Orange is about to launch Soundtribes : a new business model for self-produced artists. Soundtribe is a community for Music Lovers, artists and musicians to promote, to distribute and to sell their music as ringtones on mobile phones. The artist receives a revenue share from ringtones made from his own music. Price is around 3€ per ringtones.
How does it work ?
The artist uploads for free an MP3 file. He chooses to allow to stream it for free or sell an MP3 without DRM. He can also choose to sell one his music as a ringtone . Orange will then create all formats to be compatible. Orange will attribute a short code sms so that the artist can sell. The first short code sms is free, the following ones are not, most likely through subscription to a premium account.
When and where?
The Alpha service for artists will open on April 30th. The public Beta service is planned for June 1st. It will be launched simultaneously in France, UK, Spain. As all products developed by the Next team, it will be multioperators, not just limited to Orange subscribers.That’s what i think should be a standard in the industry : openess.
Who’s behind it?
Orange Next is behind the service. They are about designing (thinktank) and launching new services. If these services create revenus, they deploy them. If they don’t..
At MIPTV in Cannes last week, Pascal Thomas, VP multimedia marketing who runs Orange NeXt, told me more about the service. The conception and launch of SoundTribes is managed by Pierre-Eric Jacoupy and his team.
Also from NeXt, Pikeo, a worldwide geolocalized photo album, developed by the San Francisco Orange lab. Interview of David Nahmani here.