HELSINKI, Finland & SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Flowd, the music lover’s social network, today announced its official launch in the U.S. The Flowd community now results in 350% higher engagement rates for music fans than on Facebook. Flowd has signed Mike Johns, noted urban mobile brand producer and CEO of Digital Mind State, to develop mobile social media campaigns for major U.S. hip-hop acts, and will detail the latest version of its toolkit at the Digital Music Forum West in Hollywood, October 6-7.
A portfolio company of Digia Ventures, the venture division of leading Finnish technology services firm Digia, Plc with offices in technology hubs Helsinki, Finland and Santa Clara, CA, Flowd has created a mobile commerce platform – Frequent Fans – that provides music artists and promoters with a flexible method for creating loyalty programs for fans, and aggregating mobile check-in, photo and video uploads, and contests that bring the fan and the performer closer than ever, whenever and wherever they might wish to engage.
After its initial European launch, which proved wildly successful with leading DJs, including Armin van Buuren, the world’s #1 DJ, Flowd has signed up more than 600 artists for its free service, including indie rock band We Are the Ocean, which is set to break in the U.S.; British electropop group Fenech-Soler, and legendary trip-hop outfit UNKLE. Half of the world’s top 10 DJs now use Flowd to connect with their fans. Other music acts to have used Flowd’s Frequent Fans platform Sied van Riel, Britney Spears, Ferry Corsten and the Gallery Club @ Ministry of Sound.
“The value of a customized mobile social network for music fans is incalculable, and Flowd is proving both easy to use, and a major driver for both established and up-and-coming music acts in their social media outreach,” said Tommi Laitinen, SVP for Flowd. “Our development schedule has been wildly accelerated due to the momentum of the bands using Flowd, and we are pleased to now be in the world’s largest music market, the U.S., where we can deliver greater value for music acts and brands.”
Wilhelm Taht, Marketing Director for Flowd, will present Flowd at the ‘New Technologies for the Fan’ panel tomorrow, Thursday, October 6, at the Digital Music Forum West, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, from 5:30-6:15 pm.
“I am happy to be a part of this project and look forward to bringing the right musicians into this mix that will assist in the overall mission and propel user growth for Flowd,” said Johns.
Recent successful Flowd campaigns include:
- Check-in at We Are The Ocean’s acoustic show
With We Are The Ocean’s first ever acoustic show, the band wanted to drum up support from their core fans. Flowd powered a check-in rush to the event, where the first five fans to check-in to the event using Flowd’s location based tools before the show were invited to take part in the sound check and hang out with the band. This proved hugely popular with close to 10% of the attending audience checking-in using Flowd and allowed We Are The Ocean to build a personal relationship the five most die-hard fans attending the event. Video report available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJZfl80hLO0
- Monetizing A State of Trance fans with ARPU of €0.83
During the biggest trance music event of 2011, Flowd powered an online and mobile “hang-out” where fans shared pictures and stories from 5 global events. As a follow-up to all the fans that had participated in the hang-out, a 10% discount offer on the 5-CD compilation was sent out through Flowd. 5% of fans redeemed the discount, resulting in a €0.83 ARPU (average revenue per user) on fans of A State of Trance on Flowd
- 50% of Alex M.O.R.P.H. fans share their free track from Flowd
Using Flowd's Frequent Fans program, Alex M.O.R.P.H. released a new track for free to all Flowd followers to build a new vibrant fan base within Flowd that can easily be marketed to in the future using Flowd’s tools. To date, 10% of Alex M.O.R.P.H’s Flowd fan-base downloaded the track with 50% of those spreading the word virally of the free track through the official “Share” or “Tweet” buttons within Flowd
For more information, please visit http://flowd.com. Follow the latest news and features through Twitter and Facebook and view the latest videos on Flowd’s YouTube Channel at http://bit.ly/gJUZA7.
ABOUT FLOWD
Flowd is the music lovers’ social network. Flowd helps fans keep up with their favorite music acts’ latest news, views, gigs and offers. Flowd also provides an easy way to connect with friends, places and parties. High-profile artists using Flowd today include Armin van Buuren, Alex M.O.R.P.H., HeadHunterz, Markus Schulz, Gareth Emery, Ferry Corsten, We Are The Ocean and others. Flowd was recently picked as a winner within the Social Network and Communication category of apps at Nokia’s Calling All Innovators 2011 awards.
ABOUT DIGIA
Digia Plc, the Helsinki-based services and consulting powerhouse listed in the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki exchange (DIG1V), is a worldwide leading Qt application and UI development, consulting, testing and UX design services and consulting company. Digia is a recognized global leader in the Qt ecosystem with over 10 years of Qt competence and investment. Digia's pioneering Qt Commercial product and services offering provides commercial developers and companies the most powerful cross-platform UI and application framework available today. Digia, Qt Commercial is responsible for the development, licensing, support and services of Qt for commercial customers. Digia operates in China, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and USA. Digia's Qt Commercial is used by more than 6,500 active, licensed developers at large and small businesses across more than 70 industries. To learn more about Digia, Qt Commercial, please visit: http://qt.digia.com./ Flowd is developed by Digia Ventures. To learn more about Digia, please visit: www.digia.com.