Exclusive: Jewish Music Distributor Breaks Ground Using New Technology [video]

13 May, 2010 by yossi

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New York – Pick up a copy of Lipa Schmeltzer’s new album, Meimke D’Lipa, when it appears in stores next week and you may notice a small square tag consisting of brightly colored triangles on the back of the album. This colorful graphic, a High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB), is actually a web link that can be read using the built in camera on most smartphones, including BlackBerry, iPhone and Droid, among others, using Microsoft’s free Tag Reader application. which can be downloaded from your mobile phone here

Microsoft Tag Reader is easily downloaded to a cell phone and provides a method to link printed items to the internet, using nothing more than a smartphone. Scanning a tag by photographing it with a cell phone which has the Tag Reader application, and the phone will display whatever information is programmed into the tag by its creator, which could be text, a vCard, a web page, online photos or videos, or even a phone number to be dialed.

Clearly this innovative technology from Microsoft has huge potential, and Sruly Meyer, in house graphics designer and marketing director for Mostly Music , saw the possibilities that Microsoft Tag offered the Jewish music business. In the case of Lipa’s new album, scanning the tag will take you directly to Mostly Music’s website, where you can preview or purchase the album and find links to Lipa’s videos. In fact, Mostly Music will begin placing tags on all their new albums and posters, providing the public with the ability to sample new albums while walking down the block, in a store or at home, reading the newspaper.

Meyer told VIN News in an exclusive interview, “Normally, Jewish music lags twenty years behind the secular music market. With the introduction of tags on all of our products and promotional materials, we are blazing a trail not just for the Jewish music industry, but for the secular music industry as well.”

Where the Jewish music business goes, others will follow. Expect to see other Jewish business following Mostly Music’s lead and utilizing this exciting technology.