CELL PHONES THE NEW MEDIA DELIVERY SYSTEM

CELL PHONES THE NEW MEDIA DELIVERY SYSTEM
Allen Johnston – The Music Specialist
www.asha.com

Here’s something to think about….Cell phones will replace portable radio, television, personal data assistants, credit cards, cash, Ipods, global positioning systems and the pocket pc.

If you think that this is a futuristic view, let’s look at what’s happening today.

Some of the companies and technology NOW available on cell phones are:

P2P applications such as chat/ communities, picture/greetings, music sharing, and IM have become increasingly popular in the US. Executives from AOL, Facebook, iLoop Mobile, NeuStar, T-Mobile USA and Upoc Networks are designing new applications.

Mobile Television distributing video content via the mobile channel along with movie trailers is popular. CBS Digital Media, Fox Interactive Media, MediaFLO, MobiTV, MTV and NBC Universal.

Mobile Music Labels and artists are gaining mainstream exposure through the mobile channel and leveraging new revenues streams for existing and tailor-made content. Ericsson, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Mobile and Warner Music are a few leaders in this technology.

Mobile Games single played games and multiplayer games over the 3G network. Gameloft, Glu Mobile, Nokia, QUALCOMM, Fox Mobile Entertainment, Motricity, Nellymoser, Novarra, Qpass and Walt Disney Internet Group all have new gaming designs available.

Already well established in Asia and parts of Europe, mobile commerce is only now beginning to make its way to the U.S. Early efforts of using SMS messages to send and receive money have not gained support from consumers or U.S. carriers. Now all you have to do is simply enter your Mobile phone number and a passcode to complete a transaction. And these Mobile transactions cost retailers a fraction of the fees they currently pay to other financial vendors. Your cellphone now can become a MOBILE WALLET.

Clear Channel Radio has launched a national roll-out of mobile radio programming. The initiative kicks off with WHTZ-FM New York (Z100) streaming live radio and new features directly to cell phones across the country serviced by Cingular Wireless. Subscribers of Z100 Mobile, the premiere service of Clear Channel Radio's mobile offering, can interact directly from their phones to listen to streamed and on-demand content including pod casts of celebrity interviews and popular segments. They can also find the title and artist of the last 10 songs played on-air, make a song request directly to Z100 and receive a text message alert 15 minutes before their song is played, get free station wallpapers for their phone, rate listener-submitted photos and obtain real-time reports on local traffic. The content of Clear Channel Radio's mobile program to be offered on the 100 additional stations over the next year will be similar to the features described above for the premiere service, Z100 Mobile.

Amp’d Mobile offers include full-motion video of news, sports, concerts and other live events, as well as movie and television clips and music videos. Added to the mix are high-speed music downloads, 3-D games, video blogs, a dating service, text messaging and an assortment of ring tones and wallpaper. Also, Amp’d Mobile phones can connect to a unique in-car audio experience, as well as allow download of music and video from the Amp’d Live service to plasma screens throughout the vehicle. Your phone becomes a multimedia automobile delivery system.
Major record labels such as Warner Music & Sony BMG are steadily embracing mobile technology, moving beyond ring tones and music downloads. Both labels have developed their own mobile game publishing division rather than licensing the rights to existing game developers. Music video download, which has already taken Ipod by storm, will now be directed to the consumer’s cellphone. Things are becoming so serious that a new company Royalty Producer ‘06 has created the first royalty software for download sales. With royalty producer, your data comes to life. You set up this software with just three simple steps and your professionally designed royalty statements are just one click away.

Do you still think that cell phones are only for talking? Well today is the day you should change your mind.