Fon CEO Martin Varsavsky Announces “Gramofon” With 30-Day Kickstarter Campaign

APRIL 15, 2014. MADRID.- Martin Varsavsky, founder and CEO of Fon—the global WiFi network—announces Gramofon, and unveils the product through Kickstarter with a 30-day crowdfunding campaign.

Gramofon is a player that streams cloud music to any sound system—smartphones are the remotes and WiFi brings everyone together. Partnering with the music service Spotify, the Gramofon team is creating the modern jukebox.

“Our goal is to bring music back into the living room. We have been working on this for a year now—what started as a passion project is now a living, breathing, incredible product that will transform the music experience, making music social and enjoyed by all involved,” says Varsavsky.

Gramofon does not depend on Bluetooth. It works with WiFi and therefore allows many people to control the music together. Gramofon was built with the same core technology as the Fon routers, which means the cloud jukebox is also a great WiFi hotspot. When your friends come over, they can connect with Facebook and play Spotify through Gramofon using their smartphone as a remote. Pledging for a Gramofon means Fon membership with access to more than 12 million hotspots, in return for sharing a bit of WiFi at home.

The Kickstarter campaign will offer Gramofon on a limited run and at a discounted price. Early Bird options offer the first edition product in white at $30, and $40 in black. The remaining will be offered at a very low cost of $50 and $60 respectively. Other perks include invitations to Gramofon listening parties around the world, with Varsavsky and other key people in attendance.

“We chose Kickstarter because crowdsourcing is a principle Fon was founded on. We want the whole world to have the opportunity to get this first,” says Fon COO Alex Puregger.

“Gramofon is one of the coolest gadgets I’ve been part of making. This thing is gorgeous and it makes your life beautiful – with music! I never met a WiFi router I loved until now.” says Fon advisor Amol Sarva, co-founder of Virgin Mobile and Peek.

About Fon

Fon was founded in February 2006 by serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky with the goal of blanketing the world with Wi-Fi. Today the company is a global WiFi leader with more than 12 million hotspots in more than 200 countries. Fon has offices in Madrid, London, Tokyo and New York. Its partners include Belgacom (Belgium), BT (UK), Deutsche Telekom (Germany) Hrvatski Telekom (Croatia), JT (Jersey Island), KPN (Netherlands), Oi (Brazil), MTC (Russia), MWEB (South Africa), Netia (Poland), OTE (Greece), SFR (France), SoftBank (Japan) and ZON (Portugal). For more information, please visit fon.com