Mperia Launches Groundbreaking Alternative to Mainstream Music Sites Service Offers Tracks Starting at 25¢

Today BitPass, Inc., a leading digital commerce platform, announces the public launch of Mperia (http://www.mperia.com), its popular online music store. Mperia offers a spirited alternative to mainstream online music stores – offering fans a different way to explore, sample, share and buy music.

(PRWEB) February 18, 2005

Today BitPass, Inc., a leading digital commerce platform, announces the public launch of Mperia (http://www.mperia.com), its popular online music store. Mperia offers a spirited alternative to mainstream online music stores – offering fans a different way to explore, sample, share and buy music. Mperia features great music by up-and-coming artists from around the globe, from Swedish electronica to Seattle rock, and helps expose those artists with its many promotional and networking features. Mperia offers over 200,000 tracks from thousands of artists for as low as 25¢ a track, priced by artists or artist managers.

Mperia encourages fans to create their own communities of taste. Through user profiles, bookmarked music, personal “Mixtapes” and groups, these communities can easily filter and share the music that they want to hear – not just the music fed to them through commercial radio, music television, and large record companies.

“We are excited to be introducing Mperia to the general public after one year of testing and terrific feedback from online music lovers. With the spirit of your favorite independent record shop, Mperia offers music fans a place to discover, sample, and support independent artists and to rely on each other to find the next underground hit,” said Rachel Gravengaard, General Manager of Mperia.

For a limited time, registered Mperia Listeners will receive a free Mperia Sampler album that includes 25 of Mperia’s best tracks, from industrial to folk rock to jazz.

Mperia Listeners are using both the browsing and community features to find interesting music. “I've found tons of music that I love” Says Suzanna Pettengill from Pullman, WA, “I just browse around a bit, usually in the folk and alt-rock categories. It's also fun to see who has similar favorite artists as the ones I like, and check out their other favorites – a good way to find artists with similar styles.”

Mperia offers music fans a better way to do the following:

Explore: Listeners can find music through browsing genres, Listener profiles, Mixtapes, connections between Listeners and Artists, and through advanced searches for keywords, price of track, location of artist, BPM rate of songs, artists with gigs, and other Listeners who like similar music.

Sample: Mperia offers streamed previews for every track – either through 30-second full-quality clips, 2-minute lo-fi samples, or full-length lo-fi samples – all determined by the artists or manager.

Share: Listeners can share music by bookmarking favorite artists and tracks, linking their profiles to other Mperia Listeners, inviting friends to join Mperia, and by emailing friends about tracks they like at Mperia.

Buy: Mperia offers tracks priced from 25¢ to $1.50 and albums from $3 to $10, with price determined by the artists or artist managers. Artists receive 70% of revenues, unprecedented in the music business, allowing fans to truly support those artists that they like.

About Mperia

Mperia is a music portal that allows independent artists and labels to sell music directly to their fans while retaining the majority of the profits. Mperia combines independent music with networking features that allow fans to explore, sample, share, and buy independent music. Mperia is a fully-owned business of BitPass, Inc., based in Palo Alto, CA. BitPass is venture-backed by Worldview Technology Partners, Steamboat Ventures, RRE Ventures, First Data Corp., Garage Technology Ventures, Cardinal Venture Capital, Amicus Capital and others. To find out more about BitPass go to http://www.bitpass.com.

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