Fiesty Mobile Music Startups
It seems that no sooner than our industry starts making money on one service that it starts hyping the heck out of the next batch. So it is, we're finding here in New Orleans, with mobile music.
Vodafone recently announced big results and intentions to expand its 3G-based music download service, which is powered by Musiwave. My post Monday "Music Downloads vs. Ringtones" addressed the need to take a time-based approach to understanding market evolution as new content types achieve adoption and integration into what came before.
Unsurprisingly, some of the music startups take indirect aim at the established ringtones business in order to fund early adoption of their platforms for distribution of the new new thing. Apparently, just doing the volume business better doesn't make for an effective enough sales pitch. And so it is that we hear spurious claims that on the back of a music download service we'll refactor the entire user experience, and oh yeah, bring the old content types along for the ride.
As a provider who appreciates all the challenges remaining to increase penetration of the old, suffice to say we find this position presumptuous. Isn't it yet more likely that the entrenched old guard (some irony here) will stretch into the new, and assimilate it along the way? I'd argue that's why Musiwave has been so successful out of the gate: They're a bona fide ringtone provider, selling ringtones and growing up into full track downloads.
Vodafone recently announced big results and intentions to expand its 3G-based music download service, which is powered by Musiwave. My post Monday "Music Downloads vs. Ringtones" addressed the need to take a time-based approach to understanding market evolution as new content types achieve adoption and integration into what came before.
Unsurprisingly, some of the music startups take indirect aim at the established ringtones business in order to fund early adoption of their platforms for distribution of the new new thing. Apparently, just doing the volume business better doesn't make for an effective enough sales pitch. And so it is that we hear spurious claims that on the back of a music download service we'll refactor the entire user experience, and oh yeah, bring the old content types along for the ride.
As a provider who appreciates all the challenges remaining to increase penetration of the old, suffice to say we find this position presumptuous. Isn't it yet more likely that the entrenched old guard (some irony here) will stretch into the new, and assimilate it along the way? I'd argue that's why Musiwave has been so successful out of the gate: They're a bona fide ringtone provider, selling ringtones and growing up into full track downloads.
posted by Brian Dally at
4:18 PM
