Virgin Mobile Live, the newly created Internet music channel featuring rock, hip hop, indie, pop and dance remixes, and live interviews, launches at 11 a.m. (EDT) July 20 with 24-hour-a-day live and taped streaming audio programming. Sir Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, will celebrate the music channel’s launch by announcing the highly anticipated lineup for the 2010 Virgin Mobile FreeFest powered by Kyocera on the debut of the channel’s signature show, “FreeFest Sessions”, hosted by DJ Abbey Braden. The announcement of the festival lineup will occur shortly after 11 a.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, July 20 on the channel’s launch day.

“Virgin Mobile Live is designed to be a non-stop, electric and spontaneous effort to wire our most loyal fans into the Virgin culture,” said Ron Faris, director of brand experiences, Virgin Mobile USA. “We’re especially excited that its launch comes in time for Sir Richard Branson to announce this year’s Virgin Mobile FreeFest lineup and to let people know when and how free tickets will be made available.”

Virgin Mobile Live will present eclectic music and programming, including:

FreeFest Sessions: A live daily signature music show from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (EDT) hosted by Braden of the Hype Machine and ‘SUP’ Magazine, spotlighting new music, features, interviews with this year’s Virgin Mobile FreeFest acts, Virgin Mobile Festival Flashbacks, and Virgin Mobile’s efforts around youth homelessness through The RE*Generation initiative.

The FreeStyle with Schott Free: The music you should be listening to, according to Schott Free, hip-hop producer and East Village Radio host, bringing sounds live from the streets of New York.

Beyond Talk: A listener-curated segment highlighting the top 10 tracks requested via Twitter, airing each Friday.

Smash Pop: Featuring pop hits, remixed and revisited.

“FreeFest Sessions combine my two favorite things – getting the word out about amazing artists and anything involving music festivals,” said Braden. “The decision to harness this new media platform to raise awareness of youth homelessness as well demonstrates Virgin Mobile's initiative to get users involved within their communities. I'll be donating my time, too.”

The Virgin Mobile FreeFest will be held Sept. 25 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md. Last year’s tickets were “freed out” in less than 30 minutes, but fans then had a chance to earn a ticket by donating time to homeless youth charities across the country through Virgin Mobile’s Free I.P. program. That program also will be conducted this year.

About Virgin Mobile USA
Virgin Mobile USA, one of Sprint's prepaid brands, offers millions of customers control, flexibility and connectivity through Virgin Mobile's Beyond Talk plans for mobile phone service and prepaid Broadband2Go high-speed Web access. Virgin Mobile branded handsets are available at more than 40,000 retail stores, including Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and RadioShack.