April 10, 2006
First band to release a single by phone
Planet Funk will next month release a single exclusively via mobile phones, reports The Guardian.
The band are the latest to eschew the traditional route of slogging around provincial radio stations and record stores to attract a following in favour of building a profile digitally.
The mobile network will this week continue its campaign of premiering videos on its handsets with a new Pet Shop Boys promo for new single I'm With Stupid that features the comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams. It said an increasing number of singles were being sold via mobile downloads and already accounted for nearly 4% of the singles chart. Altogether, the mobile network claims to have sold more than 16m music video or song downloads over the past two years.
As the cost of downloading becomes more realistic and mobile handsets become more sophisticated, analysts predict an increase in the number of people looking to download tracks directly to their phone.
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