MusiKube broke an almost year-long silence last week, resurfacing to launch a mobile music identification application that allows users to purchase ringtones directly over their handsets.
With the service, called SongLink’d, a mobile user can play a tune directly into a phone and receive a text message with information including song title and artist name. The message includes links to buy downloadable ringtones for phones, and users can buy downloadable full tracks through third-party portals or CDs via Internet retailers like Amazon.
“Right now, the transaction is predominantly online; the billing mechanism for buying a track or CD is online,” said Sunjay Guleria, chief executive officer of NMK Inc., which owns the MusiKube brand. “Eventually, the billing will migrate up to the handset” as technology allows.
Shazam Entertainment is providing the audio-recognition technology for SongLink’d, which marks MusiKube’s first major product offering in a year. After gaining attention in the mainstream media last year, the company was quietly acquired for an undisclosed amount by For-Side.com, a $137 million-dollar Tokyo-based mobile content company that owns several U.S. wireless entertainment publishers.
MusiKube is offering the new service free through April 11; users will be charged $1 for each successful identification after the promotion. SongLink’d is available through Cingular Wireless L.L.C., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless, and soon should be offered through other U.S. carriers, Guleria said.
Cingular also offers a music identification service powered by Loudeye Corp. Gracenote also provides technology for music-ID applications.
The initial offering is text message based to make it simple and available for nearly every wireless user, Guleria said.
“SMS is a good way to make money and a good way to deliver song information,” Guleria said. “The core service is a premium SMS service that basically anybody can use … But we’re not sticking to any one platform or one deliver mechanism or one billing process.”
