Mobile Music Gets Real(ity) TV

With Apple planning to launch its iPhone in the region at the end of the year, Orange and Sony Ericsson, makers of the Walkman phone, are taking to the stage to give their brand of mobile music another push, today launching a new programme in the UK called mobileAct Unsigned. The show will be based around a reality-TV format, to be broadcast on Channel 4 affiliates 4music and T4, with viewers voting for their favorite acts via their phones, and able to access music tracks and other related material through the Orange mobile portal. The winner of the show gets a contract with a major record label.

BusinessWeek has an article on this noting that the format has been trialled in Europe — first in Switzerland. “Orange has sold some 2 million Walkmans in Europe since the partnership began in March, 2006, and hopes to sell an additional million by yearend, says Yves Maitre, Orange’s senior vice-president of devices. Existing sales have translated into a 300 percent increase in downloads in some markets such as France.” Still, mobile music hasn

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