CD-and-lyric gift cards speak straight from the heart – 4tunecards.com
Express your feelings through song, a language that everyone understands

Tongue-tied? Lost for words? Not any more. From Monday 28th November 2005 everyone can say exactly what they mean and mean exactly what they say when the world's first CD-and-lyric gift cards go on sale online at www.4tunecards.com The CDs feature original recordings from popular artists such as Marvyn Gaye, Gloria Gaynor, Frank Sinatra and Nat ‘King’ Cole. The songs are suitable for everything from Christmas to Valentine's Day.

Like human emotions, 4tunecards are infinitely variable and endlessly replayable. Inside, you'll find a CD single and its accompanying lyric; on the front, you'll see a personalised picture and greeting that sum up the sender's feelings. This modular approach to greetings and expressions of affection, gratitude or sorrow means that even the most incoherent of friends or lovers can reveal what's in their hearts.

4tunecards' co-founder and managing director, Sharon Foster, explains: "In an ideal world, we'd all be poets. But we're not. We know what we feel, but few of us have the vocabulary to match. And yet we can all identify with the lyrics of a favourite song. Popular culture has the power to express the thoughts that we can't articulate."

Modular cards capture a world of emotion – online design

No two 4tunecards will ever be the same. Each one is custom-made online by a buyer who chooses the card colour, the cover image, a song lyric that epitomises their sentiments together with the matching CD. It's a blank canvas upon which you can express your own emotions. The site enables you to design your own personal greetings card from the comfort of your desktop and have the real life, handmade version delivered to your doorstop.

It's a bit like sifting through the racks of a card shop except that 4tunecards lets you construct a card that's an exact fit for your relationship as well. When the relationship is going well, you choose an upbeat lyric and message; when it's in the doldrums, you choose something more reflective or sorrowful – the kind of sentiments from which fresh starts are made.

"Because we aim to cover the whole range of human relationships, there will eventually be a combination of greeting, songs and lyrics for everything from your granddad's birthday to your cousin's driving-test failure," adds co-founder and finance & operations director Fred Wooder. "At the moment we're concentrating on the sentiments that pass between family, friends and lovers."

Sharon comments: “Imagine receiving not the usual Christmas card but one with a CD and matching lyric inside, perhaps of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” by Judy Garland or “White Christmas” by Frank Sinatra? With one of our CD and lyric gift cards you can introduce not only a personal touch but also convey the thought and the sentiment behind the gift. That’s what counts. That’s what matters. Best of all, you can mark each unforgettable event with a song that will play long after the card has been swept from the mantelpiece.

Subscribe to your feelings – creative subscriptions

Making up a 4tunecard may be great fun online, but it's even more creative at home especially when the kids get involved. For a monthly fee, creative subscribers get so much more for their money: a regular pack containing enough CDs, card blanks, lyrics, glue dots and a whole host of decorative elements to make and send at least six unique CD gift cards each month. Each monthly pack gives you a different set of seasonal, greeting, and relationship elements. They build into a library of messages and emotions that you can peel and stick to reflect a diary filled with anniversaries and relationship milestones.

There are five creative packs up for grabs by 4tunecards. To be in with a chance of winning one of these, readers should register their ‘Top Three’ all time song favourites online by Wednesday December 7th 2005. Just go to www.4tunecards.com click on 4tune Quizzes and then click on Top Ten in the right hand section. Quote ref. PR5/71205 in the message box when registering. Winners will be randomly picked and the 4tunate five will be notified by email.

Packs will be received before the first of the recommended UK Royal Mail Christmas last posting dates, which are:

Dec 14th - Standard Parcels Delivery
Dec 17th - Second Class
Dec 18th - First Class
Dec 22nd - Special Delivery

Editor's notes

4tunecards.com offers three service levels:
• Custom-made: make up cards online for just £6.99 each
• Creative subscription: make up cards at home from a monthly pack of cards and creative elements for a monthly fee of £24.99 (Actual worth £49.99)
• Creative subscription “preview” pack – try before you buy – £29.99 (Actual worth £49.99)

CD and lyric combinations include classics such as Unforgettable by Nat ‘King’ Cole, My Simple Heart by The Three Degrees, I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor, If You're Lookin' for a Way Out by Odyssey, and You Are the Sunshine of My Life by Frances Nero.

In the UK, we spend about £600m a year on greetings cards. We buy and send around 5,000 cards every minute. A year's consumption laid end to end would encircle the world 12 times.

Most cards (80%) are bought by women. The market is split fifty-fifty between everyday cards and seasonal cards. Birthdays account for 60% of everyday cards and Christmas accounts for 61% of seasonal cards. Valentine's Day is the next biggest event. It accounts for 25% of seasonal cards.

Industry research shows that 83% of mothers keep their Mother's Day card when it includes a handwritten note. Even a small element of personalisation multiplies the value of the card to the recipient.

Further information
Call Sharon Foster on 07803 078270 or email sfoster@4tunecards.com

To experience 4tunecards for yourself, visit www.4tunecards.com

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