TuneTribe's mobile initiated music purchase service

A friend of mine whacked me a Facebook message earlier today encouraging me to buy music from his mate’s band. They’re 500 sales away from a top 40 hit in the UK. I thought I might as well help out.

Here’s the copy of the message I got:

Now, one thing — and this isn’t TuneTribe’s fault per se. That call to action text should explicitly state whether or not it’s a premium text message, or if it’s free, or a standard network rate. On the band’s website, www.lahayna.co.uk, there’s an image promoting the service — that doesn’t contain any premium text instructions or terms either.

I sent a text to it anyway — and I found out that I’d been billed £1.50 — plus, I imagine, the cost of a standard rate text. No biggie as far as I’m concerned as I expected it would be a premium service. I can imagine a few irate normobs (“normal mobile users”) being unhappy and complaining though — to quote Blackadder, ‘it’d be like getting an arrow through your neck, only to discover there’s a gas bill attached to it’.

I followed the instructions in my text and logged on to TubeTribe to retrieve my MP3:

I just had to type in the PIN code contained in the text message. Being a new user, I also had to create a new account — fair enough — before I obtained the music.

Click, click and my account was created and I was downloading the music.

It’s actually a very good track although I’m much more of a dance and trance fan!

I’m really pleased to see the mobile medium being used as a promotional method — and I’m delighted to see TuneTribe sitting in the middle making the technology and the music catalogue work for bands who don’t need the hassle of setting it all up. Very smart indeed. (They just need to make sure the bands doing their own promotion make it clear that people texting their keyword are going to have to pay for their music.)

More at www.tunetribe.com.