On Stage JAY OATWAY EDITOR SHARON SHAW COPY CHIEF GABRIEL KICKS CREATIVE DIRECTOR WINNIE NG DESIGNER SHARON YEUNG DESIGNER ARNOLD CHAN WEBSITE GRAPHICS MICHELLE PALMER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER STEFAN RUST CEO CAT RUST FOUNDER & DIRECTOR RAINBOW LAI PRINT & PRODUCTION (TM PRODUCTIONS)
Touring NATALIE APOSTOLOU SYDNEY CORRESPONDENT LORIEN HOLLAND JAKARTA CORRESPONDENT STEFANIE LEWIS CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE
The human creative spirit is limitless. Charged is a celebration of that creativity in the mobile age. It’s about the people, companies and ideas behind the profound social changes of the mobile revolution. Charged is not about the technology, the devices, the networks, or the carriers. It’s about the way we live. We live mobile lives – always-on, and on-the-go. Ours is a spontaneous society, kept in constant conversation, everywhere and at all times. Mobile is a state of mind. It’s a freedom from the tethers and chains of convention. It’s about being first on the scene. It’s about sharing with the world. It’s about being at the centre of our own personal media empires. It’s about tagging locations, commenting on places, and generating rich new maps for others to follow. Now is the age of participation – a time for inviting friends to join in new discoveries. It’s a time for redefining what the word “friend” means. Today we are overloaded with media. Charged is about cutting through the noise. It’s about finding meaning and context – a way to make sense of all that is changing. Charged is here to help navigate these uncharted waters. Charged is about the future – a future that begins in Asia. No other continent lives mobile the same way, interconnected with places, services and entertainment. No other place lives so far ahead of the curve.
XIN YE FOUNDER AND CEO, CASEE DAVID KETCHUM ADMA CHAIRMAN, CEO, UPSTREAM ASIA RAJIV HIRANANDANI FOUNDER AND COUNTRY HEAD, MOBILE2WIN
Being mobile is about being creative. And, of course, the human creative spirit is limitless.
People Who Amplified This Issue
Jay Oatway Editor
KATE BALDWIN, JUSTIN CHAU, JASPER DONAT, JULIE HUSSEY, NUNO I, MARK LEEPER, BLUMS PINEDA, EMILY SAUNDERS, IAN STEWART, PETER STROMQUIST, WANG HUAY YEUN
CHARGED is printed on recyled paper
Legal
Charged Media 302 Wilson House, 19-27 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong
CHARGED is a bi-monthly magazine published every two months by Charged Media, 302 Wilson House, 19-27 Wyndham Street, Central,Hong Kong. CHARGED has an issue circulation of 22,000, sent to qualified readers and distributed at all major mobility events across Asia. CHARGED has a newsletter service. Register for your free digital copy or newsletter now at www.charged.mobi Subscription rates: 1 year HK$300 (Hong Kong only) US$39 (within Asia) and US$49 (outside Asia); single/back issue (if available) HK$50 per copy (Hong Kong only) US$9 (within Asia) and US$10 (outside Asia) plus US$5 handling charge per order. Printed in Hong Kong. Postage paid in Hong Kong. ©2008 Charged Media. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISSN 1992-6715
IMAGE: JOSHUA ONG
Death of a Music Middleman The middleman is dead. Long live the middleman. The rapidly changing media landscape requires a smaller, nimbler – and more mobile – intermediary to provide a new generation of bands with the sort of opportunities they crave. BY JAY OATWAY
36 The Mobilist Justin Sweeting knows how to rock – he’s been playing in bands since he was 16. And now, as product manager for Channel [V]’s Amp, he knows how to mobilize independent artists.
20 The Charged Five What if the world could have just five phones? We start our ongoing hotlist to track the most desirable, and the most required, phones in existence today.
24 The SMS Killer Those darn kids keep changing the rules. Just when you got your head around texting – the crowd is moving towards mobile instant messaging.
22 The Secret Life of Mobile Socialites BY STEPHANIE LEWIS A man walks into a bar, and from his mobile phone learns that three people share the same passion he keeps secret from his friends and family.
26 Learning to Dance BY LORIEN HOLLAND Could 2008 finally be the year that music and mobile phones get it together? Don’t get your hopes up. As everyone scrambles to make money off your music addiction, be careful what you sign up for.
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6 Switch On Mobiles Save the world Snakes Mobiles on A Plane A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter The Smell Phone Your Pocket’s on Fire Featuritis Too Many Cooks in the iPhone Kitchen The Adobe Champ vs The Microsoft Kid
18 Mob Life Untext My Heart by Natalie Apostolou Love affairs and texting are strange bedfellows, and if you’re not careful will spell, “brkn hart.” Part-time Phone by Lorien Holland When your superphone gets as glitchy as your old computer, sometimes just using it to receive a call becomes a nightmare.
28 Spike Lee Needs Your Help To Make a Movie Use your Nokia handset to bring about “The Democratization of Filmmaking”
34 Where Are You? Get yourself to the best parties in the mobile world.
30 Exclusive: Music Matters MTV 2008 Survey Yeah, baby! Check out the curves on these graphs. Grrrr!
52 Recharge The Basic Instructions: How to Customize Your Phone
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www. YOBO. com
Mobiles Save the World
It’s the dream of many mobilists: using your mobile phone to leave virtual tags on the real world. And maybe even clean it up, too
A team of civic-minded Estonians, known as Teeme Ära 2008, are showing the world what can be done when you combine Google Earth, positioning software for mobiles, and some handy GPS: you get smart garbage. 10,000 tons of it. All illegally dumped since the Soviet era. All found, photographed and mapped with geo-tags earlier this year. Last month, 50,000 volunteers joined Estonian tech millionaires – Skype founder Ahti Heinla and Microlink creator Rainer Nõlvak, the architects of Teeme Ära 2008 – to clean up their country. A lot has now been hauled away, but there is still much to be done. You can even follow all the eco-action online via your mobile (if you’re into that environmental do-gooder stuff): www.teeme2008.ee Each of the illegal dumping sites has an ID code on the map, relevant descriptive data and a photo. Of course, if mobile tagging is working to clean up Estonia, maybe it can work in your neighborhood too. Let’s clean up Asia! Now get out there, start tagging and save the world!
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For many it will be the greatest airborne horror of all times. But, like it or not, it’s coming to a seat near you. Buckle up, you’re about to experience turbulenCE.
The truth: mobiles don’t actually interfere with aeronautical navigation equipment. Thanks to services like OnAir, which recently tested its next generation “picocell” base stations onboard Air France, mobiles are poised to ride into that last frontier: inflight (These picocell stations are linked by satellite to ground-based networks, providing network coverage at 30,000 feet.) Of course, not everyone is celebrating the fact that these satellite links can even work over oceans, or that the equipment is much lighter and cheaper than the elaborate earlier generation of satellite technology, which provided WiFi access on some aircraft, but was never widely adopted. Many frequent fliers seem to hate the idea of
mile high mobile connectivity, but the industry is betting on robust demand. In a recent survey by Sita, the global IT provider to the aviation industry, of 1,450 passengers at Heathrow, Gatwick and Schiphol airports, 65% of business travelers interviewed said they were likely to make a call from their mobile during the flight if the option was available. Of course, the insanely expensive roaming fees might just keep things quiet in economy. Business travelers are more likely to talk more often, knowing that the company is picking up the bill. Widespread trials begin this summer, and before long, you too will be able to…err, enjoy?... inflight mobile service.
[1] Use your vibrator With the cacophony of 300 phones all tuning up in close proximity, the economyclass mobile orchestra doesn’t need your ringtone too.
[2] Brevity is the source of wit Long calls will surely drive your fellow passengers to their wit’s end.
[3] Keep your voice down Despite the background noise of the engines, try to control your excitement when shouting, “I’m on a plane!”
[4] Take a deep breath It’s just as rude to freak out at an obnoxious mobile user as it is to be one. Keep calm. Air rage is so not cool.
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A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter REMEMBER WHEN TEXTING ON YOUR MOBILE SEEMED KIND OF STRANGE? YET TODAY, YOU SEND AND RECEIVE SMS WITHOUT THINKING. WELL, IT WILL SOON FEEL THE SAME WAY WITH TWITTER While adopting a new behavior isn’t easy, learning to twitter on a regular basis will give you so much more joy than texting alone. Sign up now at Twitter.com. People who twitter together form closer bonds. The little transactions that make up life get twittered about (along with the big moments, the cries for help and the outpouring of altruism from
other twitter users). Twitter is a type of microblog, which means you can also tune into, and interact with, the leading thinkers in your area of interest. Twittering your whereabouts can set up spontaneous rendezvous (lots of people throw twitter parties). Twittering about a cause can attract donations (news of China’s earthquake
broke first on Twitter). Twittering is being used in elections (Obama, of course). Twitter can make people laugh (see photo).
you will see it on your mobile (remember, Twitter broadcasts are public). So it’s a great way to overhear conversations.
How can I use it for work? You can track discussion about your brand. Twitter allows you to track any keyword or phrase, and anytime anyone in the world twitters about something using that phrase,
How do I convince my friends to join? This is the hardest question to answer. Try showing them this article. Beg them just to give it a go for a while. And remember, it’s only fun if you’ve got a few friends who all use it.
Tools for Twits TwitterFox (twitterfox.en.softonic.com): Great little add-in for Firefox users. It puts a small Twitter icon in the status bar that can then alert you to your friend’s tweets. It also provides an easy way for you to send and reply to tweets, as well as quickly share web links with all your followers. With one click, a link to whatever page you’re looking at in Firefox will be sent as a tweet. Twitt(url)y (twitturly.com): Find out what’s hot on the web. Twitt(url)y is a service for tracking the websites people are talking about the most as Twitter. It operates in the same way as Digg (digg.com) where people vote on an item and it gets displayed higher up the home page, but more closely resembles Google’s PageRank (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank). Every person that links to the same website URL is considered a vote for that site. Over time, as fewer people twitter about something, the further down the list it slides. IMAGE BY ROBERT SCOBLE
Twitterlocal.net (twitterlocal.net): Find out everything that’s happening near you. The way it works is you supply the location (city name) and it returns a list of the top tweeters in the area. As well, a newly-created (www.twitterlocal.net) leader board shows a breakdown of locations with the most tweets over the last 24 hours (only a couple of Japanese cities are in the Top 30 – come on Asia, start Twittering).
Charged OPEN SOCIAL MOBILE INSTANT MESSAGES MOBILE ANALOGUE TV BREAKING NEWS BY TWITTER USING PHONES TO CLEAN UP GARBAGE
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MOB.MENTALITY
TWITTER IS A DINNER PARTY THAT TRANSCENDS SPACE-TIME, CHOCK-FULL OF DISCUSSIONS ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU’D EVER WANT TO HEAR ABOUT. – TWITTER USER ‘A.V’
Twitter Types Personality types and behaviors emerging from Twitterland (via www.twitterbymachiavelli.com) Twitterazi: Even worse than paparazzi, Niccolo warned. These are the folks who send twitter updates on any scoop or personality they see, touch, or even imagine. Sometimes it’s supported with a link to a photo or video feed. Sometimes you feel like the Twitterazi are after you at conferences. SpamSneakers: These are the folks who use Twitter as just another marketing channel for pre-existing content. They just drop the URL from the blog, newsletter, or web page with something like “Just blogged this.” Niccolo warns that such individuals still have an “early adopter grace period,” but warns of backlash and mass mutiny. BrandBaggers: These are folks who “bag” anything related to their brand, and use tools like Twitter as a customer-service or resolution proxy. BankRunners: These are the folks who post “end is near unless you act now” messages, potentially eliciting a sense of panic – a run on the bank, if you will – among the Twitterites. Here’s a sample post from high reach Twitter maven and search guru Danny Sullivan (twitter.com/dannysullivan): “smx advanced 85% sold, less than 100 tickets left. today’s early bird deadline so more will go. not joking, book now”.
The Smell Phone! THEY WON’T STOP MAKING A STINK UNTIL EVERY ONE OF YOUR SENSES IS CONNECTED TO THE NETWORK Sadly, history often repeats itself. Over the years, there have been attempts by every medium, from radio to television, from movies to the web, to integrate smell with our communications. All the various “smell-ovisions” have failed. So, of course, the mobile medium, having learned nothing from history, is going to try to send smell too. A German syndicate, consisting of ISI, the institute of sensory analysis and marketing consultancy in Göttingen, and conVISUAL, Oberhausen-based specialist for interactive value-added services, announced recently that it has patented a chip for sending scents via text and multimedia messages.
They say that there is a demand for smell – although we haven’t sniffed out anybody who wants it. However, Japanese company NTT Communications’ external scent atomizer for mobile phones has demonstrated that “scent technology is increasingly attractive”. And the scent is wafting overseas. In the US, Motorola has also obtained a patent for smell-releasing phones and explained that the device would “fill a need” and “address problems” of on-thego consumers who miss the fragrances they enjoy from plug-in devices at home. WTF? The only medium in which smell technology has ever had any tiny amount of success is paper (if you’re old enough to remember scratch ’n’ sniff sticker books). Just scratch the nose picture (above) to enjoy the smell of wet dog, which is just like mobile smell technology – they both stink! WWW.CHARGED.MOBI
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Your Pocket’s On Fire If you still use Internet Explorer on your PC, your laptop or your phone – shame on you! Open-source mobile web browsers are turning up the heat When Apple released the iPhone with Safari, a new era dawned for the mobile web. On a quiet night, you can hear the nails being driven into the coffins of WAP sites and mobile transcoding (where a network operator crushes the web to fit onto your tiny handset). Even the likes of Opera, which delivers a far better experience than Internet Explorer, has its days numbered. Opera’s major downfall: it costs money. Who wants to pay for Opera when a massively-extensible open source browser will be available for free? Yes, Firefox is coming to a pocket near you. The browser maker, Mozilla, released an early prototype in April to Firefox is coming to rave reviews by hardcore “pre-alpha” testers. But a pocket near you a stable version for the rest of us is some time off – so we’re looking at months of Internet Explorer-agony for now. Another promising development on the mobile web horizon: Skyfire. Version 0.6 (yes, that means it’s still in beta) was released in May. A bit different from a standard browser, Skyfire servers render pages into image form, which then makes it onto your Windows Mobile phone. But it’s clunky and the Flash video support (for watching YouTube, of course) feels more like watching a fast slide show. While it doesn’t measure up to the iPhone’s Safari browser – and probably never will because of the fact that rendering is done off-phone – it will still torch Explorer.
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Too Many Cooks Spoil the iPhone Soup?
NOT IN THIS KITCHEN, EVEN IF 100,000 CODERS AND HACKERS DOWNLOADED THE IPHONE’S FIRST SOFTWARE DEVELOPER KIT IN JUST FOUR DAYS. The mobile industry has needed a shake-up, and with the recent launch of not just a developer kit, but also an integrated store to sell their software, Apple is making other mobile platforms look pretty pathetic. Here’s how it’s going to work for iPhone users: • Apple is building the applications store into every device. Apps will install automatically upon purchase, and will notify you when software upgrades are available. Idiot-proof. • Developers are going to make more money. While third-party mobile applications stores have, historically, held developers over the barrel – often taking 60% or more of the revenue – Apple, with a measly 30% cut, looks like a saint. • While it’s difficult for many mobile software developers to design in a way that works with all the various hardware available, iPhone developers get just what they have been begging for – access to pretty much the whole OS. • Bonus round: Kleiner Perkins has created a US$100 venture million fund for iPhone developers. Google’s $10m contest for Android developers look a bit like a poor cousin.
Is Your Phone Suffering from Featuritis? AS OUR MOBILES BECOME INCREASINGLY POWERFUL, WE RUN THE RISK OF ACQUIRING A DEVICE THAT’S JUST A BIT TOO FAR BEYOND OUR GRASP
Kathy Sierra, co-creator of the best-selling Head First books (the brain-friendly series from O’Reilly), refers to this trend as the “Featuritis Curve.” Or you could call it Moore’s Law: as handsets double in power every 18 months, their capabilities start to exceed our ability to
HAPPY USER PEAK THIS RULES! COOL!
I’M SO GLAD THEY ADDED THIS
learn how to use them. Featuritis, sometimes known as creeping featurism, is caused by enthusiastic users (like us) who request additional features to meet specific needs. This isn’t, of course, malicious. We tend to think that new features will ‘improve’ the device. There is no known cure to the affliction. However, some mobile software designers
GUESS I’D BETTER LOOK AT THE MANUAL HEY, WHERE THE F*** DID THEY PUT THAT?!
(like those guys at Taptu) are now talking about how they create an experience where features are “revealed” to users only as they are needed. Other designers (the ones at Apple) suggest that perhaps mobiles should come out of the box in a pure, clean, stripped-down state. This would allow users to purchase more features and capabilities as they see fit. Until then, don’t throw out your user manuals.
NOW I CAN’T EVEN DO THE ONE SIMPLE THING I BOUGHT THIS FOR
THIS SUCKS! NICE, BUT I WISH I COULD DO MORE
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The Adobe Champ vs The Microsoft Kid THE BATTLE IS ON BETWEEN FLASH AND SILVER LIGHT. AND THE WINNER IS…WHO CARES? JUST AS LONG AS THE NEXT GRAPHIC USER INTERFACE IS LIGHTNING HOT
Do you want an easy-to-navigate, intuitive, cool-looking user interface? Don’t hold your breath: Microsoft and Adobe have a battle to fight first. Prepare for yet another stupid standards battle between industry titans with egos to match. As with other punch-ups over standards, this one will be another time-waster, one that does nothing but confuse consumers – not to mention discourage cross-platform application developers. In a nutshell, Adobe has unlocked its next version of mobile Flash, which should encourage uptake (yes, that means you can watch more YouTube, among other things). They’ve even backed it up with a consortium (the sort that makes offers you can’t refuse) called Open Screen, which includes the five leading handset companies, three mobile operators (including NTT DoCoMo and Verizon), technology vendors (including Intel, Cisco and Qualcomm) and content companies (BBC, MTV and NBC Universal). In the other corner, Microsoft’s ‘The Newcomer’ Silverlight has teamed up with Nokia. Silverlight has Adobe Flash in its crosshair. What makes the latter alliance especially strange is that Nokia has historically spurned Microsoft. The whole Symbian OS consortium worked for years to prevent Windows from getting a toe-hold in mobiles. When tech companies battle, there’s only one loser: the consumer.
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Stop Looking Like a Dork That flashing blue light in your ear may denote that you are a cutting-edge Bluetooth user, but it screams, “Dork!”
So here’s what you do to re-claim whatever cool you might have:
FREE!!!
Never Again Pay For Mobile Software
So, while the cult of iPhone is busy buying apps from their built-in stores, what does the future hold for the rest of us? The answer is: free software. Open source is a hot topic in the mobile industry. Firefox is disrupting the mobile browser business. Sun has taken Mobile Java open source. And Google is commoditizing the OS business with Android. More and more handset makers are now using open source components – a trend that makes increasingly good business sense. Mobile operators are even considering using open source for next-generation service delivery via WebKit. Software vendors are starting to exploit the many open source projects out there and even use open source as a key plank of their strategy (Funambol, Volantis, Sun, Trolltech, Mozilla, et al.). And what does this mean for you? Free will become the new standard.
Step 1 Accept that only police cars should have flashing blue lights. Nobody wants to be blinded by your annoying LED while standing in a lift, sitting on plane, riding on a bus, or sitting in a café. So you need to make it go away.
Step 2 Find a black permanent marker. The solution can be as simple as coloring between the lines. Get a black pen, something permanent.
Step 3 Color over the blue light. Go to town, but leave just the tiniest of little gap in the blackout so you can still tell if the Bluetooth has connected or not.
Result: You are still a dork, but at least you’re a bit less annoying. The problem isn’t all you. Until tech companies start hiring fashion designers, expect the things sticking out of your ears to look pretty dorky.
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Writers Wanted Do you have stories from the alwayson lifestyle? If you would like to write for Charged, let us know. Send story queries to editor@charged. mobi. We want tales from around Asia, about people doing amazing things with mobile devices. We want stories written with personality and passion. We want to hear from you!
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Designing theFuture ADVERTISING SPECIAL
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remember a money and financial Instruments course I took years ago at the University of Chicago, and we kicked off the class with a brief history of money. Cattle and livestock were actually the first forms of money and were used to barter in prehistoric times. I vaguely remember cowrie shells were also used as the first real pocket change (when trading in cows, it would have been tough to “break a C-note”). But currency has evolved – and continues to do so. Recently a 400strong delegation of the mobile-era’s version of cattle traders converged on The Mobile Money Summit in Cairo to discuss just how the idea of physical cash could soon become as obsolete as cowrie shells. The idea behind mobile money or “m-money” is simple: make “goodas-cash” payments and transactions via hardware and/or software on our cellphones. M-money payments aren’t all that new. In Tokyo – always on the bleeding edge of technology – NTT DoCoMo customers have been making m-money payments for several years. By simply waving their phones near a payment pad, mobile users in Tokyo can get into the subway, pay for lunch, buy a Coke, or even some beef – from McDonald’s. Back in Hong Kong, a city where cashless payments have become the norm thanks to the ubiquitous Octopus card, the evolution is far from complete. I often find that while searching for my Octopus card, my other hand is invariably
holding my mobile phone. Which begs the question: why hasn’t the city put the two together? Indeed, if m-money is as convenient as the cattle traders would have us believe, why aren’t more cities like Hong Kong rushing in Tokyo’s footsteps? Just imagine, no coins weighing down our pockets, no Hong Kong cabbie screaming in Cantonese if the smallest bill on you is the brown Hong Kongequivalent of the hard-to-break C-note. Or for the frequent traveler going “h*ly cr@p” when he realizes he’s forgotten to convert his home currency into Cowrie shells, or whatever the local equivalent is, to pay off a surly Cairo cabbie. The answer is simple: trust. Consumers are hesitant to leave money on their phones. Even in the most progressive places for m-money (the Philippines, Kenya, South Africa), almost all of the money that’s remitted to mobiles ends up being encashed immediately. Mobiles are seen as safe for storing text messages and other personal matters, but not safe for storing cash. Operators and banks have much work to do to make consumers feel a lot more comfortable leaving their stash as digital cash. Until then, we’re going to be stuck with coins wearing holes in our pockets. And while there was a good buzz at the conference in Cairo, with mobile operators, banks and regulators keen to make m-money a reality, there are still a lot of sacred cows that no one appears ready to put out to pasture.
6/6/08 6:12:45 PM
Subscribe to Charged and have the chance to win a BlackBerry
Curve*
Want to live the effortlessly mobile lifestyle described in the new-look Charged? Go to www.charged.mobi/subscribe for chance to win a BlackBerry Curve 8310, the smallest and lightest of its Smartphone’s to feature a full QWERTY keyboard. Packed with incredible features and functionality expected of BlackBerry, the Curve 8310 and Charged will keep you plugged in to all things mobile.
To enter go to www.charged.mobi/subscribe Don’t delay. Contest closes July 18th, 2008. Winners will be announced in the August issue of Charged. *TERMS & CONDITIONS PLEASE REFER TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS LISTED AT WWW.CHARGED.MOBI/MEDIA/PDF/TERMS.PDF. BY ENTERING A COMPETITION, ENTRANTS AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE RULES. ANY PERSONAL DATA RELATING TO ENTRANTS WILL NOT BE DISCLOSED TO A THIRD PARTY WITHOUT THE INDIVIDUAL’S PRIOR CONSENT. CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRY 18 JULY 2008.
Digital L’amore – Twittered and Blistered
BY NATALIE APOSTOLOU
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friend of mine, a rather fetching, single, thirty-something lass, recently did something disturbing. I witnessed her slowly, but surely, self sabotage a potentially perfect relationship all via the mobile phone… and with little physical bliss. Her intentions may have been honorable, although her execution somewhat cowardly, but there is something diabolical about the common code of texting – some direct link to our most primal passion and fears. Since its inception, the humble art of texting has played a significant role in the realm of romance: from the art of seduction to the illicit affair. Whether as a wireless lubricant for the long distance romance or a potential panacea for the tragic last gasps of a romance implosion, text messaging can step in where verbal and in-person discourse fails. Virtual and distanced, metaphoric and quixotic, the language of text allows you to be present but absent at the same time. It’s all about context, you see. You can lay it on the line, put your heart out there… but then retract it with a few deft keypad strokes: “Twas ironic”, “in jest”, ”you misunderstood me”, or my
personal favorite “my mates stole my phone and started txting you”. But back to my femme txtale. Picture this, an old, unvanquished flame miraculously reappears in her life. This time round he’s chasing her. The tale begins like any other, numbers are exchanged, txting begins, the casual flirtation, the suggestion for a catch up – but something stifles her. The joy of txting the object of affection appeared to be more enjoyable than actually seeing him in the flesh. It was as if she was enacting some weird revenge. This time she was in control, her chosen implement of torture: a Nokia 8800. The pen may be mightier than the sword but could the phone be more substantial than the penis? I wondered how long she could hold out – and how patient he could be. After at least one complete phase of the moon, she buckled, a hot date ensued, ending of course with 5am txting as au revoirs. Days of txting continued, he pleaded for more visceral play. She opted for more virtual. It was safer that way she said – no
BY LORIEN HOLLAND
It was as if she was enacting some weird revenge. This time she was in control, her chosen implement of torture: a Nokia 8800 one would get hurt, and she could keep her feelings in check. It was lunacy. One particular Saturday night, she spent three hours txting, refusing to acquiesce to his pleas for a visitation. But then things suddenly changed – and her selfsabotage was complete. She found her pursuer on Twitter, and decided to follow his tweets. A whole new world of psychosis began to unfurl. What did his cryptic messages to the masses actually mean? Was he eating that yummy penne pasta alone or for two? Her virtual charade had crumbled. The very tool that kept her heart free from harm was now assaulting her with too much information. Meanwhile, his ardor waned. SMS marathons, once endearing, were now shot down with, “My thumbs were too tired to continue”, or “I was too drunk to text”. Did she regret hiding behind her phone? Hell, yes. Is she an aberration? Hell, no. Around the world thousands of love txts are being transmitted instead of real romantic discourse. And a thousand hearts are breaking – viva la unsafe txt.
Part-time Phones ew technology has this cunning knack of making the user feel inadequate and woefully behind-the-times. I am sure you have experienced those cheery sales people with their glossy manuals who seem to say everything is a piece of cake and it is just you, the woefully inadequate new user, who doesn’t get it. But what I have finally realized, after several run-ins, is that this cunning sales patter is really a sneaky ploy to cover up hardware problems. I know I’m not the only one who thinks so. Check out the web and you’ll find that I’m far from alone.
is not entirely true. You can sometimes get the call if you scramble to touch the bottom left hand corner of the screen with the corner of your finger before the ringing ends. But this is not reliable or easy to do. I am forever returning missed calls. Of course, one of the primary reasons for having a phone is to answer incoming calls. That “Brazil carnival” wake-up call is amusing but hardly the reason I bought the device. When I took my phone back to the shop where I bought it, they claimed that this was the first time they had had that kind of problem, and that it
Unbelievably, they seemed to say I should be grateful to have such a wonderful device Take my wonderful new Samsung smartphone, bought a couple of months ago and all shiny, sleek and black. It runs the Windows Mobile 6.0 and can surf the web and download messages of all kinds at the drop of a hat. It plays cheery “Brazil carnival” wake-up calls and synchs well with my computer. But you can’t pick up a call by pressing that green phone button. It never works. I am just going to repeat that because it is very important. You can’t pick up an incoming call. Well, that
really wasn’t a problem at all. Unbelievably, they seemed to say I should be grateful to have such a wonderful device in the first place. But a quick scan of the web shows I am not alone. Just talking about this article over dinner, I now know two others (out of a table of eight) who have had exactly the same problem. My five-year-old son asked me the other day what my Samsung thing was called. “Is it a baby computer, Mum?” he asked. “No,” I snarled. “It’s a part-time phone.” Grrrrrrrhhhhh
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Charged begins its Five Phones Hotlist by asking the question, if the world could only have five phones, which ones would we have? That’s right – out of all the phones that exist in the market today (we can’t include anything until it’s available on the street) – which five would we have? From issue to issue, we’ll update this list: either as better devices become available, or, possibly, as readers campaign to have their favorites included in the list. This is where the Five Phones Hotlist begins:
The Charged Five The Iconoclast: Apple iPhone While it lacks some of the cutting-edge features that the hard-core mobilist demands, this is the device that changed the industry forever more. Nothing has brought so much revolution to the mobile device as this beauty. Expect this to only be displaced by the 3G version.
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The Heavyweight: HTC TyTn II
The Veteran: Nokia N95 (8mb)
While Nokia is starting to feel old fashioned in the PC-to-mobile crossover era, this bad boy can still kick ass and take names. Fast, great cam,etc. Spec-wise, it’s hard to beat. And for now, Symbian is still an operating system that works as well as any.
The mac daddy of the Windows Mobile powered world. The only thing missing is the kitchen sink (oh, and maybe a hardrive might be nice). From full QWERTY keyboard to 3.5G downloads, from touchscreen (with iPhone-esque touchflow) to built-in GPS, this monster can do whatever your mobile dreams can imagine. If it can’t, no one can.
The Bling: Vertu Diamonds Signature
The Saturday Night Special: Samsung X828
For those who just need to scream, “Look at me!” there’s the Vertu Diamond Signature. Low points on high-tech features, but check out those diamonds – 943 small brilliant cut stones around the sides, and 48 larger rocks for the buttons. If you need to ask, “how much?” you can’t afford it.
Big points for being small. Must fit discreetly in jeans pocket. Must be able to text from a nosiy bar. Should be cheap enough that in the event you become so drunk and you lose it, that it’s no big deal. Currently, the record holder for world’s thinnest mobile (just 6.9mm) is still the nearly two-year old (eww!) Samsung X828. Don’t expect this one to stay on the list for long – we’re getting drunk tonight and losing it in the first noisy bar we find.
GEAR
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BY STEPHANIE LEWIS
The Secret Lives of Mobile Socialites A man walks into a bar, and from his mobile phone learns that Vijay (31, telecommunications engineer), Jade (28, media executive) and Tom (37, accountant) share the same passion he keeps secret from his friends and family. He pings the trio and invites them to his table. They accept and introduce themselves. And so begins a network of happy relationships built around a shared enjoyment of using multivariable calculus to explain traditional Austrian knitting techniques.
SOCIAL joke? Perhaps, but in the world of mobile social networking, it’s not far from reality. The popularity of sites such as Twitter and Jaiku suggest people the world over, not just teens and techgeeks, want to enjoy immediate, on-thego networking. Twitter, which works with English and, as of April, Japanese texting, is a popular free micro-blogging service that allows users to send “tweets” about what’s happening to them to the Twitter website, via SMS, instant messaging, or applications such as Facebook.
It also allows you to receive these tweets from anyone else using Twitter, whom you chose to follow – like secret knitting clubs. So you can find out exactly when Vijay is walking his dog, what Jade thinks about cheese on toast or where Tom is going tonight. However, social networking sites are still in their infancy and far from perfect. What makes a network successful is a user’s desire to use the service – not the data itself, which are often heavily guarded within “walled gardens”. If the service fails to maintain high standards, it will lose its support base. BuzzCity’s MyGamma, a growing force in mobile networking, keeps its users faithful through its own currency, called gamma. Every 100 gamma is worth about US$1. Users can access mobile content and a gaming market place where they purchase goods, as well as message other users. Helsinki-based Jaiku, named so because Jaiku posts resemble Japanese haikus, offers the additional service of an internet feed called a Lifestream (see Charged Mar/Apr 2008). The feed bundles users’ online activities on other web-based services such as last.fm for music, flickr for photos, YouTube for
video. Through this, Jaiku takes one small step towards addressing the vexing issue of data exclusivity (the walled garden effect). But is mobile networking just another slave to hype? Won’t we get bored of meeting an endless stream of strangers or falling prey to too much information from friends and family? Common interest and settings that can be highly personalised are crucial. A passive service that merely adds to our acquaintance base would soon lose its appeal, but a solution that helps us to connect with old friends, and new ones with similar interests, when and where we want to, is much more likely to stick. Regardless of what’s hot today, the mobile social networking scene will continue to party-hop until it finds something that everyone likes. Much of the buzz right now is about an undisclosed start-up and its top-secret application for the new iPhone. As with all Apple rumors, this one is impossible to confirm or deny, but word has it the application pretty much makes what happened in our mathematical knitters’ scenario possible. No joke.
Get Me Out of Here! Walled Gardens – networks that artificially limit your ability to transport your social graph (all your social connections such as friends, and friends of friends) to another service – are evil on both a practical and philosophical level. Practically, as users face the regular annoyance of having to re-enter all their information for different services. Philosophically, as this form of limited networking is the equivalent of totalitarian control of what should be a free and democratic social exchange. When you join a networking site, be aware that you are storing your personal data on someone else’s server – be sure to check how they plan to use this information. And, if you ever decide to leave a walled garden, remember, you can’t take any of your data with you.
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CULTCHA
The mobile internet delivers another blow to old school mobile businesses hose darn kids are at it again. Just when you’ve finally developed enough thumb skills to join the ranks of the mobile texters, the cool people have moved on. They are now on Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) if you want to find them. What’s MIM? Well, it’s just like the instant messaging you’ve seen and used on your desktop, but made mobile. It takes advantage of the internet connectivity available to those cool kids with their new fangled MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices – only old people are still using a “phone”). According to a recent report by TNS, which interviewed 17,000 respondents across 30 countries, once mobile users go MIM, they don’t go back – the loss of texting revenue could potentially have dramatic consequences for service and network providers’ bottom lines. Among those who use MIM, it has fast become the most used feature on their phone: 61% use it daily. This might also act as an early warning to mobile operators who are still look to texting to drive revenue growth – especially between networks and internationally. Customers loathed being surprised by hidden costs buried in services such as SMS. Most people have no idea how much it costs to send an international text, say to Twitter in the UK from a place like Hong Kong*. On the other hand, a flat rate unlimited data plan, while still pricey, gives peace of mind that nothing unexpected will show up on the bill at the end of the month. As the unlimited plans become cheaper and the mobile internet continues to rise, web-based mobile solutions such as MIM will increasingly displace “traditional” communications such as texting and possibly even voice. Currently around the world, just 11 out of every 100 messages sent by a PC user are instant messages. Among MIM users, 36 out of every 100 messages sent is an instant message from their mobile, making this the dominant messaging form for the next generation. So go on, join the cool kids – add IM to your mobile repertoire.
Most people have no idea how much it costs to send an international text*
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How do I use MIM? Since space is limited here in the print world, let’s assume you and your friends use Windows Live Messenger (Yahoo, Gtalk and Jabber IM is available too) On some devices, you’ll have it built-in (have a look we’ll wait…) Not there? No worries, pull up your web browser and go to mim.live.com (take your time…) OK, now sign in with you Windows Live ID. If you don’t have one of those, you’ll need to sign up for it first. (go on do it now, you’re lucky we’re patient…) Great, now that you’re there, you’ll need to invite some friends and walk them through this process (let us know when you get that sorted, we’ll still be here…) Failing that, give up and go get a phone with Windows Mobile 6.1 that visually presents SMS texting in a way that looks just like IM.
*
ON
ED ARD Y GU SEL O L SC WA ION MAT R O INF HIS UT T 2, B $ K TH BOU ’S A E IT G A R AVE
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GROOVE
Learning To Dance BY LORIEN HOLLAND
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Music and mobile phones are quite clearly made for each other. Gartner Dataquest is projecting that consumers worldwide will be spending US$26 billion a year on music downloads to their phones by 2010. here is just one snag. Music downloads to mobile phones have been on the verge of making it big time for several years now. Could this be the year they finally learn to dance? For starters, Apple and its stylish iPhone are currently in discussion with music labels to sell songs from its iTunes store directly to iPhones over mobile broadband – something the next generation of iPhones will be capable of. But sources close to the negotiations say that the music labels want more money for downloading a song this way. What does this mean for mobile music? It sounds expensive. Then there’s the whole Napster fiasco of 10 years ago, which has left many consumers very wary of the entire music downloading business. What might happen if you share a song with a friend? Is that illegal while lending a song on CD is fine? And will music downloads snag all kinds of exorbitant data transmission charges too? Fears abound. Now, Napster is back, ready to go head-tohead with iTunes – except without DRM (the stuff that would prevent you from sharing with friends). How can that now be alright, when it wasn’t before? More questions than answers. Mind Your Step There is also the growing trend towards music as a service. These services, like MusicStation (which is offered by mobile operator 3 in Hong Kong) and MusicXS (which is carried by Smartone-Vodafone), promise “unlimited downloads” for a flat fee. It’s important not to think that these “downloads” are the sort that will add to your collection. Instead, it’s more like an all you can eat buffet where you never get full. You don’t get full because you don’t own the music. You’re just renting it. If you leave the service, you leave the music behind. However, considering that the subscription fees to music as a service are quite small, they are becoming an attractive new music consumption option for some mobile user. “My 14-year-old son doesn’t collect music,” explains David Loiterton, MusicStation’s
director of Asia Pacific. “He consumes it.” He explains that it’s not just the kids either. The entire music culture is shifting – including the way people of all ages discover music. We’ve begun to rely on the recommendation engines embedded in services like MusicStation and MusicXS. Of course, discovering all these great new vibes does not resolve the sharing issue across mobile phones. You still can’t do it. The carriers still cannot see beyond their own walls. If you love using MusicStation with 3, there’s no way (yet) to share it with your friends who use SmartoneVodafone’s MusicXS. Save The Last Dance One glint of hope is the mobile internet. Social music sites, like Last.fm, which put the word “scrobble” on the map, now boasts 21 million active users. It’s possible to listen to last.fm on a Windows Mobile 6 device, although the bandwidth consumption is extreme. But let’s say you have another way to load mp3s onto your Nokia phone. As of April, some Nokia handsets gained scrobbling abilities. This means that you can share all your mobile listening preferences – your playlist, your music tags – with anyone else in the world, regardless of carrier or device. None of these solutions are anywhere near perfect yet. Music and mobiles may start dancing, but it will be with all left feet.
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SCREEN
The Democratization of Film Shhh…the next episode is about to begin – and it’s directed by you. Or maybe just recorded, texted, or photographed okia Productions is asking Nokia handset owners to turn on their phone cams and start shooting on the theme of humanity. The goal is to collaborate on the world’s first social film, using text, photos, music and video footage. Eventually, all the user-generated content uploaded to www.nokiaproductions.com will be crafted into a masterpiece by none other than Emmy Award-winning director Spike Lee. If getting your name in the credits on a Spike Lee film isn’t enough, Nokia is sweetening the deal with a new N95 and a trip to L.A. for the premier for one lucky contributor. The influential director (Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever) calls this project “the democratization of film”.
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“The future of film-making is changing and mobile-generated art is fast becoming the next medium for film. In five years, I believe we will be watching films in movie theaters that have been shot on a mobile phone,” says Lee. “Today, with state-of-the-art multimedia devices like what Nokia has to offer, you are seeing first-hand the democratization of film,” he says. “Aspiring filmmakers no longer have to go to film school to make great work. With a simple mobile phone, almost anyone can now become a filmmaker.” For Nokia, the big question it’s asking, courtesy of this promotional project, is: “How will you collaborate?” For the rest of us, it’s: “How will this not end up looking like crap?”.
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HTML to XHTML or WML for mobisites. Consequently, the mobile web space is a picture of chaos and, with so many players influencing the market, the situation is not expected to improve anytime soon. Bearing this in mind, Netbiscuits created a mobile middleware platform to tackle this major challenge. As the Sixt mobisite shows, Netbiscuits’ platform provides the exact markup language required by a terminal, browser and network and transcodes rich media content to all formats. On-the-fly Equally important, Netbiscuits understands the relevant parameters for more than 5,000 handsets and CE devices in use worldwide today, with about 50 new profiles added to the database each month. As such, the platform can optimize mobisites “on-the-fly” – that is, deliver the sites to fully utilise the technical possibilities afforded by the different mobile devices. Do it yourself To help developers create professional mobisites, Netbiscuits has also made all interfaces and tools available at www.netbiscuits.com. With these tools, anyone can write code line-by-line or use an online site builder to create mobisites in a drag-and-drop manner. Check out mobil.sixt.com for a demonstration of the usability, design and functionality Netbiscuits’ powerful platform can provide users in any business category on a national, regional or global level. For more information and a 30-day free trial go to www.netbiscuits.com
Netbiscuits mobile Middleware Platform • Netbiscuits delivers every Mobile Web application in exactly the mark-up language required by the terminal, browser and network. • Netbiscuits transcodes rich media content automatically to all formats which play a role in mobile markets. • Netbiscuits knows the relevant parameters for more than 5,000 mobile phones and CE devices across the world. Approximately 50 new profiles are added to this database per month. • Netbiscuits optimizes mobile websites “on-the-fly” and always delivers them so that the technical possibilities of the relevant mobile phone are fully utilized. Sixt rental car service mobisite
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Hong Kong youths are the least passionate about music [36%]
Downloaded a song without paying Used a ямБle-sharing program to share music Bought a bootleg music CD AGE GROUP: 15-34 YRS OLD
[HAVE DOWNLOADED MUSIC TO THEIR MOBILE AND WATCHES MUSIC VIDEO ON THEIR MOBILE PHONE]
92%
CHINA
88%
PHILIPPINES
80%
THAILAND
79%
INDONESIA
79%
MALAYSIA
76%
KOREA
[WOULD LIKE THE INDUSTRY TO HELP THEM GET MUSIC ON THEIR PHONE]
[SAID THEY WILL REPLACE THEIR MP3 OR iPOD WITH A MOBILE PHONE AND TO LISTEN TO MUSIC ON IT]
[SAID THE MUSIC INDUSTRY SHOULD WORK WITH TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES TO DELIVER MUSIC VIA MOBILES]
73%
VIETNAM
67%
HONG KONG
63%
TAIWAN
57%
INDIA
51%
AUSTRALIA
47%
SINGAPORE
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Downloaded and saved song to mobile phone SPENDING ON MOBILE MUSIC WILL REACH $11 billion AND ACCOUNT FOR 30% OF GLOBAL RECORDED MUSIC REVENUE BY 2011. IN ASIA, IT IS DRIVEN BY YOUTH IN CHINA, VIETNAM, MALAYSIA AND THAILAND China
68%
4 5-3 P: 1 ROU EG AG
62%
Vietnam Malaysia 56%
YRS
Most popular type of content downloads are songs and ringtones
63%
OLD
55% 54%
Thailand Indonesia Hong Kong Philippines
48%
50%
47%
46%
46% 32%
30%
29%
23%
23%
Taiwan
45%
22%
44% 42% 27%
29% 37%
37%
Full-length movie
Music videos
40% 51%
55%
61%
Ringtone
Song to your phone
Video games
TV shows
15-24yrs
Paid to download music
Song from the Internet without paying for it
31%
24% 20%
19%
19% 17%
14%
13% 12%
8% 7%
6% 5%
2%
MP3 Player
2007 JUN/JUL 2008
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iPod
2008
Mobile Phone
AGE GROUP: 15-34 YRS OLD
Stereo / CD Player
Radio
PC
Singapore India 32%
25%
Movie trailer
25-34yrs
Device used most often to listen to music
Korea
TV / Music Channels
Australia
[LOVE MUSIC]
[LIKE MUSIC]
[WOULD LISTEN TO MUSIC EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY IF THEY CAN]
Win a Diamond! CHARGED NEEDS YOUR HELP. WE’RE LOOKING FOR THE BEST FLAT RATE SERVICE PLANS IN ASIA. VOICE, TEXT, DATA, INT’ RATES – FOR ONE LOW PRICE!
[HATE MUSIC] TELL US WHO GIVES YOU THE MOST, AND WE’LL ENTER YOU IN A LUCKY DRAW FOR AN HTC DIAMOND*. IF YOU KNOW OF A BIG PACKAGE, EMAIL US AT BIG_PACKAGE@CHARGED.MOBI CONTEST CLOSES AUGUST 31, 2008.
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............Where Are You? June/JULY 2008
U.K What: Develop Conference & Expo When: July 29 Where: Brighton, England Who: Leading event for all game developers out there! url: www.develop-conference.com
SPAIN What: Mobile Payments Forum When: June 16 Where: Madrid Who: The money people – those who can’t stop thinking about how to replace your wallet with a phone. url: www.marcusevansuk.com
NORTH AMERICA What: New York Mobile Marketing Forum When: June 10 & 11 Where: New York Who: Brands and agencies who want to know how to integrate mobile into their strategy url: www.mobilemarketingforum.com
MALAYSIA What: Digigen Malaysia 2008 When: June 30 - July 2 Where: Kuala Lumpur Who: Marketing to the Digital Generation url: www.availcorp.com
Wanna Party? Know of a hot launch, a sizzling socializer, or a cool conference? Tell us: where@charged.mobi
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CHINA What: Mobile Monday – Shanghai, User Interface and Design When: June 23 Where: tbc Who: Mobile geeks come out to play. url: www.mobilemondayshanghai.net What: Mobile Monday – Shanghai, Micro-blogging. When: July 21 Where: tbc Who: Mobile geeks come out to play. url: www.mobilemondayshanghai.net
KOREA What: X Media Lab’s Pro Day for “Digital Worlds: Virtual, Social, Mobile” When: June 19 Where: Seoul Who: General public get access to the Lab’s line-up of uber-geek projects. url: www.xmedialab.com
HONG KONG What: Music Matters When: June 3 - 5 Where: Grand Hyatt, Wanchai Who: Three independent bands from Nokia’s Independent Artist Club vie for the attention of music industry big wigs. url: www.musicmattersasia.com What: HTC Diamond phone launch When: Early June Who: All the coolest kids who want an iPhone killer. url: www.htc.com
JAPAN What: Mobile Monday Japan When: June 23 Where: KDDI Designing Studio in Harajuku, Tokyo url: www.mobilemonday.jp
SINGAPORE What: MoCo Party When: June 18 Where: tbc Who: The big boys of mobile content (gamers, broadcasters and media) crank it up to 11 url: www.mocoparty.com to register Sponsor: Bloomberg TV What: CommunicAsia 2008 & Broadcast Asia When: June 17-20 Where: Singapore Expo, Singapore Who: Everyone and anyone in the telco/mobile space url: www.communicasia.com and www.broadcast-asia.com
INDONESIA What: Mobile Monday When: Last Monday of every month – 6:30pm Where: Amigos @ Bellagio Boutique Mall, Jakarta Who: Mobile geeks come out to play. url: www.id-mobilemonday.com/
What: ad:tech Singapore When: June 26-27 Where: Suntec International Convention Centre Who: Bringing together the region’s marketers, ad agencies, technology providers and online publishers url: ad-tech.com/singapore
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Justin Sweeting, born and raised in Hong Kong, started playing music when he was 16. He spent seven years rocking on the UK music scene. Then he returned on a mission to make music matter in Hong Kong. Since 2006, he’s been with Channel [V]’s Amp – helping bands get the sort of exposure that once was reserved for Big Label artists. Sweeting has seen the volume on local music in Asia go from 0 to 11. Growing up in Hong Kong back then must have been hard for an aspiring musician? Music was a big part of my life. We had no access to music – except CDs. And we had to order those in from specialty shops. It doesn’t help when you can’t see a band play live, and you can’t really get the whole picture as to what being in a band is about. What was the first band you saw live? The first band my friends and I went to see live in Hong Kong was The Wedding Present. And I still remember the drum tech came out and hit the bass drum just to test it, and I could not get my head around what that felt like. It was unbelievable. At that moment we were hooked. What was your first band like? We were terrible. All we used to do was play bad covers of Stone Roses. Until Oasis came out, and they just blew our minds.
You left HK for awhile and went to the UK, where you played with lots of great bands. How had the scene changed when you came back? When the chance came to come back to Hong Kong, I could see that things were changing. I came back to work on the Rockit festival in 2003, and it felt like all that was missing was some good opportunities for bands. It’s important to remember that nothing is going to improve until promoters start paying bands fairly. What’s the best part of being in a band? It brings you into experiences that you wouldn’t get otherwise. There are moments when you’re playing together and the hairs on your arm will just stand up – it’s hard to explain, but that’s what’s so special. It’s an altered state. What’s the biggest stage you ever played? 30,000. It was actually an event that Amp got me involved in. I was hanging out with a band in Manila at Summer Slam. They knew I’d played before. And just before they went on we’d been talking about guitars. And the singer came up to me and said, “Check out my guitar.” And I thought he was just showing it to me. I said, “Awesome.” He said, “Great. Plug-in. You’re coming out with us.” And literally, within five minutes, I’m playing in front of this crowd, with the headline band. That’s the thing about musicians in Manila: they are really in it for the right reasons. Music is just fun. Do you miss the life of a musician? I’m happier now that I’m not trying to make money from my music. I can enjoy playing more when it’s something I do outside of work. I’m not saying that if my friends and I were offered an opportunity to tour and do all the things we wanted, we wouldn’t take it. But taking money out of the equation has made life better.
SIX RAY SUN’S JUSTIN SWEETING AND ANDY GANNON ROCKING THE ZODIAC CLUB, OXFORD, ENGLAND
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Sometimes it seemed like nobody cared, and I’d wonder why I was soldiering on pointlessly
Does promoting music ever get you down? I used to wrestle with why I was doing this. Sometimes it seemed like nobody cared, and I’d wonder why I was soldiering on pointlessly. Before I worked with Amp, I worked with a lot of brands because they were the ones who could afford to bring out artists for private parties. But no one at these parties wanted to see the bands.
The bands got nothing out of doing it. In the end I’d be sitting there thinking, “I’m the only one who wants to see the band.” And anyone else who wants to see the band can’t get in because it’s a private party. How should we look at using mobiles for promoting bands? I think it’s one of those things you’ve got to look at from the end user. We get offers all the time from people
who want to do things with phones. And I look at what they offer and think, “That’s just an annoyance. The overall experience isn’t going to benefit anybody.” Where’s the hottest city for music in Asia? For me, Jakarta and Manila are really inspiring places. They have a music scene that just works. Decent bands are making decent careers for themselves because people
buy CDs, they go to shows. It’s fantastic. They just work as music cities. What’s the best part of your job? Getting out there to hear the bands. They are damn good. They make everything so worth while.
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Your New Band Doesn’t Need Him. Get online. Get famous. You can do it all yourself. Or can you?
e took a massive leap from the stage, a crowd dive of epic proportions. It was a leap of faith, arms stretched confidently out to the side as he soared through the air, over the heads of the music lovers. But as he came down, the fans weren’t there to catch him. A giant hole opened up in the crowd. The fall to the dance floor was fatal. Nobody even bothered to pick up the body. He was the music middleman. The band played on. You’d be forgiven if you think that the music industry is in dire straits. After a decade of listening to gripes about declining CD sales, and how rampant file sharing pirates are hurting artists, you’d think that it’s the day the music died. But it’s not the music that’s dead. It’s the old school music middleman, whose sole purpose was to sell as many records as possible, who is dead. The truth is that people create music everyday – without the backing of big labels, without the fancy promotions of global marketing machines, without producers breathing down their necks. Talented musicians simply get together and have fun. Musicians play music because they love to. Most small bands when they start out in Asia have no expectations of making it big – or even making any money. The only thing that matters is having an opportunity to play. And thanks to the web and mobile, there are plenty of new opportunities for self-promotion. You can upload your band’s profile, along with music, pictures, videos – anything you’ve got – on to social sites as diverse as MySpace, Facebook, Alive Not Dead, Nokia’s IAC, Amp and even Last.fm. But the bad news: so can everybody else. So once again, bands are faced with the problem of getting noticed, standing apart from the crowd, and building a loyal fan base. In fact, bands need a lot more help than they can find on Facebook. They need, well, a music middleman.
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PHOTOGRAPHY SHOT @ ZOUK IN KUALA LUMPUR, MAY 10 JOSHUA ONG – HTTP://JOSHUAONGYS.BLOGSPOT.COM/ HWEIMING – HTTP://HWEIMING.BLOGSPOT.COM/ AARON HO – HTTP://JOURNAL.UNDEBUG.ORG/ DAVID CHEONG – HTTP://ROYALSHORTNESS.BLOGSPOT.COM/ NIGEL SIA – HTTP://NIGELAIS.BLOGSPOT.COM/
THE NEW MOBILE BREED A new breed of music middleman has evolved to survive: smaller and more mobile – in every sense of the word. In Asia, one of the leading services for promoting independent musicians has come from the mobile industry. Nokia’s Independent Artists Club (IAC), launched late last year, has rolled out in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Bangladesh. In that time, they have signed up more than 2000 aspiring artists (web-iac.nokiaasia.com). But the IAC still acts as a filter, just like a label. Each IAC region has its own artist “rep”, who is already a part of the local music industry. Their job is to find the talent amongst all the wannabes. And when they do find talent – they make sure it gets exposure. IAC parties around the region are gaining in popularity, and they have also been taking over the airwaves, offering new artists the opportunity to have their music played on stations, including Radio Foorti in Bangladesh, NU107 in Malaysia, a host of stations in the Philippines, and 104.5 FM Fat Radio in Thailand.
VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR Radio is great, but ever since The Buggles sang those famous words on MTV’s debut in 1981, every band has understood the need to have a video on TV. While homemade YouTube videos have certainly launched a few indie bands, nothing beats the power of a video channel. For independent bands in Asia, there’s a new short cut to getting that sort of exposure. It’s called Amp (amp.channelv.com). It’s part of Channel [V] and it’s parent company, Star, which gives it tremendous cred with artists, and a way to get noticed outside YouTube. “It’s so much easier to get yourself out there now,” explains Justin Sweeting, product manager for Amp. “Artists want to be out there. They want mass exposure. That’s what Channel [V] offers. We have something artists want.”
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The worst thing right now is being between great and really bad
Like IAC, Amp also has its roots online. But not every band that signs up gets a pass to the big show. “There will always be a need for some kind of filter. Something that lets the cream rise to the top,” says Sweeting, adding that there is a “big divide between the TV ready bands” and the ones who are just starting out. Amp also helps bands plan their growth strategy, helping get them bigger and bigger gigs. But a lot of a band’s success is still up to them. “Bands need to have clear goals as to what they want to achieve,” say Sweeting. For some bands, that sort of planning is best left in the hands of a professional music middleman.
A UNIQUE STRATEGY FOR EVERY BAND As the music and media ecosystem continues fragmenting and splintering into thousands upon thousands of niches, it is forming what’s known as the Long Tail. Only a small group of artists will ever be a part of the “short head” and gain widespread mainstream attention. However, there is quite possibly a niche for everyone else. But coming up with a plan to reach that niche isn’t easy. It often helps to have a small independent label. Yes, a music middleman. The small independent label is not new. But, today, they represent the fastest, most mobile edge of the industry. And one of Hong Kong’s fastest is Hummingbird Music. Founded four years ago by Tan Chang and a partner from L.A., Hummingbird helps small artists gain the skills to make it big in their niche. From providing help on both the music side and the, increasingly more important, image side, this small label knows how to make artists stand apart from the crowd. “Peoples’ attention span is getting shorter and shorter. We’re all competing with the entire YouTube right now,” says Chang, adding that every artist needs a different approach. “The best way to promote an artist is really determined right at the beginning now. You used to be able to break it down into segments and once you finish a product ask ‘How are we going to promote it?’ But now right when we find an artist we have to ask, ‘Is there a promotion direction for this artist?’” For Chang, the promotional direction and artistic direction are the same thing. And it’s got to be original –even if it’s not that good. “The worst thing, right now, is being between great and really bad,” says Chang. “Having someone think that
How are we in the industry going to work out a system of payment that’s fair for everyone?
you’re ‘ok’ is the worst comment you can have. I would rather be the worst. I would rather be the Britney Spears fan who was crying in the YouTube video that got millions of viewers than something ok that gets just 500 viewers.” Chang is keen to pursue any avenue for promotion that would support his artists – including mobile phones. But there is a limit to what they can do. “Mobile phone companies won’t turn into big labels. Not even Apple,” says Chang. “The industry still needs the big players. But are the Big Labels going to exist through the selling of CDs? I don’t think so.” “Right now we still need Big Labels. This is a transition time, between monetizing music through the sale of CDs and into this new unknown era,” he says. But he’s quick to admit that nobody has come up with a good solution for monetizing mobile music – yet. “How are we in the industry going to work out a system of payment that’s fair for everyone?”
BIGGER IS STILL BETTER Despite the industry not yet having a fair, new system for music monetization, the mobile internet music distribution is a US$2.9 billion industry, according to IFPI, which represents the recording industry worldwide. Others (The Gartner Group) value music downloads, including ringtones, at a much higher premium of US$36 billion. Either way, these figures represent just a slice of the money pie that’s still presided over by the 400-pound gorillas in the room. Yes, gorillas – not dinosaurs. The big labels don’t like to be called dinosaurs, even if they are a bit slow, and heavy handed. But according to Ruuben Van den Heuvel, senior vice JUN/JUL 2008
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president of digital & new business at Sony BMG, a new creativity is rising within big labels. “Our challenge is to adapt to new technologies,” says van den Heuvel. “We want to get music onto mobile devices in a way that the consumer gets everything they want – so that it compares to a peer-to-peer [ free file sharing] experience, but offering a better overall selection of music, at a better quality and in a way that makes finding it more simplistic.” Another “Big Music” exec, Terry McBride, echoes Van den Heuvel’s sentiments. Nearly a quarter of a century ago, McBride started Nettwerk Records in his Vancouver apartment with the help of two friends. Today, the company has offices in six additional cities around the world, boasts a roster of 40 acts and manages such artists as Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies and Dido. Yet aside from a successful label, McBride is also helping to transform the industry through what some would call radical initiatives. “I just want to get across our openness to try a lot of new things that some industry players aren’t willing to do,” says McBride. “I love the direct, authentic interaction with the fan base. The Barenaked Ladies released their multitracks for fans to remix. Continuing to allow those sorts of things to happen and develop is really key. What does the music fan want versus what does anybody else want?” ”We continue to let the artists run labels. We continue to allow music to flow and monetize. It’s a different way of looking at all this. This is not product. Music is a creative art form that we need to monetize.” These are shocking words coming from an industry that used to shout, spit and stamp about piracy and file sharing. Van den Heuvel also isn’t afraid to use
What can we do to give music away?
HOW TO MOBILIZE YOUR BANDS The 360 deal isn’t for everyone: Sell your soul for a full-on ride that you can’t get off, until one day you go all Britney and shave your head? No thanks. But you’re still going to need a plan: 1 Get online. Duh. Right now you should already have a MySpace page, and don’t stop there. The more places you list your band and your music, the more exposure you’ll get.
2 Check if you’ve got a hot single Go to hitsongscience.com and upload your best song. Soon you’ll know if you’re hot or not. If not, keep practicing, keep writing, keep performing every chance you get.
3 Look to IAC and AMP Once you start to get good, the new breed of promoters will be more than happy to let you into their party. Sign up at web-iac.nokia-asia. com and at amp.channelv.com.
4 Try to get the attention of small labels These guys are looking for something unique, you need an angle that is totally your own. Once you’ve got that, they can help you polish it. Even being really bad could be really good.
5 Practice, practice, practice Keep playing at bigger venues, and maybe just maybe you’ll find yourself sitting down to sign a big contract. Just remember that you don’t have to sell your soul.
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language that would have, 10 years ago, brought an army of lawyers bandying multi-million dollar litigation writs to his door. He asks: “What can we do to give music away?” Yes, he said “give it away.” He explains that by working with a network operator, it’s possible now to set a single user fee that would provide an alwayson, all-you-can-consume experience. “We’re flexible. We can offer any track at anytime of day. It’s about offering the consumer an experience.” Of course, “free music” is just the bait for the upsell. Once you’re onboard with the free stuff, you then get opportunities to spend a few bucks on special offers – like advanced releases from your favorite artists, which could then get you advanced tickets to their tour, and so on. And for the overall experience, it’s still going to be hard for any of the small players to match the scope of what big labels can provide. The 360 deal is still the Big Label specialty. Sometimes called an “equity deal”, this is where the label takes over every aspect of the artist’s career – from styling, to marketing, to merchandising, tie-ins with games, movies, whatever. Only big labels can deliver this sort of mass market saturation and sales. But, since they own the artist, they benefit from everything they can involve the artist in. The artist is elevated to a “brand”, owned by the label. This is a long-term, and ideally, trusting relationship. It’s not for everyone, but as van den Heuvel puts it: “We continue to
create opportunities to make someone extremely famous.” If that’s what your band wants, then you definitely still need a big music middleman.
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE... Some things remain constant, no matter what new opportunities technology brings. Every musician dreams of reaching a wider audience, while every music middleman dreams of finding the next big thing. Aspiring musicians, bands and pop divas still need some kind of promoter – someone mobile and tech-savvy. Obscurity is the enemy in the music business and anyone who can help a struggling artist get a little bit more famous is someone “free having music” worth around. is just The middleman is the bait dead. Long live the for the middleman. Now, get ready upsell for a massive stage dive.
Double Standards BY JAY OATWAY
The way we watch TV is radically changing: short, bite-size bits consumed when we want them; and free live broadcasts from anywhere we can receive a TV signal
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t’s easy to forget that there was a time when mobile phones didn’t have built-in cameras. Or internet connectivity. Or mp3 players. These features are now just inexpensive addons, jammed into every device – most of us take them for granted. Today, yet another tiny, inexpensive addon promises to make yet another feature just as common – television. I hold in my hand a Kphone. For those of you outside China, this isn’t likely a brand you’ve ever seen – although they ship more than 15 million handsets a year. The model that I’ve been handed is a light-weight white candy bar, with slick rounded corners and a big screen – driven by a simple navigation wheel and standard keypad. Nothing to get too excited about. But it’s what’s jammed inside that makes me sit up – Telegent System’s TV on a chip. The chip works just like the receiver on your old analogue television set – tuning in to whatever happens to be broadcast through the air around you. My first reaction was something like, “Who wants analogue in the digital age?” Then an item appears on the screen, for free, out of the air, and I change my mind – earthquake news. I got a chance to test the device shortly after the 7.8 magnitude shocker had ripped up Sichuan. Breaking news of major events is exactly the sort of thing that oldschool TV is good at. It’s also good at sports, explains Telegent’s CEO, Dr. Weijie Yun. Dr Yun is a football enthusiast, who smiles when he talks about his passion for the beautiful game.
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Dr Yun was able to catch replays being broadcast on the local TV on his mobile and without any extra cost When Dr Yun arrived in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress last year, instead of heading straight out to talk about phones with others from the industry, he wasted no time getting to the evening football match to watch his favorite player, Ronaldinho, in action. And he wasn’t disappointed. Ronaldinho scored both of Barcelona’s goals that night. What made the event extra special was that Dr Yun was able to catch replays being broadcast on the local TV on his mobile and without any extra cost – such as roaming fees – or needing any special network registration.
TRAINING YOU TO WATCH TV? Of course, not everyone will be captivated by the magic of analogue TV chips in mobiles. Heading this queue are the digital mobile TV companies, which have vested interests in getting you to
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watch TV differently. “Telegent may have a good product to enable the transition from analogue TV to digital TV by leveraging the conventional free-to-air broadcast channels from the analogue TV station before they fully migrate to digital broadcast, and this has a 10-year or more lifespan,” explains Karl Sin, vice president of sales, BNS Ltd. BNS is a leader on the digital mobile TV side of the fence. Its overall philosophy is not dissimilar to Telegent: get mobile TV going as quickly as possible, without major investment and bypassing mobile operators’ networks. But the difference is digital. Mobile users can receive digital TV indoors and outdoors, in tunnels and on trains and other locations where TV reception is normally an issue. And it’s future proofed. Analogue TV’s days are numbered. Countries around the world are already
beginning to sell off the analogue spectrum (VHF and UHF) – rendering old TV sets useless. However, Asian nations are in no hurry. In this part of the world, analogue TV will have at least until 2012. “But all things considered, analogue TV is a transition product and at the end of the day it will still be digital, be it DVB-H, MBMS, T-DMB, DMB-T/H, CMMB or MediaFLO,” says Sin. The argument behind this so-called transition, however, doesn’t make a lot of sense. It seems that we consumers need somehow to be trained by analogue mobile television today, so that at sometime in the next decade we will be willing to start watching its digital cousin. But digital and analogue television standards are entirely different beasts. For the early adopters already watching mobile digital TV, they’ve seen
HOW TO DOWNLOAD A VIDEO SNACK RIGHT NOW a trend towards smaller and smaller, bite-size episodes. Video clips keep getting cut shorter and shorter. What began as five-minute mobisodes a year ago have been shortened to minute-long hits that resemble ads more than shows we are accustomed to on TV. So, it’s not exactly clear how one type of TV watching (the long-form kind you’ve known all your life) will lead you to want to watch something that seems designed for people with attention deficit disorder.
HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO! Of course, there is a reason so many smaller bite-size bits are being created. Sometimes they are the right size for filling the otherwise boring gaps in our schedule – on the bus, waiting in a queue at the bank, or killing time until we can leave work. But that doesn’t mean we can’t also have good, old-fashioned, timeconsuming TV. “They are not in competition,” explains Dr Yun. “They are complementary to each other. Content is king. The consumer doesn’t care if it’s digital or analogue, if it’s what they want to watch. You can watch traditionalstyle TV programming and you can also download short clips.” This helps fix one of the all time big problems with broadcast television: the programming schedule often conflicts with the schedule of our lives. If you miss something when it’s broadcast, it’s gone forever (or at least until the reruns start). However, while Dr Yun’s watching the football with one eye, he’s got the other eye on the future of mobile TV. “I love that a local channel [in a place like Barcelona] broadcasts a slowmotion replay, and as a user, I’d like to record the replay, and send it to my friends – and brag, saying ‘Look who I just saw score!’” Again, turning your phone into a personal video recorder may sound like a far-fetched futuristic feature for
Places like YouTube are great for finding snack-size videos, but few of us can figure out how to get it working on our mobile. The major barrier is that YouTube needs a Flash video player to work. Most phones don’t yet support it. While that will soon change, here are some possible ways to get YouTube working in the meantime. Check Your Specs
Before you get started, give yourself a fighting chance. Your mobile needs a large, color screen – such as a QVGA screen (240 by 320 pixels). And you are going to need either a 3G data network with an unlimited data plan, or a mobile that can connect to a WiFi hotspot. Streaming video uses a lot of data that must be sent fast. If your network connection is too slow, YouTube will notify you. Get the YouTube Java Application
If you have a Nokia 6110n, 6120c, E65, N73, or N95 or a Sony Ericsson k800i or w880i, then you are in luck. YouTube has a Java app that you can download onto your phone that will put all of the world’s best (and worst) user-generated content at your finger tips. Go to http://m.youtube.com/app and Google will walk you through the rest. If not, Google promises that support for more phones is coming. Try Streaming From http://m.youtube.com
You can always try pointing your mobile internet device at YouTube’s mobile site. The mobile site has been simplified to make it easy to search, browse and play videos. However, your mileage may vary. Not all carriers are crazy about you streaming video on their networks. And streaming media software on some handsets will simply return a “failed to find network” message, even if you connect via WiFi.
many mobile users outside Asia, but Dr Yun says that a phone from Konka, in China, already has the recording feature installed. And you should expect it to become common place. Telegent’s user surveys show that analogue TV adoption has grown at the same rate as the adoption of phone-cams. In just three years adoption went from 10% to 90%. Before long, you’ll forget there was ever a time before having a mobile TV in pocket.
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Who Really Wants Mobile Ads? WHERE THERE’S A SCREEN, IT’S A SAFE BET ADVERTISERS CAN’T BE TOO FAR BEHIND. AND ASIA WILL LEAD MOBILE ADSPEND GROWTH, BUT WILL CONSUMERS PROTEST? INDUSTRY TRIO DAVID KETCHUM, RAJIV HIRANANDANI AND XIN YE TWITTER ABOUT THE NEXT BIG THING...
The leading edge of the trend seems to be driven by brands offering cool content. Consumers are interested but not begging for this. Mobile advertising is the next thing, and it’s becoming real this year in China. Bigger budgets in millions of Rmb. David @ UpstreamAsia (ADMA chairman and Upstream Asia CEO)
Xin @ CASEE (Founder and CEO of CASEE)
Consumers benefit initially. They get used to consume this way, check prices, read mobile blogs, coupon, mobile commerce. More free content vs operator fee-based service. The sheer size of these markets (China has more than 500 million mobile consumers) makes this a goldmine for mobile advertising.
Xin @ CASEE (Cellphone Ads Serving E-Exchange, based in Beijing)
Rajiv @ Mobile2Win (Founder and country head of Mobile2Win)
Consumers do not really care UNLESS it is ad-supported content. Given discounted/free content – games, rtones, wpapers etc – in return for ads appearing on their phones.
The hype around the current mobile experience is unjustified. Rajiv @ Mobile2Win David @ UpstreamAsia (a Hong Kong-based marketing and corporate communications agency)
There was a lot of hype created a couple of years ago ... by the companies who were trying to raise VC funding :-)
Rajiv @ Mobile2Win (a mobile entertainment company in India)
The complete “internet in your palm” experience is just about here. Then we’ll realize the full potential of the mobile internet, enhanced by location-based services and mobile search advertising.
The campaigns that work best for me personally are the ones in which you text to get data or enter a competition.
David @ Upstream Let’s remember mobile advertising is not about receiving ads. It’s about contextual advertising that’s related to the topics being searched.
Rajiv @ Mobile2Win Mobile advertising has got a bad name with spam. That really is not mobile advertising and this is the myth we are trying to debunk.
David @ Upstream Rajiv @ Mobile2Win The reality is this medium is the next big thing for brands. Maybe not for the carriers.
Spam is an entirely winnable technology battle. On the web, a user with up-to-date software who follows best practices doesn’t have much of a spam issue anymore. The same will be true of mobile.
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