News
Frog makes tracks
Tim Green at 3GSM in Barcelona Feb 13 2006, 2:15pm
Consumer content giant Jamster, famous for the Crazy Frog, is set to take on the operator portals by launching its own full track music download service.
The offering, which is set to roll out in the UK and Germany by the end of this quarter, will make 250,000 tracks available to consumers off-portal. The company cannot confirm that all major record labels are on board yet, but says any delays are technical rather than commercial – and that these will be resolved shortly.
Jamster will sell songs on a per-download and rental basis, using a delivery and DRM platform it has built itself. The service will be dual download, enabling consumers to buy or rent tracks via mobile or PC. The Berlin-based company is exploring a variety of payment models. Markus Berger-de Leon, COO of Jamster, said: “We’ll look at everything. We have to explore credit card options and so on if we want to compete with iTunes and Napster.”
It’s an ambitious initiative for the D2C giant, especially given that off-portal data charges add to the cost of paying for the songs.
However, this is another area that Berger-de Leon see evolving in Jamster’s favour. “We’re talking to carriers about selling data bundles with our services. This will change the off-portal relationship. When I start selling tariffs, I become their sales channel.”
The FTD music service marks another step in the evolution of Jamster. The company admits the sales have suffered in markets where it has received bad press for its subscriptions models. New content categories and a PR charm offensive are its weapons to reversing this.
