Spotify mobile requires a premium subscription and is not launched in the US yet. But plans are far advanced for that.

In that environment it might get even tougher for some of the newcomers to the show. The media execs. Well, some have probably been there at least once. But for most media companies the mobile channel is virgin territory. This will change. Is changing. Has already changed. There are more than anectdotal evidence for this. Which media outlet with some self-respect has not a twitter account today? By the way you find my tweets here. Yes twitter is a hybrid web and mobile service, but very much a mobile service. Twitter also makes it possible to be a one man news agency/editorial crew. One example being Thomas Crampton with his blog, mobile videos and tweets.

But beyond that? What else? Since the mobile phone is the item that stays with us for most of the day it is _the_ screen to be at. It starts with the wakeup call, most likley coming from the mobile phone alarm. Then checking what texts, tweets and news have come in during the night. On to the day with phone calls, picture taking, texts, surfing and some tweets. It continues like that until we go to bed. 

In a recent report from Strand Reports there are some interesting facts. This should make good reading and solid base information for some important decisions at the media commpanies. Even though the time spent for media consumption on the phone is still measured in minutes versus TV-consumption in hours, the growth is in mobile. If we include social interaction when we talk with our friends about media and entertainment, the mobile becomes even more important already today.

Mobile also opens up for co-creation, dialogue and participation. All magic keywords for creating strong loyalty. After some experiences are gained I am sure we will see entirely new production methods and shorter cycles for some media properties. 

The key here is to strike the right balance between mobiel add-ons and create for mobile from the ground up. And manage to do that in a multi-channels scenario covering for instance TV, radio, event, web and mobile to take a fairly common set of channels that one media commpany might use.

There are very cool ideas and facts coming out of some of the experienced players like Tomi Ahonen and Alan Moore running Communities Dominate Brands blog. They are on top of the pyramid perhaps, but the pyramid is growing, the base is widening and there are new great talents added to the mobile media scene every day now. One proof of this is that the mobile content hall at MWC09 has grown substantially this year. And the porn companies are in minority. There’s hard work ahead but we _are_ on the fast track to become part of mainstream media. Oh happy days!

Dear Big Media Exec, did you get all that down with your Mont Blanc pen in your paper notepad?

In the mobile world creative commons thinking is a huge driver for growth. Content contracts and costs are a huge barrier to growth. But unfortunately there is no active discussion at the moment aroudn applying creative commons licensing in business deals in mobile. The beneits would be huge. Especially in the music arena where full length tracks today are in many cases sold at a loss using the traditional models where a record label takes a large cut, the mobile carrier takes his unreasonably big cut for handling the transactions and offering a bit of distribution. Then the broadcasting rights have to be paid. Take away the VAT and there is not much left for the company operating the service.

If the general reasoning among the promoters of new business models for the music industry is right, how can mobile enhance that model? First the model – give the individual tracks away and make money on all other things such as limited edition special boxes (like the example Joi brought up – Nine Inch Nails), concert tickets (the most common example given I have a feeling of), t-shirts and even selling the master tracks for a song and let the listener become producer and remix the track like Ace of Base is doing it at their site. I understand and respect the fear for change and the leap of faith it is to let go of the traditional model. Here mobile maybe can offer yet another way to bridge the digital and physical (in this case as in hard core cash) worlds and make it less emotionally painful for the music industry as a group.

What if a free download over your mobile with a creative commons license also generated an SMS from the artist when they sell something real to you such as that limited edition box, a concert ticket etc? It can of course be done in more or less suttle ways. Maybe even charging for hooking you up to people who appear near you who have dowloaded songs from ths same artist/category? Here we are also talking social networking 3.0 I think. We are not 100% suited for one network. We fit many niche networks. Our individuality as a person is better matched with several niche networks than one mega-one-size-fits all. And best of all if they start to become automatic. That is when the conversation becomes everything as well as  the driver for innovation. Use case: I am walking in to a cafe and get to know that there are 5 others who have downloaded the same track as I during the last week. I get an invitation to make myself known if I like to. Or not.

One of my key stand-points are that mobile often is the perfect “bridging device” from the digital to the real world simply because it is always on and always with us. Seen in this perspective I think mobile entertainment and services has seen nothing yet. It is mobile web 3.0 really. Do I know this for sure? No, but I am willing to bet the house on it and possible loose it all in the process. But that’s why I am an entrepreneur. Does this make sense at all?

Thanks Joi for the spark that ignited this riff!

Facts are that Nokia will now try to launch Comes With Music on very few handsets. Two that I know of, I might be wrong so please correct me. In addition the only distribution channels known to date is Carphone Warehouse. Admittedly a very big and strong channel. But is it enough? More to the point what do they pay the staff in bonus for each sold Comes With Music phone?

My most positive take on this is that Comes With Music will get users enough to not make it a complete embarrassment, but it will cost a lot in the distribution part of the value chain. If there are no extra bonuses for the sales staff, the phone with Comes With Music will not fly off the shelves. Then add the costs for the music itself and the risk for a loss making proposition is quite high.

The negative take then? Well, despite that Nokia is better than I will ever be in handset distribution and the economics of it (though I have been the e-commerce manager EMEA at Brightpoint, a global mobile phone distributor), they might decide that they will not give incentives to the sales staff and there will be very low sales and a total embarrassment and the record labels might cancel the contracts with Nokia if they do not believe in the concept.

What I hope is that I am wrong and Nokia Comes With Music becomes a success. It will gain the entire industry but most of all the consumer who will have a better choice. I just can see the setup for a success at the moment. But I would be pleased to be wrong.

An article about how full length music is overtaking ringtones. In it we read that.. “[w]ith some operators now offering full track downloads at a comparable price to iTunes, there is little justification for a ringtone retail price point that is in many cases two or even three times this level”. The person mentioning this is Windsor Holden at Juniper Research. I beg to differ and I welcome a comment from Windsor on this.

I think this is the most common mistake made by people who might need to take a step back and look at the industry they are analyzing once more. And this time from the point of view of the consumer.

I say it only once: A ringtone is not competing with a full length music track. A full length track song is not an enhanced ringtone. We buy ringtones and music tracks for different reasons. Ringtones are about expression. Music is about personal entertainment most often in a pair of stereo headphones not broadcast in public to our peers. Let’s stick to the facts ladies and gentlemen!

Anyway, most of you knew this already. I just don’t like the risk of if something erroneous being repeated enough times until will be classified as a truth.