Musician and celebrity branded content in the mobile world

As a music lover and an interactive designer I jumped when I got the chance to work for TuneBooks a few years ago. Their idea was simple. People were downloading entire albums from iTunes and not getting the little book that comes when you buy the physical CD. People weren’t getting all of the photos, credits, lyrics, stories and artwork that those books are usually filled with. TuneBooks made digital linear notes that would come free with your digital download.

The books we made were interactive flash movies converted into an iTunes friendly quicktime format. Users could browse around artist photos, song credits, lyrics and any other content they had. As we did more and more of these the labels wanted to incorporate more and more advertising and special features in them. We’d add links to websites where users could get dynamic content such as extra songs, download wallpapers, etc.. These external pages would have banners ads on them that would also frequently change.

I eventually moved on to to other things, as did the founders of TuneBooks. I always thought it was a fantastic idea and now I’m getting excited to see similar things happening in the mobile world. With iPhones now in the palms of their target audience, labels are pushing artist customized iPhone apps. The content has changed a bit from TuneBooks. You probably won’t find song lyrics in here, but you will find songs, videos, pictures and album-branded, exclusive content that dynamically updates itself.

This new model is creating a different breed of fans. Fans that are connected both to the artist themselves (via twitter, etc..) and to each other via mobile chat and artist based social & location based networking. Using the Kyte platform artists can customize their own iPhone apps that distribute songs, videos, photos and RSS feeds into the hands of their fans.

With strategic partnerships with Amazon, iTunes, and even Ticketmaster the purchasing power here is enormous. Imagine listen to your favorite track, by your favorite artist and then, based upon your phone’s GPS location, it alerts you to their next tour date and asks if you would like to buy a ticket? How cool is that?!

Right now the selection of artists is rather limited. I’m not sure if I’m ready to have streaming Pussycat Dolls content on me at all times, but someone let me know when the Wu-Tang app drops.

Check out these articles for some interesting reads

iPhone apps for Lady Gaga, Pussycat Dolls and other UMG artists
Kyte Offers Branded iPhone Apps for Celebrities and Musicians