Indian telco Bharti Airtel has launched an “instant mobile music” program in partnership with SKC&C, South Korea’s second largest business group. It’s basically a music recognition service — the service “asks the mobile phone user to take the handset to one metre from any sound system in which his or her favourite song is playing, dial 393, wait 30 seconds and get a download” The search costs Rs 2 (US$0.045) and the download costs Rs 15 — the types of downloads outlined in the article are ringtones, call-back tones and full-tracks. Bharti reckons its customers want easy and instant access to music.
Airtel’s vice president VAS and New Products Development, Harish Gandhi “clarified that this could be done from any handset, not those connected to Airtel alone. How would it cannibalise its present revenue earnings through the old system and through the website? Gandhi told indiantelevision.com: “There could be some initial cannibalisation, I admit. But the business is based on the statistic that Airtel has had one million downloads from its old system over just the past six months, so the business is booming and will grow.”…Not willing to divulge figures, however, Gandhi said that the initial revenue reduction through the old system would be offset as this is bound to become more popular, given the survey finding that customers want music on the impulse…As of now, Airtel is providing 25,000 songs in Hindi, English and 18 Indian languages across the country.”
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