Vodafone team up with MySpace to offer The Music Studio
Vodafone has teamed up with MySpace, the world’s premier social portal, to launch an online music studio designed to further strengthen its association with the music industry.
The pan-European campaign, which was launched today and will initially run for eight months, is aimed at bands, artists and music enthusiasts and sees the creation of a new and integrated music solution; showing Vodafone to be a brand immersed in music around the globe.
The venture, available to music lovers in the UK, Germany and Spain will deliver engaging and interactive brand experiences for users while ensuring revenue is driven through Vodafone’s music related products and services. It will provide the perfect platform for Vodafone to communicate and engage with music consumers in a social networking environment.
The Music Studio incorporates four key themes – Create, Discover, Experience and Share – maximising the opportunity for interaction and engagement:
Create:
Users will be given the tools to remix the tracks of established musicians using the new ‘Go Mix’ application, and later in the campaign, easily record tracks and upload them onto their MySpace Profile
Budding musicians will be given Tips and Tricks on how to make the most out of MySpace as well as learn new skills including remix and DJ techniques
Discover:
Bands can put themselves forward for a monthly ‘Ones to Watch’ competition. The chosen bands will be promoted via The Music Studio and also win a session in a recording studio
Experience:
Provides users with the latest news and interviews from Vodafone-sponsored music festivals and events across Europe Share:
Users can post links to their next events or pose questions to the community in the forum
The Vodafone Music Reporter competition gives users the chance to win reporting opportunities from music events across Europe
Today’s launch builds on the success of last year’s Vodafone Music Reporter campaign which gave users the chance to travel to festivals across Europe and report back to the MySpace community, with the final winner reporting on a gig on MTV. Additionally, the development of The Music Studio to incorporate additional engagement opportunities has built on the Vodafone Music Unlimited offering on MySpace and further strengthens the site’s ongoing relationship with the brand.
Nick Reid, Head of Sales, MySpace UK, commented: “MySpace has worked with Vodafone to develop a bespoke platform to engage with our audience and offer them something we know they want. This deal provides us with a great opportunity to allow users and musicians to express themselves, discover new talent and get closer to bands and their music”.
David Wheldon, Global Brand Director at Vodafone Group said: “The Music Studio offers a unique opportunity to bring a great product to a fully engaged audience. We know that our customers are really passionate about music and we strive to give them new opportunities to experience music on - or off - their mobile. This campaign gives users an innovative, interesting and useful product, while strengthening Vodafone’s association as a key player in the music industry.”
This month, the highly anticipated Nokia N97, Nokia’s flagship mobile computer, will begin selling in June in more than 75 countries. This is Nokia’s direct competitor to the Apple iPhone and Blackberry Storm.
Along with a tilting 3.5″ touch display, QWERTY keyboard and a fully customisable home screen, the Nokia N97 will offer instant access to the full range of Ovi services.
The Nokia N97 is Nokia’s first device to feature a personalisable home screen, which can be customised with a range of widgets to bring real-time information directly to your mobile device in the form of ‘widgets’.
These widgets include key social networking destinations like Facebook, news services like the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as shopping and weather information. The Nokia N97 is the first device to ship with the Ovi Store, which offers easy access to applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services, and much more. Ovi Store includes both paid and free content from a range of global and local content providers and developers, including Paramount Pictures, Facebook and Qik, as well as a selection of Twitter applications.
“The Nokia N97 is an important step towards our vision of delivering a highly personalized Internet experience,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President and head of Nokia Nseries. “Fuelled by a multitude of music, maps, games, media and applications via Ovi, the Nokia N97 transforms the Internet into an experience that’s completely tailored to the tastes and interests of its owner.”
The Nokia N97 is like a computer
Taking your Nokia N97 out of the box is just the beginning. As with any computer, you can constantly improve and refresh the Nokia N97 with new features, functions and fixes so you can do more with this device than any other Nokia mobile phone.
Mobile Entertainment
The Nokia N97 also has direct access to the huge catalogue of music in the Nokia Music Store. With multiple high-speed connectivity options and 32GB of storage (up to 48GB using a microSD card) it is possible to directly download and store tens of thousands of songs on the handset. And you can listen to your favourite music on the Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905, which Nokia also launched today.
The headset brings crystal clear sound, eliminates background noise, and is the ideal accessory for listening to music and making calls on the Nokia N97, as well as being compatible with a diverse range of other mobile and music devices.
High-quality images and video clips at 30 frames per second (fps) can be captured using the 5 megapixel camera with integrated Carl Zeiss optics. Images can also be geo-tagged to specific locations and shared instantly with friends or uploaded online via Ovi Share, Twitter or Flickr.
Whereas the iPhone appeals more to personla consumers, I believe the Nokia N97 is going to appeal more to business customers and looks set to be one of this year’s biggest selling mobile phones.
The UK is expected by many to undergo an increase in mobile Smartphone sales over the next few years as technology improves and costs fall. Smartphones are also expected to beat the global recession with 500 million units expected to shift in the year 2012 compared with the 170 million that are expected to sell world wide in 2009. This means that soon most pockets in this mobile obsessed land will be filled with the happy glow of a smartphone.
Smartphones are primarily aimed at business users, and the market is packed with great phones which offer a wide variety of functionality, so much so that it can be hard to choose between the phones on offer. Let`s look at some of the top smartphones for business users that are available today.
Blackberry Bold - The Blackberry brand has become synonymous with the business smartphone, and even the new president of the USA has been known to carry one around with him. The Bold is the latest evolution of the 8800 series and aims to bridge the gap between the casual and business smartphone markets. Of course the Bold has a full QWERTY keypad which makes it unrivalled in terms of email functionality, so if you`re out of the office a lot but still want to keep tabs on your inbox then the Bold is ideal. It`s also got HSDPA connectivity for high speed mobile internet and downloads so you won`t have to wait for the latest business news. The Bold also adds GPS navigation, a feature that many business smart phones are now integrating, as well as the latest Bluetooth technology for hands free chatting and conference calling.
HTC Touch Diamond2 - Following on from the success of the original the Diamond2 brings style to the business smart phone market as well as a touchy feely interface. Running Windows Mobile 6.1 means that the Diamond2 is compatible with loads of useful mobile business applications like Excel, Word and Internet Explorer, and it essentially puts a PC in your pocket. Then there`s the large 3.2 inch screen which can recognise handwriting amongst other things, and a decent 5 mega pixel camera. This means that this is a smartphone that will hit the business and media hotspots with great all round functionality.
Nokia N96 - The Nokia N96 is not only a very popular handset, it is also one of the most feature rich smart phones on the market. Firstly it has a market leading 16GB of internal storage space which means it will eat up documents and large folders with ease. Then there`s the 5 mega pixel camera that sits on the back and the smaller one which perches on the front for video calling and MMS messaging. The Nokia N96 also has all of the connectivity options that you would expect from a modern smartphone for business users, including 3G and HSDPA for mobile internet, Wi-Fi connectivity for free web browsing and connecting your phone to the office network, Bluetooth 2.0, and of course GPS so you`ll never loose your way again.
Skype has announced that the lite version of Skype, a ‘thin’ Skype client for mobile phones, will soon be available as a free download for BlackBerry mobile smart phones.
A beta version will be available in May for the BlackBerry Bold™ and BlackBerry Curve™ smartphones, with support for other BlackBerry smartphones to be confirmed.
The lite version of Skype delivers core Skype capabilities to BlackBerry smartphones, including:
Make Skype-to-Skype calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world
Send/receive instant messages to/from individuals or groups
Make Skype calls at low rates to people on landline or mobile phones
Receive calls to your online number on Skype
See when your Skype contacts are online/available to chat
BlackBerry users who download Skype can save money on business and personal calls to landlines and mobiles. The application works wherever your mobile phone works, without needing a Wi-Fi connection. It uses local air time and a mobile Internet connection to sign in to Skype, update your contact list and presence and to send/receive calls or messages. As a result, you must have both a calling plan and a data plan to use the lite version of Skype.
“With Skype on BlackBerry smartphones, we are making Skype available in the briefcases and purses of BlackBerry users around the world,” said Scott Durchslag, COO of Skype. “We have heard loud and clear that our users want Skype on whichever smartphone they choose to use. This fulfills our promise of making Skype available on the major smartphones so consumers and mobile professionals can connect to Skype whenever, wherever and however they choose.”
The lite version of Skype will be available to BlackBerry users worldwide. The ability to make calls will be available in 10 countries: Australia, Brazil (Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paulo), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, the United States and the UK. English will be supported first, with additional languages to follow. Those who download the beta version will be able to provide feedback on the application via an online survey.
The Costs for using the lite version of Skype:
You will be charged by your mobile operator for local air time and data usage based on the type of calling service and data plan you have purchased. Since the lite version of Skype uses a mobile data connection to sign in to Skype, update your contact list, update presence and send/receive messages, you will be charged by your mobile operator for data usage. You will not incur charges from Skype when you make Skype-to-Skype calls or send instant messages to friends on Skype; however national calling rates apply from your mobile operator due to the use of local air time. Skype will charge its regular very low Skype rates when you call landlines and mobiles using Skype or when you receive calls on your mobile handset from other Skype users or people calling your personal online number. We highly recommend getting an unlimited data plan for use with the lite version of Skype. The longer you remain signed in, the more Skype contacts you have, or the more you send and receive instant messages, the more data you will use.
About Skype
Founded in 2003, Skype is revolutionizing the way people communicate around the world. Skype has more than 405 million registered users globally who use Skype software to communicate for free through voice and video calls as well as instant messages. Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings, such as calls made to and from landlines and mobiles, voicemail, call forwarding, and SMS.
Skype is used in almost every country on Earth, and people have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls. Conversations over Skype can take place on computers, mobile devices and Skype Certified™ hardware.
Skype certifies and sells hundreds of hardware products from more than 50 partners, and works with hundreds of third-party developers who have created plug-ins to extend Skype’s functionality.
I have just read an impressive list of 100 iPhone Apps for small businesses in the UK.
The iPhonesmall businessmobile phone apps 100 is listed on Earn Accounting Degree and includes links to download each mobile app. It is a great ‘one-stop’ shop for anyone who owns and uses an iPhone for business purposes, rather than entertainment.
The list categorises the business iPhone mobile apps under the following headings:
travel, calendars, to-do lists, accounting, customer relations, security, calculators and converters, office tools and notes, human resources and networking, meetings and communications, reference, niche business tools and miscellaneous.
This is perfect for any business person on the move who now finds he cannot be without a mobile office.
