FLOWD CELEBRATES 1^ST BIRTHDAY WITH A BANG
Music lovers’ social network takes a look back over its first successful year

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Using Flowd, Honor Society will activate greater engagement through its social network, enabling the major-market tour - to demonstrate the effectiveness of mobile social media music promotion.

December 21, 2011 - Flowd, the music lover’s social network today is one year old today, and has certainly made its mark on the app industry. In its first year, Flowd has become known as the best online and mobile tool for artists to better manage – and monetize – their relationship with fans. To date, over 800 artists have signed up to the platform.

“Flowd is the perfect app for connecting with my loyal fans while I’m on the road,” explains superstar DJ Armin van Buuren.

Alongside artists signing themselves up to be part of Flowd, artist management and record labels have also seen how it can help them. Major record labels have been testing out Flowd’s Frequent Fans platform with excellent results.

Maykel Piron, managing director, Armada Music, said: “Flowd provided the perfect campaign toolset for us to take the 500th episode celebration of A State of Trance further.”

Indie pop band Honor Society (www.honorsocietymusic.com) has signed up to use Flowd, the music lover’s social network, on its current Rock the Red Kettle Tour.

“We are continuously looking for new innovations to improve fan loyalty and also reward the most loyal fans. Flowd has been interesting in that respect,” added Wouter Jansen, brand manager, Sony Music Entertainment.

In its first year, Flowd has run a host of successful artist campaigns using its Frequent Fans platform including Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Britney Spears, UNKLE, Honor Society, The Wanted and many more. Popular rock-band We Are The Ocean held special promotions for their fans during summer 2011 through the Frequent Fans program on Flowd. As well as activity at Reading Festival, We Are The Ocean used Flowd to promote their Live & Unplugged acoustic show on 18^th August. Results from this show included:

•          7.5% of attendees used Flowd to check in to the gigs and 76% of those went on to collect a free poster from the merchandise stand

•          Increase in merchandise sales with 31% of people collecting their free poster going on to buy additional merchandise, with an average of £16 ($25 US) spent by each person

As well as becoming an indispensable tool for artists, Flowd has also grown in popularity amongst music fans as well. Here’s a snapshot of some of the user statistics Flowd has racked up over the past year:

Tommi Laitinen, SVP, Flowd, said: “From the beginning I said that Flowd’s combination of location-based services, social networking, marketing tools and entertainment would let users and artists interact at a whole new, unprecedented level, and I’m proud to say that Flowd has proved that statement right in just its first year. Music is one of the most powerful forms of entertainment, and Flowd has been enabling artists to channel their entertainment directly to their biggest fans. This has helped them build even closer links with their superfans, and provided them with a simple route to monetize these fans in an engaging manner. With what we’ve achieved in year one, I can’t wait to see our second year plans come to fulfillment.”

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As part of the celebrations around Flowd’s first birthday to celebrate Flowd’s first birthday, Flowd has put together an extra special Christmas goody bag from all its favorite artists. Featuring exclusive goodies from Alex M.O.R.P.H, UNKLE, Fenech Soler, Enter Shikari, Armin van Buuren, Armada Music, We Are The Ocean, Lisa Lashes and more, Flowd fans are in for a real treat. So what are you waiting for, check out the celebrations on http://www.flowd.com – there’s a party going on, don’t you know!

GET STARTED: Music fans can download Flowd for free from the iTunes App Store, Android Market and Nokia Ovi store. Fans can find their favorite bands under Artists and get regular news, views and photos by following them. Fans can also discover more about artists’ upcoming gigs by clicking on Events on the artist’s profile, listen to their latest tracks, and watch their latest videos under Music.

By using Flowd, music fans can also use a wide range of social networking features including check-in to places, send messages and pictures, share the music that they’re listening to and connect with friends through Twitter and Facebook. Fans can also customize the look and feel of Flowd by re-skinning the app with artists’ themes. Flowd allows music fans to keep up to date with artists’ news and views, track and check-in to latest gigs and appearances and view photos and videos.

Artists can also reward their fans for their loyalty by using Flowd’s Frequent Fans tool. This provides artists with a comprehensive marketing tool that allows them to issue tailored Offers to fans through in-app mobile coupons. Flowd will be rolling out new features to its Frequent Fans tool over the next six months.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: 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, Fenech Soler, Ferry Corsten, We Are The Ocean and others.

ABOUT DIGIA: Digia is a public company, listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki exchange (DIG1V). Flowd is developed by Digia’s Ventures business unit.