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Buy Your CDs From Your PCS Phone
guido_sst writes: "SprintPCS has inked a new deal with *CD to allow its users to buy CDs with their PCS phones. Basically, you hear a song on the radio, dial *CD (*23) on your PCS phone, type in the station's call letter and your credit card number, and viola, you just bought that band's CD. The service is also available for wireless members of the 3Com Palm family. Read more at starcd.com."
A non-embarassing way to order "Who let the dogs out" without haveing to know the name of the band or the name of the album.
Jackpot.
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RumorsDaily
Another impending sign of the Apocalypse... Britney Spears CDs on speed dial....
Part of me wishes to be abducted by aliens and taken off this godforsaken rock of a planet... then I remember that 99.9% of the time they get their abductees from places like Pig Jowl, Arkansas.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
This is made for impulse buyers. I can some ex-girlfriends of mine using this service. "I loooove that song let me order the CD"
How long before some enterprising hacker figures out how to use starcd.com to look up live playlists and then queue up the song for downloading via Napster? It's a shame that this would be of questionable legality because otherwise this would be perfect. Even curmudgeons like me sometimes like a catchy pop tune now and again but I don't want the other 12 crappy songs on the band's CD.
I think it's rather closed-minded to expect the target market of this service to be only geeks. 'Regular' consumers are used to dialing *[anything] for various services from traffic emergencies, to weather info, to call forwarding.
I suspect that the general target market for this service is the market who currently already buys the most radio-played CDs, and with the most disposable income. Teens, and 20-30 yr. olds.
More info/links here.
"When it rains, it pours." --Morton's Salt
I see a FuckedCompany in the making.
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You are a fucking moron.
It was Cellular One. I participated in the beta test for them. I only bought one CD (whuch they gave me for free for testing). The service really sucked. It took about 5 mins to complete the order, and the process was quite cumbersome. VERY dangerous if you were driving. And worst of all, after the beta period, they were going to charge AIRTIME for the call! Plus, the CD was $22 from them ($14 at local store, $11 online). Buyer beware.
-mark
-mark
If your computer says LINUX, run...computers can't talk! [unless you have text-speech software]
This seems like a nice little concept, but here's something for you paranoid cypherpunks out there. Let's say you actually buy that stupid "Who let the dogs out" cd with this service, what do you think will happen when their next album comes out, or any similar band, or any band whose promoter sucked off the radio station's manager ? In ordering the cd, you've given them your name, address, but most importantly your *cell phone number!* Now they can call you anwhere, anytime to tele-harass you. They will manage to annoy you at the worst possible time (imagine being in a meeting and you answer your cell thinking it's important, only to end up stuck arguing with a stupid telemarketer who just won't give up - watch your executive reputation go through the basement). If you really want to buy whatever top40 crap's playing on the radio, just listen to the announcer when he/she says the title and group and stop by the mall to buy it. Cheaper, safer, and anonymous. Just tell them your personal info is none of their fucking business and they don't need it to sell you the damned cd. Something you just can't do on the phone when shipping is involved.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Hit *CD (*23) on your PCS phone, type in the station's call letter, get the name of the band and song, and then ... hang up.
Start up napster, type in the name of the band and song, and download the mp3 :)
Another reason to stay off the road....SUV DRIVER: "Oh MAN! Carribean Queen by Billy Ocean! I love this song, I gotta get it! Let's see... B-I-L-L... Oops, cut that guy off, sorry... Y.. O-C-E *SCREEEEEECH* SHIIIIIIT! *BOOM*Sharkey
badassmofo.com
They probably offer big deals, since usage is what they really want. Think about it. The big win here is that they're turning into a demographic database of what people listen to on the radio. They can then turn around and:
* Sell info to the stations on *when* people listen.
* Sell info to the labels on what radio stations sell the most CDs
Oh yeah, this is a great business model for them. For the consumer, it's only a lose becuase it's one more thing feeding the cycle that's homogenizing entertainment "content" down to a gruel that doesn't offend anyone "much".
if you could have the mp3 placed in an idrive for you or something. that would be a viable mp3 biz model.
Freedom: "I won't!"
Pretty cool. You enter in the number of the station; for example, "961#" is 96Rock in Atlanta. Then you can hit 1 to hear what was most recently played or you key in the time of the song. You can preview the song first so you don't accidentically buy Barry Manilow.
You can hear samples of other songs on the CD too. Not bad.
-tim
I guess on the "Hey, neat idea!" scale, it rates a couple points. But on the "How many people will use it?" scale, I think it's pretty much DOA.
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seumas.com