Mobile Music Marketing

An article at Mobile Marketing Magazine mentions a UK-based company called Formation, who are currently deploying a survey on their web-to-mobile publishing site, immedia24.

How Do We Use Our Music Phones?

This survey purports to investigate why the music industry is not proactively responding to the changes in user behaviour on mobile devices – specifically, the increasing consumption of music via mp3-enabled phones. Although this survey does smack of linkbait, and its primary function is probably to draw attention to immedia24’s mobile publishing services, the issues raised (and indeed the service itself) are worthy of note.

Given the preponderance of handsets which now double as jukeboxes, it seems likely that convenience will pave the way for greater music sales – the music mountain must move to meet Mohammed. The easier it is for the casual consumer to access music, the more likely they are to buy it – particularly when a single download can be had without any actual transfer of hard coinage. This is a type of “credit-card syndrome” – buy now, pay later (or, in the case of PAYG, paid already). One click on your phone and you have a new tune to listen to – and, invisibly, your account just dropped $1.50.

Admittedly, the target market for such ploys is certainly that of the pop-sock teenagers, so I wouldn’t expect any exerimental music concrete outfits to benefit hugely from a mobile publishing campaign. However, it is certainly an area that the beast formerly known as the music industry should be exporing very carefully (and quickly).

Social music recommendations are already forging ahead in the mobile market, with the CScout TrendBlog noting the partnership of DoCoMo and Napster in Japan. This allows users to access music and ringtone recommendations via their mobile, with individual and geographically tailored options available.

Pandora users in the USA can now create their own personalised radio station from their mobile. This system includes the “thumbs-up” rating system of the standard platform, and costs $2.99 per month.

For a synopsis of some popular music recommendation sites (including Pandora, Last.fm and Hype Machine), try this article at CScout.



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