LAS VEGAS-Having set itself up as the text-message connection for American Idol, Cingular Wireless L.L.C. is aiming to help other musical unknowns grab a bit of the limelight.
Cingular is partnering with the popular social networking Web site MySpace.com and mobile content company InfoSpace Inc. to give the estimated 1 million musicians promoting themselves via MySpace the chance to turn their songs into ringtones and sell them to fans.
According to the companies, the Mobile Music Studio is in beta mode and being tested by about 75 unsigned groups and individuals. The service uses a dedicated page on MySpace.com to guide the musicians through a licensing and production process in which they upload a short track. The track then is reviewed to make sure that it is original content-so cover bands need not apply, unless they’re licensed to distribute the original band’s music.
The review also ensures the music is “appropriate.” David Garver, Cingular’s executive director of marketing, noted that all of Cingular’s content is radio-edit.
If approved, the track then will be turned into a 30-second ringtone that the band can link to from its MySpace profile page; the ringtones will be available only for download by Cingular customers on Cingular phones.
“It gives [the bands] a great opportunity to distribute their content to their fans,” said Garver.
The resulting ringtone will cost the same as any other Cingular ringtone, $2.50, and the service is free for the musicians. Only one ringtone will be allowed per group at first, but Cingular expects to be able to expand that eventually and ultimately move to having full-length music tracks available. The artists also share in a quarter of whatever revenue is generated by sales of their ringtones. Garver said that payments would be made quarterly and handled by InfoSpace; if the revenue generated is less than $100, it rolls over into the next quarter until the $100 threshold is reached.
According to Garver, the licensing agreement allows the partner companies to distribute a song snippet as a ringtone for one year, and then automatically goes into six-month renewals, unless the artist chooses to pull the song.
The service is expected to roll out for use nationally later this spring.
