Kadoink dials up music over the phone
A carrier-agnostic platform for sending music over the phone, has launched a beta in the United States. If it all works out, it could convert the cell phone into a music promotional tool.
Kadoink says it gives fans "the ability to evangelize their favorite band or new music...instantly to their own group of friends through the phone."
Major acts such as Third Eye Blind and Death Cab for Cutie have signed on, as well as lesser known bands including Matt Nathanson, Rogue Wave, and The Kottonmouth Kings.
Bands reach out and touch fans through Kadoink by uploading audio files to the site's servers. These files can then be placed in a widget that is embeddable in any web page, including social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook.
From there, fans can send the audio files to as many as a thousand numbers in what Kadoink calls a "blast." Senders have the additional option of adding his or her own personal introduction, so that unspecting recipients aren't caught off guard.
Since these messages are sent as a regular voice call, Kadoink's service works on any mobile phone and does not require any additional client to be downloaded.
However, the concept may have some drawbacks. At least at present, there appears to be no provisions for preventing users from using Kadoink to essentially call random numbers. What the service could effectively become then is a free, automated cold caller.
And a check of the site on Thursday showed no way for anyone to add a telephone number to any kind of "do not call" list.