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LONDON, /PRNewswire/ -- Steam Republic, the Finnish mobile tech firm, today has announced the commercial release of Mobile Backstage, its new social music application that enables record labels and musicians to build vibrant communities around their fans' smartphones.

Mobile Backstage helps artists to quickly and easily create a unique mobile presence that fans can download for free from either a website or mobile app store. Once loaded, fans can begin communicating directly with the artist and other fans, sharing their experiences by uploading content and 'checking in' to gigs using GPS. Mobile Backstage also integrates with major social networks and digital music stores.

Janne Airo, CEO of Steam Republic, added; "Rather than merely aggregating passive content from 3rd party websites, Mobile Backstage facilitates real social interactions between artists and fans. Our recent trials have generated data that clearly demonstrates that fans visit and interact with Mobile Backstage app vastly more often than the artist's own website or social page. In some cases hundreds of times more often."

Mobile Backstage, which is priced at around 1,000 Euros, has recently completed successful trials with several major acts including international hip hop star Dizzee Rascal, power pop outfit You Me At Six and post-hardcore rockers Enter Shikari. Having received incredibly positive feedback and high user activity from both artists and fans, Mobile Backstage is now being launched to the wider music sector.

Josh Saunders, Technical & Creative Projects Manager at EMI UK commented, "Mobile Backstage offers a powerful and seductive communication and community tool for artist and fan communication, with great usability on the iPhone. Furthermore, its Java support takes us beyond the so-called smartphone markets giving our artists extended reach."

Mobile Backstage is managed though a central dashboard that can be accessed from either a website or mobile phone. The app integrates with social media services such as Facebook and Twitter, reducing the overheads required associated with maintaining a cross-platform digital presence. Mobile Backstage also generates vital demographic and analytic data that provides insights into how fans are interacting with the artist, the content and each other.

Steam Republic has stated that it will add Android and Blackberry handsets this year, along with support for 'in-app' ticket and merchandise sales.


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