Cricket's Muve Music Exceeds 500,000 Customers in Less Than One Year

January 09, 2012 (PRLEAP.COM) Technology News
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 9, 2012 — Cricket Communications, a leading provider of value-driven wireless services and a wholly owned subsidiary of Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) today announced that its innovative Muve Music service has surpassed 500,000 customers in less than one year. Since its January 2011 launch, Muve Music has grown to become the No. 2 digital music subscription service in the US. In addition, Muve Music's customers are also demonstrating heavier usage of the service than any other mobile music offering. On a monthly basis, Muve Music customers listen to music on their phone approximately 40 hours and download roughly 300 songs over Cricket's 3G network.

"We're very pleased with Muve Music's first year results," said Doug Hutcheson, president and chief executive officer of Cricket Communications. "Muve Music has become a leading digital music service in a very short time and Cricket is seeing subscriber growth, ARPU increase and a positive churn trend on the back of this unique new product idea."

In the final months of 2011, Muve Music's accelerating growth is attributed to affordable Android phone offerings and expanded nationwide distribution. Muve Music was integrated into three new affordable Android phones that Cricket launched in the third and fourth quarters of 2011. Starting at $55/month, Cricket customers are now able to purchase Android service that includes unlimited music and nationwide talk, text and web. In addition, Cricket took to the national stage with Muve Music as its headliner through expanded distribution relationships with leading national retailers that broadened awareness across the US and helped increase sales of the Muve Music product offering.

"We've brought a fresh approach to digital music and the wireless space," said Jeff Toig, SVP Muve Music. "We developed an innovative product that included unlimited music in Cricket's wireless offering. We targeted a customer segment that others are not focused on and designed a world class digital music experience, specifically architected for the mobile phone and wireless network delivery. This is a unique formula in the market today and our success through the first year of operation demonstrates that it's working."

Customer Usage & Engagement Off The ChartsAccording to Cricket's research, Muve Music customers are deeply engaged with the service. Their Muve Music capable phones have replaced MP3 players, iPods and computers as the primary music device in customers' lives. With Muve Music, customers are downloading tracks and listening to music on the phone that's with them all the time, wherever they go.

On a monthly basis, Muve Music customers listen to music on their phone approximately 40 hours and download roughly 300 songs over Cricket's 3G network. Since Muve Music's launch in Q1 2011, customers have downloaded more than 500 million songs and listened to more than 1.5 billion tracks in the service. Monthly, Muve Music's customer base downloads more than 90m songs and listens to more than 260m songs. According to a leading music tracking service, in the month of December, Muve Music's usage represented more than 90 percent of all tethered streams for the top 300 songs tracked in the mobile applications category, which includes services such as Rhapsody, Spotify and MOG. More than two-thirds of Muve Music's customers have at least one active ringtone and ringback tone set in the service. How to Get Muve MusicMuve Music is available at Cricket company-owned stores, authorized Cricket dealers and at www.mycricket.com, as well as through select national retailers. Cricket's Muve Music offering is the first wireless rate plan to include unlimited music. Starting at $55/month, the plan includes unlimited song downloads, ringtones, and ringback tones, as well as nationwide calling, unlimited messaging and 3G mobile data. Muve Music is the first music experience designed specifically for the mobile phone– no syncing, no computers, no cords needed - ever. Discover and download music quickly and easily from Muve Music's catalog of millions of tracks right from your phone. With the ever-growing Muve Music song catalog, customers can choose from millions of songs featuring the hottest artists from thousands of record labels, which are distributed through Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music as well as independents IODA, INgrooves and Merlin.

For more information about Muve Music, visit www.muvemusic.com, and for Cricket's dynamic device lineup, visit www.mycricket.com. For the latest Cricket news and updates online, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About Cricket

Cricket is the pioneer of simple and affordable unlimited wireless services with no long-term commitments or credit checks required serving approximately 5.9 million customers. Cricket products are available nationwide. Cricket offers wireless voice and broadband Internet services over the latest technology, high-quality, all-digital 3G CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO wireless network. Cricket's nationwide wireless voice service plans include unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited text and picture messaging, unlimited text to Mexico, unlimited Mobile Web, unlimited directory assistance, as well as a variety of calling features and feature-rich mobile applications such as popular games, ringtones and wallpapers. For more information on Cricket, visit www.mycricket.com. Cricket is offered by Leap Wireless International, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, Calif. For more information on Leap, visit www.leapwireless.com.

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SOURCE Cricket Communications