Music execs look to cell phones for cash
Source: CNN
Hip-hop star Nelly did it. Madonna is doing it. And British rock group Radiohead plans to do it -- boost music sales by reaching out to fans through mobile phones.
With sales of CDs on a three-year slide, the music industry sees mobile phones as powerful outlets for promoting artists and distributing music for profit -- something it failed to do in the early days of Internet music-swapping.
In recent months, recording labels have entered deals with wireless carriers and other companies. The music companies are selling rights to their musicians' recordings and images for use in screen savers, digital images and song snippets that are then sold to mobile phone users.
