Thursday, July 24, 2003
: Major music acts to offer dedicated mobile channel, reports NewMediaAge -- a venture where artists directly provide things like ringtones to customers. From the article "The move highlights an emerging trend in the development of mobile music, as artist's managers, rather than labels, become more important in developing the mobile brands of artists." I agree with the idea that managers should be more involved, but I don't see sustained revenue from extras like ringtones -- unless the extras are really good. As with everything, whoever has the money and best ideas will do okay, the rest will suffer and then wonder "Why did we spend 3 million building a channel for an Afroman ringtone?" Still, this could have an upside. The endeavor will have a better chance at at success with long-term successful artists, so maybe this will encourage more investment in artist careers.
