams.""Motorola's dedication to enhancing the digital music experience in Asia complements our own objectives and makes it the ideal partner," said Sudhanshu Sarronwala, CEO of Soundbuzz. "This combination will help us extend our platform and create exciting growth opportunities for Soundbuzz's employees and our partner music labels. Further, our customers will benefit from the technological advancements that we expect to deliver as part of a global leader in mobile communications."Headquartered in Singapore, Soundbuzz has access to one of the most extensive music libraries in the Asia-Pacific region, through licenses from Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music International and Universal Music Group, as well as over 45 independent record labels in Asia, the U.S.

and Europe. Motorola intends to maintain Soundbuzz's Singapore headquarters, which will be an integral component of Motorola's digital music development strategy in Asia.About SoundbuzzSoundbuzz is Asia's largest online and mobile music company, with its 50-plus collective stores attracting the majority of online and wireless purchases. The company operates its own store, http://www.soundbuzz.

com, as well as providing content and/or technology infrastructure to partners such as Hutchison 3, Motorola, Airtel, SingTel, M1, Optus Zoo, Telstra, BigPond Music, Windows Media Player 10, Creative Technology and SONY BMG.With more than 750,000 tracks available to download, Soundbuzz is a 'one-stop-shop' for music, where music lovers can buy and download their favourite tracks onto their PCs, portable music players and mobile phones.About MotorolaMotorola is known around the world for innovation and leadership in wireless and broadband communications. Inspired by our vision of seamless mobility, the people of Motorola are committed to helping you connect simply and seamlessly to the people, information, and entertainment that you want and need. We do this by designing and delivering "must have" products, "must do" experiences and powerful networks -- along with a full complement of support services. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $42.

8 billion in 2006. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit http://www.motorola.com.

Business RisksCertain statements contained in this press release, including the expected timetable for completing the proposed transaction between Motorola and Soundbuzz, future financial and operating results, benefits and synergies of the transaction, future opportunities for the combined company and products, any other statements regarding Motorola's or Soundbuzz's future expectations, beliefs, goals or prospects and any statements that are not statements of historical facts might be considered forward-looking statements.While these forward-looking statements represent managements' current judgment of future events, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, include: (i) the parties' ability to consummate the transaction; (ii) the conditions to the completion of the transaction may not be satisfied, or the approvals required for the transaction may not be obtained on the terms expected or on the anticipated schedule; (iii) the parties' ability to meet expectations regarding the timing, completion and accounting and tax treatments of the transaction;(iv) the possibility that the parties may be unable to achieve expected synergies and operating efficiencies within the expected time-frames or at all; (v) Motorola's ability to successfully integrate Soundbuzz's operations and technology into those of Motorola and the possibility that such integration may be more difficult, time-consuming or costly than expected; (vi) revenues following the transaction may be lower than expected; (vii) operating costs, customer loss and business disruption (including, without limitation, difficulties in maintaining relationships with employees, customers, clients or suppliers) may be greater than expected following the transaction;(viii) the retention of certain key employees at Soundbuzz; and (ix) the other factors described in Motorola's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006 and its subsequent reports filed with the SEC. Motorola assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement in this press release, and such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof.