MONTREAL – Quebecers with an affinity to home-grown music can now download Quebecois music as ringtones.
The two brands (both owned by Rogers) are the first carriers to offer this option. Rogers and Fido customers can download the latest ring tunes by Audiogram and Tacca Musique recording artists, including Bran Van 3000, Bia, Anick Jean, Lhasa de Sela, Jean Leloup and Dumas. To purchase these ring tunes, all subscribers need to do is text message "QC" to 4755 from their wireless and a link to the Quebec music portal will be sent to them in the following seconds.
The wireless telephone is a distribution medium that is currently gaining in popularity around the world and, until today, in Quebec, much of the focus was put on international artists," said Sylvie Charette, senior director of marketing and communications at Rogers Wireless. "The recent success of the launch of the Jean Leloup and François Pérusse content confirmed that there is demand for homegrown music. We are thrilled to be a market leader because we believe that Quebec has quality content to offer our subscribers," she added.
"Wireless telephone users want more than just a voice transmission device. They want content that they can identify with. Our collaboration with Audiogram and Tacca enables us to develop a distribution platform that is adapted to the Quebec market," added Sébastien Fournier, content development manager at Rogers Wireless, in the press release.
According to a study conducted by the Gartner Group, a firm specializing in technology-related marketing, Quebec is lagging behind in the penetration of wireless technology, says the release. "Wireless networks are constantly evolving and high bandwidth download possibilities seem limitless. The market has tremendous potential and needs only to be developed. Based on global trends, we can easily predict that the phenomenon will occur here also," added Charette.
For the purpose of comparison, a study conducted by UK telecommunications leader, 3UK(1), of 2 000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24, showed that the wireless telephone is the most popular channel of sales for music lovers. Below are some of the conclusions of the study, which were repeated in the Rogers/Fido release.
* Music purchased via a wireless phone is the fastest growing format: 100% in 2005;
* Wireless sales will catch up to online music sales in the next five years; one out of five young people says that, if possible, s/he would only download music from a wireless telephone;
* Six out of 10 people under the age of 24 have purchased music through a wireless telephone;
* Two-thirds of respondents said that they purchased music when using public transit and the other half said that they were ready to buy new songs once they were home;
* Sixty percent of young people under the age of 24 believe that the CD will become obsolete within the next five years;
* Eighty-five percent of people under the age of 24 consider downloading to be environmentally friendly.
