Music Online: Alex Jones

Short Message Service, also known as SMS or simply text messaging, has progressed from being used purely as a way for people to get in contact with one another, and has become a widely used method of distribution within the media.

Considering the majority of our population own a mobile phone, and carry it with them at all times, it’s arguably one of the best ways of distributing media, and is used as a form of advertising and promotion. It has advantages over other forms of advertising as it gets the message straight to the consumer without them having to do anything, and they’re much more likely open a text rather than with email which can easily be missed or deleted without being read. In relation to the music industry, fans can now sign up to receive SMS updates on artists of interest, instead of, or as well as, email updates. They can then be sent short messages informing them of a new release, new tours and links for further information. This is also a way of getting more hits to their website.

One mobile network which seems to have taken this idea and used to their advantage, is Blyk, which is open to 16-25 year olds. They’ve taken into consideration that young people don’t have a lot of money and so offer them a free SIM, with no contract and no costs, giving them 217 free texts and 43 free minutes every month. The catch? Customers must simply agree for Blyk to allow companies to contact them via text, sending adverts, information on promotions, links and short questionnaires, which they can choose to ignore. Customers can also fill in their details online so that they are able to receive adverts which could be of interest to them, such as they type of music they like, where they like to go out, what they do in their spare time etc. As a Blyk customer myself, I can say that on the whole the adverts I receive are of interest to me. Messages relating to music often inform me of new releases and new bands, with the opportunity of free ringtones and wallpapers, brands also ask simple yes or no questions in order to find out more about fans, all of these are also free for customers to respond to.

As for Blyk it’s easy to see how they’re able to fund the network, essentially selling their customers to advertisers. The brands also benefit highly from this as they’re able to reach young people specifically interested in what they’ve got to offer.

Another service making use of SMS is Twitter, a free social networking and micro-blogging site. Users are able to update their status from wherever they are via SMS, which then updates their profile, and delivers this update on to other users, who have signed up as a ‘follower’, using SMS, RSS, and email. This, like other social networking services has its advantages of keeping friends, family and co-workers up to date with what they’re doing. It also allows users to restrict delivery to selected people, and turn the service off when they want to.

I can see how this too could be of use to the music industry, by creating accounts specifically for the use of twittering about their artists and encouraging interest in them. As for the long tail, by twittering about lots of smaller artists rather than one bigger artist, this could give followers varied updates on things which may interest them.

Services such as Twitter and mobile ringtone providers make use of short codes, which are basically telephone numbers that are much shorter than a full telephone number. They can be accessed from mobile phones via text messaging in ways such as a text vote on the X Factor or a text in on radio shows, or to buy ringtones. They are designed so that they can be easily read out and remembered. UK short codes are commonly five digits long, starting with 6 or 8, and services can usually be ended by texting STOP to the number.

One of the draw backs when using SMS as a form of distribution is that they are unable to carry rich content, with users having to be redirected to listen or watch anything. This requires more effort and relies on the hope that users will follow the links provided, this is then time consuming and if they’re on the move with their phone, it’s easily forgettable. There’s also no guarantee that the message will be successfully delivered without interference or loss of part of the text.

Links of interest:

Twitter unable to keep funding SMS updates…

http://www.smstoday.co.uk/blog/2008/08/twitter-announc.html

Chris Brogan’s 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business…

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/