Madonna’s mobile innovation

Distribution. Come on, don’t fall asleep. I know it may sound like the most boring bit of the branding mix. But its where a lot of the action is happening. New technology is opening up new routes to market that will transform the way we buy many services.

Take the new Madonna album, Hard Candy. It is available in stores from a week today, 28th April. But buying it that way is so, like, 20th century man.

From today, 21st April, seven of the eleven tracks will be available to Vodafone customers to download for 99p each. Each track will be available to download for 24 hours, before being replaced by the next one. The Times reports that this follows the move last year by Timbaland to be the first artist to release an album exclusively via mobile, this time on the Verizon network.

This is smart on several levels:

– For Madonna: 18 albums and in her 50’s, yet she’s still innovating

– For Vodafone: a good hook to try and get people into the habit of downloading music, by encouraging them to come back for several days, not just a one-off experience

– For Warner Music: learning about this new route to market for music