Don’t have a ticket to the big concert? This may be the last time you’ll have to miss the hottest show in town.

Like movies and commercials previously, the mobile marketing channel is poised to both promote and present concerts in real time on web-enabled mobile phones.

Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, for example, recently announced their joint venture to deliver “a live global mobile simulcast” featuring performances from Madonna’s April 30^th concert in New York City at the Roseland Ballroom.

According to the news release, “The simulcast, which expands Vodafone’s exclusive mobile content distribution and promotion deal with Warner Music International in support of the new Madonna album Hard Candy, will feature four live songs from the disc.”

If all goes as planned, Verizon Wireless will begin the mobile broadcast at 10 p.m. EST on April 30^th via the V Cast Performances channel, with Vodafone Live’s broadcast beginning at 3 a.m. for the international community. In “on-demand” fashion, V Cast Performances will also archive the performances for the entire month to follow.

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Today sees Warner Bros. Records stepping up its use of ShoZu’s image uploading service for mobile phones. WB have been working with ShoZu for quite some time already, enabling many artists to send mobile images and mobile video directly to fans via sites such as YouTube and Myspace.

Australia’s ‘The Veronicas’ were the first to use the service under the WB label last Febuary (2006). Each band member recorded their appearances at the gigs and instantly uploaded them to the TextAmerica website for all the fans to see, thus ushering in a new and exciting way for WB artists to engage with the fans.

Tt seems a year has been more than enough time for WB to ‘get it’ and decide to make use of all ShoZu has to offer with other artists and to expand it’s offering. They pay a monthly fee for use of the ShoZu service offerings and so far this seems to be a very promising business move for both sides.

The question is will it last? Will they lose money because fans see the gigs via their phone and don’t bother going? Is it just a fad that people will get tired of or will it become just as important as the merchandise that artists sell? Warner Bros seem to think that this format has legs. What do you think?

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