TexTango is a revolutionary, patent pending mobile billing and music delivery platform that allows anyone, anywhere in the United States to purchase music simply by sending a premium text message with their cell phone. The purchase is billed to the customers' cell phone bill and the music is downloaded off of the Textango website.
While credit card may not pose as a problem for American adults, it is a concern for many teenagers. Given that roughly 80% of 12-18 year olds have cell phones but not necessarily credit cards and that demographic is about 50% of the music industry's target consumers, it's logical to use mobile phones to pay for these songs.
It's also an alternative for those who do not want to use their credit card for security reasons.
Each song is priced $1.99, two times higher than iTunes and other music sites. Only 4% of the price goes to Textango, 50% to the artist, and the rest to the mobile carrier.
While the billing system is innovative, will the mobile users actually pay for this service? Currently, the albums available are limited to upcoming artists and the price is really not that competitive. Since Textango caters to the teen and tween market, how will the parents react to this seemingly sneaky service when the phone bill arrives?
November 1st, 2007 at 8:03 am
While the idea of purchasing music from your mobile is brilliant, the fact that it’s so highly priced is ridiculous.
If anything, it should be cheaper, as the costs involved are minimal, and like downloads from the internet, there are no physical resources involved in the transaction.
With such a high price, it’s encouraging the illegal downloading of songs, as it’s so easy to do. As an independent musician – it is a ridiculous concept to me to line the pockets of greedy corporations by taking advantage of a predominantly teenage market.
Chris
http://www.vitriolid.com
January 17th, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Just wanted to bring it up to everyone’s attention that TexTango just released its Beta BlackBerry and Android apps, which pays people to text. TexTango is now a totally different company.
So if the cost of music is too much, you can make it up by texting and earning through TexTango.