Thumbplay sees executive shuffle as it prepares to launch music app

Thumbplay, a provider of mobile content like wallpapers and ringtones, announced some changes at the top today — chief executive Are Traasdahl (pictured) has been appointed chairman, while chief marketing officer Evan Schwartz has been promoted to CEO.

This doesn’t look like too much of a shake-up, since Traasdahl and Schwartz founded New York-based Thumbplay together. Traasdahl says the change was made with the company’s increased focus on music in mind, particularly with the launch of the Thumbplay Music App next year.

The company’s music app will allow users to pay a flat rate to access an unlimited number of music tracks, starting on computers and smartphones, then eventually moving to other devices like game consoles and stereos. A private beta test of the service will launch at the Consumer Electronics Show next month.

With Schwartz managing the day-to-day operation of the company, Traasdahl said he can spend more time working on “more and bigger deals with more and bigger companies.”

The mobile landscape is increasingly dominated by smartphones and native applications, so it makes sense for Thumbplay to start eyeing new markets. At the same time, it has been a bad month for music startups, with investors getting a weak return on Apple’s acquisition of Lala, and MySpace buying and apparently dismantling Imeem. But Traasdahl and Schwartz sound upbeat, arguing that the emergence of media-ready smartphones makes this the right time to launch their ambitious music service. They also say Thumbplay’s experience with paid services gives it an advantage.

“If you look at the other music services that have struggled, most of them tried to build a service around the free product, and they had consumer uptake that made it very, very hard to build a business model,” Traasdahl says. “We have five years of experience in driving paid subscribers.”

Thumbplay has raised $40 million in funding and says it is profitable.