IZ Birthday Celebration features new mobile App

HONOLULU (May 20, 2011) – In honor of IZ’s birthday, the Mountain Apple Company launched a free mobile app for iPhone, Android and Blackberry that celebrates the music of Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole, one of the most beloved recording artists to emerge from Hawaii in the past quarter-century.

The new IZ app features news, videos, photos, songs and an exclusive fan community where users of the app can add their own photos, share songs, comments and videos within the app or via their Facebook and Twitter feeds.

The website, www.izhawaii.com, including IZ’s handwritten autobiography, hosts the new products that can be purchased with one click, requires no account to sign up and includes a digital version of each album along with an instant download of the album when you order the CD to be shipped. Each item can also be gifted during checkout, so users can purchase “Over the Rainbow” in MP3 form and have it sent directly to their loved ones.

Recently named one of “50 Great Voices” by National Public Radio (NPR), IZ’s music continues to be more popular than ever before. The Mountain Apple Company estimates that his sales will soon exceed the 6 million to-date total units worldwide. In 2010, IZ reigned as number-one Billboard Digital Recording Artist of the Year, while his mega-hit “Over the Rainbow” was the number-one Billboard Digital World Song of the Year.

Declared the number-one single in Germany for 2010, “Over the Rainbow” recently achieved platinum in Germany and France, and entered the Top 5 in Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway and New Zealand, as it begins to release in Asia and the Southern Hemisphere.IZ’s groundbreaking CD “Facing Future” became Hawai’i’s first certified platinum album, selling closer to two million CD’s in the United States alone. “Facing Future” was followed by the release of another five remarkable IZ recording, “E Ala E” (1995), “N Dis Life” (1996), “IZ In Concert: The Man and His Music” (1998), ““Alone In IZ World” (2001) and “Wonderful World” (2007). IZ fans have enjoyed IZ’s timeless songs in popular films (Mee Joe Black,” “Finding Forrester,” “Made”, “50 First Dates”, “Snakes on a Place”, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), commercials (Hallmark, Sony, Kellogg’s, Fiat), and television programs (“ER,”

“Cold Case,” “Scrubs,” “Glee,” “Brothers & Sisters” and the new “Hawaii Five-0”) for more than 15 years.

To learn more, visit the official IZ site at www.izhawaii.com.