2009-11-16 06:23:20 -

Mobile entertainment innovators gridMOB are poised to release this month the first true karaoke experience for iPhone and iPod Touch, with more than a touch of flair: branding by Interscope hit artist Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga worked with gridMOB to develop a customized version of iOKi, gridMOB’s new application that delivers true Karaoke anywhere including the ability to browse and purchase karaoke tracks from a vast and fast-growing selection of songs, from right within the application. Lady Gaga iOKi includes four Lady Gaga karaoke tracks featuring her master recordings, plus the newly released “Bad Romance” from her soon to be released album “Fame Monster” and is timed to release in connection with the release of Fame Monster.

Turning any iPhone or

iPod Touch into a fun and professional karaoke machine featuring the theme, images and video of Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga iOKi is expected to be available later this month for U.S. $4.99 through the iTunes App store. Details are available today at www.iokikaraoke.com : .

Supported languages include in English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

gridMOB expects to deliver other versions of iOKi branded by many of the industry’s leading artists later this year, as well as its own version of the application.

gridMOB is the first company to bring together the world’s best music libraries with a fully functional, fully portable karaoke machine that people can take anywhere, right in their pocket. iOKi also benefits the music industry as a new platform for content distribution and artist promotion. In addition to giving artists and labels a new means of delivering interactive and original content to fans, it enables music publishers to broaden their reach and make their content catalogs available in a karaoke format for immediate purchase to tens of millions of iPhone owners around the world.

To open the first-ever karaoke track store for iPhone, gridMOB entered into agreements with music publishers Disney Music Publishing, EMI Entertainment World, Sony ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music and Chrysalis Music Publishing as well record labels Interscope and Hollywood Records and karaoke soundalikes company SBI. For its artist-branded content, gridMOB converts master recordings from the original artist into the karaoke format to deliver the most fun and compelling karaoke experience possible.

“iOKi puts a world-class karaoke experience right in your pocket – one that industry-leading artists, labels and publishers are getting behind,” said Les Borsai, founder of gridMOB. “Lady Gaga is the perfect artist to launch with. She’s a pioneer in her art and now she’s breaking ground again as the first to deliver a very different entertainment experience that extends her music and fashion in a completely new way.”

Lady Gaga’s manager Troy Carter said, "The Lady Gaga Karaoke app is a great way for her fans to experience the music in a non-traditional way.
We constantly look for new ways that allow her community of fans to interact with each other with the music as the centerpiece, and gridMOB nailed it.”

With iOKi, people can use their iPhone or iPod Touch to easily search their karaoke song library by artist, song title, era, genre, gender or album title. In the seamlessly integrated iOKi store, song selections are regularly updated and range from the 1950s to today’s hits from genres such as crooners, pop, rock, country, show tunes, hip-hop, folk, ballads, indie, emo and more. Songs can also be searched by popularity and by new releases. iOKi’s easy setup only requires a headset microphone. With Lady Gaga iOKi, a slide show featuring images of Lady Gaga are shown behind the words during play.

iOKi also brings karaoke enthusiasts together through popular social networking sites. The iOKi community feature can link to Twitter accounts to let friends know when and what people are performing. More social network connectivity is expected in the near future.



About gridMOB

gridMOB helps entertainment companies extend their reach through digital technology. The company develops direct-to-consumer mobile solutions that connect artists, record labels and publishers to fans. Focused on the intersection of entertainment and technology, gridMOB’s mobile application platform delivers innovative digital experiences that bring entertainment brands to life. gridMOB brings digital and mobile solutions together with entertainment content in ways that are both delightful for consumers and meaningful for the industry. The company was founded in 2007 and is located in Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA.


A&R EdelmanBrian Domingo, 650-762-2916 brian.domingo@ar-edelman.com : mailto:brian.domingo@ar-edelman.com Meredith
Payette, 650-762-2921 meredith.payette@ar-edelman.com : mailto:meredith.payette@ar-edelman.com