Cassandra and Curtis Brown have set their sights on perhaps the most niche of all mobile markets: fans of “holy hip-hop.”
The Pittsburgh-area couple recently partnered with mobile music provider Xingtone to offer 10 Christian-themed urban ringtones from tunes with names like “Christ Soljahz,” “I’m Not Ashamed” and “He’s #1.” The tunes are offered under the brand Jirehmobile-Jireh, roughly translated from Hebrew, means “my provider”-as an extension of a clothing line the Browns launched eight years ago.
“I used to gripe about how young ladies were dressing, and how young men were wearing their clothes sagging and hanging,” said Cassandra. “My husband was like, `Quit complaining; let’s do something about it.”‘
The urban fashion business gave birth to a music operation, with the Browns acting as a link between artists, labels and fans. The operation’s first mix CD is forthcoming, featuring spiritual hip-hop artists from around the world.
The couple built a Web page on Xingtone.com, a mobile music portal for independent ringtone producers that also offers software allowing users to make their own mobile tunes. Jireh’s clips of real tunes for mobile-phone ringers were added to Xingtone’s site a few weeks ago, and Cassandra and Curtis have begun plugging the ringtones the same way they plug their other wares: word of mouth.
“We’ve never done any traditional marketing or promotions or anything of that nature,” said Cassandra. “We take care of the distribution, and our primary marketing is for private sales through churches and (religious) groups.”
The site has slowly gained attention, mostly from links and message boards on supporting organizations’ Web sites. The Browns hope to get enough traction to get the attention of a carrier, and plan to expand their mobile portfolio to include wallpapers and games. And they’re looking to add gospel music to their ringtones in an effort to attract a more diverse group of wireless worshipers.
“We’re pleased so far,” said Curtis. “This has pretty much been us standing and very loudly yelling, `Take a look at this.’ And it’s working.”
