Gigaboxx, the mobile music download platform targeting artists and record companies who want to set up shop to sell direct to fans, has dumped its monthly subscription charge to make the bulk of its B2B service free. This actually makes a lot of sense since the UK startup gets a kick back for every track sold, so why charge for the razors? Furthermore, Gigaboxx says that it’s seen 1,000 new sign-ups since it quietly switched to free last week.
As we reported when the service was first outed in April at TechCrunch Europe’s GeeknRolla, it has a particular emphasis on live events – hence the mobile component – offering artists a “suite of marketing tools”, including their own store URL, QR codes and a SMS reply service that they can feature in promotional material and share on social networks.
Additionally, Gigaboxx offers local Wifi and Bluetooth solutions that can be used at a live gig to beam a link to the artist’s download store direct to the audience’s mobile phones, although this still involves an additional fee, starting from £350.
Interestingly, for its mobile component Gigabox is shunning native apps in favor of a mobile browser-based download store, which artists and labels can create via an online wizard. They can then add tracks, videos, gig listings and other content, which can easily be tailored to a particular audience or event.
Also of note, Gigaboxx is using the mobile payments standard Payforit to handle transactions. As we’ve previously noted, that’s smart since it means that downloads are billed direct to a fan’s mobile phone bill, or deducted from their pay-as-you-go (pre-pay) credit. Also sensible is that tracks purchased can optionally be downloaded later via the desktop web rather than mobile.