New Partnership Expands Label’s Use of ShoZu Image Upload Service

Warner Bros. Records is stepping up its use of ShoZu’s mobile image uploading service with a partnershop that is already enabling more than a dozen of the label’s artists to send images and video directly from ShoZu-powered cellphones to YouTube, MySpace and other Web destinations. The label was the first to use ShoZu’s technology, beginning with a February 2006 campaign for the U.S. debut of Australia’s The Veronicas that marked the first mobile video blog concert coverage in the industry.

Warner Bros. Records artists who are now “ShoZu’ing” their activities include pop, R&B, metal and rap performers Ashley Tisdale, Tynisha Keli, Jessi Malay, Mike Jones, The Cribs and Crime Mob; country artists Lance Miller, The Wreckers and Blake Shelton; and comedian Lisa Lampanelli.

Nashville singer/songwriter Miller, for example, is using a camera phone to document each stop on his current radio tour promoting his new single “She Really Loves Me,” using the ShoZu application on the handset to transmit the captured photos and video clips to his MySpace page, and enabling fans to click on various points on a Google Map to retrieve images from each city.

“We’re always looking for ways innovative technology can enhance our artist’s creativity and bring them closer to their fans” said Jeremy Welt, VP New Media, for Warner Bros. Records. “This partnership gives our artists a fast and inexpensive way to connect with their audience and is the culmination of several successful ShoZu-based promotions.”

“Warner Bros. Records has been instrumental in pioneering the use of the mobile channel for music promotion with our image uploading service, and they are now moving past the proof-of-concept stage to broader adoption,” said ShoZu CEO Mark Bole. “Their vision is helping establish ShoZu’s position as an important part of the music marketing toolkit moving forward.”

ShoZu’s relationship with Warner Bros. Records kicked off 13 months ago with the worldwide release of The Secret Life of The Veronicas, that band’s debut album, in New York. Band members recorded their personal appearances and Valentine’s Day concert on ShoZu-equipped phones and instantly posted the images to Textamerica for viewing by fans around the world, in the process inaugurating a new technique for marketing performing artists.

Last summer, Warner Bros. Records used ShoZu-enabled phones to allow several bands to send daily photo and video coverage of the 2006 Vans Warped Tour to the Buzznet community website. Artists were also able to receive and reply to fans’ comments posted on the Buzznet site from their handsets using ShoZu’s two-way messaging capabilities, and fans could subscribe to “ZuCasts” to have the uploaded Warped Tour images sent directly to their phones.

The label also participated in the first-ever YouTube New Year's Eve Countdown presented by Chevrolet several months ago, enabling select artists to contribute almost-live New Year’s Eve concert footage to the YouTube site from mobile phones equipped with ShoZu technology.

Performing artists can use ShoZu-equipped phones to capture and upload backstage proceedings, rehearsals, warmups, pre-scripted skits, tour activities, bus scenes, day-in-the-life images, and a wide variety of other “you are there” photos and video clips. The images can be posted on artists’ own websites or fan sites, sent to their MySpace pages, forwarded to YouTube, embedded in blogs, blasted to an opt-in fan email distribution list, repurposed as free or paid promotional content created exclusively for the mobile channel, or used to support special promotional events.
Commercial users like Warner Bros. Records pay a usage-based monthly fee for ShoZu’s services, including the Share-It image upload service as well as ZuCasts consisting of partner promotional or informational content delivered to the handset on a subscription basis.

Source: ShoZu