Business News Marketing & PR

New digital promo platform launches

By | Published on Thursday 16 October 2014

Inflyte

Ah, promo track delivery systems. There’ve been a few of them, haven’t there? As the music industry has slowly moved away from throwing CDs into jiffy bags at DJs, journalists and other opinion forming types in favour of doing the pre-release promo thing digitally.

Sending CDs in jiffy bags was bad for the environment, the cost-cutting labels told us, somewhat unconvincingly, hence the shift to digital promos. Though for many media people, opening hundreds of jiffys each month was no more fun than it was for the PRs to stuff the envelopes in the first place, so DJs and journos weren’t entirely opposed to receiving pre-release preview content in digital form. Even if it meant giving up that traditional little cash-boost that came from flogging your promos to the record sellers of Berwick Street (though as a responsible journalist, obviously I don’t even know what that means).

The only problem was that most of the digital promo systems employed by the labels were God awful, clearly designed to serve the needs of the PR team, and the PR team alone. Indeed, it often felt like no one involved in designing these platforms had ever actually spoken to a journalist. Even to this day the sinister words “Play MPE” will result in a short-sharp gasp of horror from anyone who regularly reviews new music.

Anyway, although things have improved slightly over the years, Belfast-based Inflyte reckons that no one has got it totally right yet, and so it is launching a new music promo system all of its own. Promos can be sent to a media contact’s mobile phone where it can me cached, listened to offline, and on any device, making the whole thing, and I quote, “much more lifestyle compatible”. Whatever the hell that means.

The new platform has been conceived by former BBC presenter Paul Hammil and technology developer Paul McConnon, with consultancy from Darren Hemmings off of digital marketing consultancy Motive Unknown, so at least we know this one has had input from people on both sides of the label-to-media equation.

For the label or PR agency there’s plenty of extra tools too, including one-click feedback, because those PRs love getting feedback direct from their contacts (anyone would think they didn’t actually read the mags or listen to the radio shows they service).

Commenting on the Inflyte system, Hammil told reporters: “As a radio presenter and DJ I was becoming increasingly frustrated at the inefficiency of sending and receiving promotional music. Inflyte was borne out of that frustration and we have, as a result, developed a platform that is much more flexible and lifestyle friendly. By allowing recipients to store and listen to music when it suits them and by enabling them to give timely, detailed feedback on the go, Inflyte is making the process of listening and responding to promos much more enjoyable and productive”.



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