Versaly launches Underground Sound mobile music channel

By Dan Butcher

September 5, 2008

Versaly is versatile

Mobile media company Versaly  has launched its newest brand, the Underground Sound, an indie rock music video program for mobile phones.

The Underground Sound showcases the unsigned indie rock artists. This mobile video program is free to watch on video-enabled and data-enabled mobile phones at http://m.vmbc.tv.

“We have a series of properties we have created to offer mobile consumers, and a music video channel is an ideal product for the core mobile consumer,” said Matthew Feldman, president of Versaly, Seattle. “With these indie bands we are trying to drive an entire product suite around this.”

Mr. Feldman says that Versaly sees its target demographic as males and females as young as 12 and all the way up to 39. He says that the core mobile consumer and Versaly’s number-one demographic is males ages 18-24.

Versaly will also create ringtones, ringback tones, full-track music downloads, video clip downloads and wallpapers from these indie artists.

Chapter and Versaly

Versaly has signed bands, management companies and labels to provide an extensive catalog of music and music videos.

In addition, Versaly will produce backstage, unplugged, lifestyle and Q&A footage from indie bands including Barcelona (Seattle, WA), AutoVaughn (Nashville, TN), Raining and Ok (Los Angeles, CA), Romantica (Minneapolis, MN) and This World Fair (Los Angeles, CA).

Consumers can watch the Underground Sound videos on their handset via the mobile Web site at http://m.vmbc.tv, MSN Mobile and Zannel.

Versaly-chorus-Versaly

Consumers can buy Underground Sound ringtones from AT&T, T-Mobile USA, ZED USA and Thumbplay.

Versaly has signed agreements with AT&T and T-Mobile USA and plans to finalize with Sprint by the end of month. Discussions with Verizon are still on-going.

Versaly operates Versaly Mobile Broadcasting Company, a mobile video-on-demand network that publishes and syndicates a large variety of video-on-demand programming, including “Fear No Sports” and “Laugh Out Loud.”

The Underground Sound is trying to generate word of mouth viral buzz through social networking. Its MySpace page is at http://www.myspace.com/usound.

“Bands will help with the marketing push during their tours, with calls-to-action at the venue urging fans to visit our WAP site,” Mr. Feldman said.

“We’re signing up bands that are either on small indie labels or don’t have labels at all, bands that don’t have a lot of exposure or dollars to put behind, so getting a ringtone on a major carrier would be huge," he said.

“We get content in the door and we’ll create multiple products and syndicate it on as many channels as possible. We take advantage of multiple distribution networks.”