JupiterResearch: Bluetooth "MOBITUBES"

Thomas Husson at JupiterResearch posts about the recent Jupiter Plug IN conference in London, and the discussion about "a lot of new innovative services being launched in the mobile music space : SMS tones, streaming offers, mobile podcats, live music TV channels."

Husson points out an interesting initiative from Sony BMG that is promoting an edited version of a new single from French artist Patrick Bruel. The single "is available for free around 8 Orange shops. In front of an interactive shop window (technology provided by Kameleon), users receive an SMS inviting them to download the song via bluetooth." Husson thinks there are two interesting issues around this newly called "mobitube":

• the song is available via bluetooth and not protected against copy, which means it can be shared via P2P. The Guardian wrote an article about this trend. As I explain in the article, there is no reason why illegal file sharing would not be available on the mobile platform, all the more as it is in itself a P2P platform. Even if the industry has learnt from the Internet experience, it remains a potential threat.
• the song is available for SFR and Bouygues Telecom customers. That is a really clever strategy from Orange to attract churners and customers to its shops. Ed Kershaw, from Vodafone, stated the other day at Jupiter's Plug IN panel on mobile music that mobile music is not only a customer acquisition tool for 3G, because 3G is a way to sell music and because customers are not forced to download the song. I do agree. However, it sounds like it is used to drive traffic to shops...!