First off, “Hello CLEEEEEVEEEELAAANNDDDD!” (Cue Spinal Tap). Thanks to Kevin for having me while he is on his matrimonial getaway. My name is Colin and I write the blog Tech(st)books, which you can get to by clicking on the link in the blogroll to your right. I offered my services to fill in and was glad when Kevin agreed to let me post a couple ideas. I look forward to seeing what you guys have to say. With any luck, we won’t burn down the house while he’s sunning in Maui. Let’s get started…
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Idea – RINGTONE STUDIO
I conceived of this idea while considering how much time people waste on the computer doing things that have little (if any) value once the browser window is closed. Interactive entertainment – a la Desktop Tower Defense or Digg – is big business and despite the fact that there are a zillion different things you can do on the internet, most people will choose to do somethng fun over something productive 100 times out of 100.
Ringtone sales are serious business. I have no idea how many ringtones get sold out there every day, but it’s enough to justify a seemingly endless string of ads during “Flavor of Love” reruns offering to sell me T.I. or Fergie’s latest hit for a mere $1.99 a month. (I’ve been holding out for the music being played by the band in Star Wars at the Mos Eisley Cantina, but so far it isn’t available.) Regardless, people like their ringtones as either an expression of themselves, to impress their friends, or to just here a cool bit of music when the phone rings rather then an annoying factory ringtone.
This idea is simple. Create an online music-creation space for ringtones. Attract users by offering the full functions for free, wherein they can play around creating snippets of music for no charge. Think of it as entertaining “time-wasting” at it’s finest as users are free to toy around with different instruments and sounds. If the user wants to download their “song” as an actual ring-tone, it costs them a couple bucks. Additionally, you could have a ring-tone marketplace built in and share sales revenue with the original composer.
There is a ton of music software out there. Some of this software allows you to connect an instrument to your computer and play music in to it. Some of this software is an empty sheet of music and you mouse-click where you want the notes to go and what instrument you want them to sound like. Why not take the latter of these to create this online “sandbox” where folks can make music? Right now, it’s hardly worth the trouble to hook up your Les Paul to Cakewalk (software) and riff for 15 seconds to make a ringtone. But given the option of using your mouse to make a ringtone with a full iOrchestra while you’re on your lunch-break or bored at work….people might do that. And since ringtones are so short in duration, you hardly have to be Mozart to make something functional and fun.
What say you?
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