Buddy.com Pioneers Sound as a Service, as Troy Carter's AF Square Invests

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Jun 13, 2013) - Today, Buddy Platform, Inc. -- a leading provider of analytics and technology for the mobile and device app industry -- announced its ground-breaking new "Sound-as-a-Service" product, designed to completely change how software developers source audio content for their apps, and how app publishers measure and optimize engagement in their apps.

This new Sound-as-a-Service functionality means developers can add sound effects simply by calling Buddy from their apps, games and ads. Buddy offers a sound effect library of over 20,000 fully licensed, royalty-free sounds, each available at three quality levels, available for quick deployment into applications on any device or OS platform. Once deployed, choosing different sounds can help publishers optimize and measure user engagement with their apps -- a measurement axis which has not been broadly available before now.

The launch of Sound-as-a-Service comes as one of the entertainment industry's most prominent luminaries, CEO of Atom Factory, Troy Carter, announced that he was investing in Buddy via his AF Square Fund. "The measurement of audience engagement has historically been incredibly difficult. Buddy has helped Atom Factory better understand how consumers of mobile apps are influenced by what they hear while using those apps," said Mr. Carter. "I'm looking forward to working further with Dave and his team."

Historically, there has always been a disconnect between record sales data, fan demographics and engagement data. "As the world's biggest artists start to move towards mobile apps as a distribution mechanism for their content, Buddy's analytics can help them understand the relationship between music consumption and the more profitable areas of their business such as live performances and merchandising," said Buddy.com CEO and co-founder, David McLauchlan. "Extending this concept to app developers with our 20,000+ sound library available as a service, we look forward to bringing this same level of analytics insight to app, game and dynamic ad developers globally."

While Sound-as-a-Service has obvious parallels to the music business, the entertainment industry as a whole is ripe for disruption in this space. "As we look to the future of entertainment marketing, we've never been so excited to work with sound", said President of Black Box Creative Group and Academy Award nominated producer, Frank Donner. "Buddy's technology will allow us to specifically measure the impact on audience engagement of sound assets whose value we couldn't directly establish before."

To deliver the Sound-as-a-Service feature, Buddy partnered with Singapore-based dynamic sound technology provider for interactive applications, Sonoport (Asia) Pte Ltd. Sonoport CEO and co-founder Fredrik Brostrom said, "The past decade or more has seen marketers focus on the visual impact of digital media assets. With our partnership on Sound-as-a-Service, we're excited to help those same marketers bring a new, measurable and actionable dimension to their marketing investments."

Buddy's Sound-as-a-Service feature joins the recently announced Buddy Analytics Dashboard as part of the rapidly evolving app-and-analytics platform from Buddy.com. Already, Buddy.com's enterprise-grade Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) supports over 15,000 global developers with over 16,500 applications. Major international brands including Nokia, A&E Television Networks, and Microsoft are trusting Buddy.com to provide infrastructure and analytics for their vital mobile applications. For more information about Buddy, please visit www.buddy.com.

About Buddy.com:
Buddy Platform, Inc. is a Seattle-based provider of technology to power, optimize, and measure cloud-connected apps on all platforms including iOS, Windows Phone, Android, SmartTVs, Facebook, HTML5, Windows 8, and other connected device platforms. For apps powered by Buddy.com, the company curates metrics used to track mobile engagement, providing rich analytics to marketers, publishers, and advertisers. For more information, visit www.buddy.com.

About AF Square:
AF Square is the investment vehicle of Los Angeles-based Troy Carter -- Founder, Chairman and CEO of Atom Factory, an entertainment management company defining popular culture globally. As a digital and social entrepreneur, Carter has defined the careers of numerous recording artists, including multi-platinum, Grammy-Award winner Lady Gaga.
For more information, visit www.afsquare.com.

About Sonoport:
Sonoport (Asia) Pte Ltd, is a Singapore based provider of sound technology to revolutionize the interactive experience across mass market digital applications including mobile apps, ads, web and smart displays on all platforms. Digital applications powered by Sonoport feature a richer experience leading to greater user engagement and significantly higher ROI for app developers, marketers and advertisers. For more information, visit www.sonoport.com.