REVIEW: Karaoke-style ringtone promotion fun, easy to use

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t in the mobile content industry. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Service: “Singtones” ringtone promotion from Interop Technologies & Hershey. Free with code from IceBreakers Sours candy and gum packages, one in three wins.
Running on: PC and Motorola V710 on Verizon Wireless’ network.
Yay: Easy-as-pie guided process to recording your own ringtone, karaoke-style, that works even on my dinosaur of a phone. The only cost is the $2 price of the candy-and best of all, there is no surprise subscription fee or fine print as with other “free” ringtone promotions.
Nay: Song selection is limited, quality can sound better during recording than the actual finished ringtone.
We Say: Are you feeling lucky? Are you? Because you’ve got pretty darn good odds of scoring a free ringtone with this promotion. The official odds are one in three, but I did even better than that-of four packs of Ice Breakers Sours candy or gum, two of the packages were winners.
In the interest of full disclosure, I did get a briefing from Interop on the service before the campaign went live, and company reps walked me through a demo months ago-which I promptly forgot the details of. But never fear, the system is so simple that Paris Hilton could manage it-not that she’d find any of her own songs on the list to record, for which I’m sure we’re all grateful.
The process is simple: After buying the candy, point your browser to www.ice-breakers.com/singtones and enter your date of birth and then the code from the inside of the candy packaging-no e-mail, no address, no additional pesky demographic information to enter. After all, you’ve obviously already purchased the product at this point.
If you turn up a winning code, you are offered two options: “Belt One Out Now” or “Warm Up and Come Back,” which you can do anytime before Dec. 31 of this year, when the promotion ends. (If you don’t win the ringtone, you can sign up to win a trip for four to New York City for a super-special ringtone recording session.)
Choosing to record the song “now” takes you through a short series of prep steps: choose your carrier (from a list that includes all the big guys and quite a few of the smaller ones), choose your phone model, and enter your phone number so your finished ringtone can be sent to your phone. And technophiles may turn up their noses at my scuffed-up V710-it’s not all digital, it’s not EV-DO-capable and it is, um, big-boned compared with most of what’s on the market these days-but Interop and Hershey will take me and my phone just the way we are, recognizing that not everybody upgrades every six months . or three years, as the case may be. Because some of us LIKE our old phones, thank you very much.
After those few, quick choices, you’re faced with a list of songs for your musical debut-a healthy selection of mostly recent, Top 40 and classic music from artists like the Beatles, U2, Tom Jones, Jack Johnson, Alanis Morrisette, Sarah McLachlan, Madonna and so on. If there’s one flaw in this service it’s probably the song selection, because you could always argue that the selection should be broader and include more recent hits.
Selecting a preview of a song brings up the audio snippet that you’ll be singing, complete with lyrics. I considered “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” “Flake,” “The Continuing Ballad of Rocky Raccoon” and “Mysterious Ways” before settling on Sarah McLachlan’s “Ice Cream.”
Once you select a song that you want to record and you’re ready to sing, the service dials up your handset and an IVR takes over (you still need your computer screen to have the lyrics at hand). You go through a brief timing exercise to account for latency, which consists of counting to eight along with the IVR, and get a few tips before you start (such as, make sure you have good reception). Then it’s three beeps, the music starts, and it’s time to use that handset as a microphone, and “give it all you’ve got!” as the perky IVR voice encourages you to do.
The track I chose included the bonus of being a “live” recording, so I got the satisfaction of hearing a screaming crowd cheering on my 30-second performance. Eat your heart out, Kelly Clarkson!-who also has several songs on the list, by the by.
I probably should have practiced a few more times, but the recorded track that I was able to listen to afterwards sounded fairly decent. I opted to have it sent to my phone rather than re-record, and a few minutes later my ringtone arrived. Unfortunately, it didn’t sound quite as good when I previewed it on my phone’s speakers-that screaming crowd made things sound a bit fuzzy-but it’d still make a decent ringtone and/or conversation piece.
So all you “American Idol” wannabes, have at it. Go forth and buy up those Ice-Breakers! The ringtones are fun-and the candy’s pretty tasty, too.