UNH Spinout Launches First U.S. Mobile Music Service with Sprint
Customers can download songs direct to mobile phones

By Bob Emro, CEPS

UNH’s first spinout company is teaming with Sprint to power the first mobile music service available in the United States.

Kevin Short, professor of mathematics

With several European cellular providers adding its technology during the last year, Groove Mobile (formerly known as Chaoticom) is the world’s leading mobile music service. Kevin Short, professor of mathematics at UNH, developed the compression technology behind the Andover, Mass.-based company’s success. Packed with hundreds of thousands of songs and the latest technological innovations, the Groove Mobile platform bridges the PC-mobile phone divide by downloading full music tracks direct to mobile phones and computers.

“Both undergraduate and graduate students had a large role in developing this technology and it’s gratifying for all of us to see it arrive in the U.S. market, and in such a big way,” said Short, chief technology officer of Groove Mobile’s Chaoticom Technologies division. “We expect that, as it has in Europe, downloading songs to cell phones will become an everyday activity for millions of people. Work that took place right here at UNH helped to make that possible.”

Other mobile music download services fail to link the phone with the PC, but Groove Mobile and Sprint provide simultaneous dual-downloads as well as enhanced audio quality for tunes downloaded to computers. Groove Mobile also offers users the ability to transfer songs from their computer to their mobile phone.

“Sprint is partnering with Groove Mobile because of their global leadership in providing innovative features to their mobile music service platform,” stated Paul Reddick, Sprint’s vice president for business development and product innovation. “The Sprint Music Store extends our leadership in the delivery of easy-to-use mobile music services that are instantly accessible with the push of a button, right from the phone.”

The new Sprint music player is extremely easy to use, and features album art while tracks are playing. In addition, it allows users to make custom playlists of their favorite tracks. The store features Weekly New Releases, What’s Hot, Breakthrough Artists, and Special Featured Charts, in addition to the ability to search by artist and/or song title Groove Mobile is the world’s leading provider of music from both major label artists and independent artists. Following today’s expansion with Sprint into the American market, Groove Mobile is now operating mobile music platforms in the U.S., UK, EU and Asia.

“The first U.S. launch of a mobile music service solidifies our worldwide leadership in bringing music direct to mobile phones,” stated Bathsheba Malsheen, Groove Mobile’s president and CEO. “Our constant innovations, including simultaneous dual downloads direct to phones and PC’s, are driving our expansion in the UK, EU, Asia and now the U.S.”