Madonna

London, Nov. 2 (Reuters): When Madonna takes the stage in Lisbon tomorrow to perform her new single Hung Up, it will be the culmination of weeks of promotion harnessing new technology that is revolutionising the music industry.

Major artists are increasingly using the Internet, mobile phones and music appliances like Apple Computer’s iPod to generate hype and sales, combining technological advances with the traditional mainstays of live performance and interviews.

Stars including Robbie Williams, Madonna, U2 and Latin American singer Shakira have explored new ways to market their music in the last two years, while lesser-known acts like British band Arctic Monkeys are also getting in on the act.

“This is the future, baby”, Williams announced at the end of his album-launching concert in Berlin last month, which was beamed into 27 cinema and nightclub venues across Europe and watched by more than 100,000 people on their mobile phones.

Williams’ partner in promoting his Intensive Care record is T-Mobile, which has signed an 18-month deal with the British singer that is in keeping with a shift towards using mobile phone technology to sell pop music.

“Everyone these days has a mobile phone, so for major artists, this is a perfect tool to stay in touch with the fans,” said Matthias Immel, who is involved in international marketing at T-Mobile, an arm of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom. “There is a major trend in the music industry from physical to digital formats, and this of course will continue,” he said.

“What will happen is that mobile phones will be the dominant hardware used as digital music players. iPod is successful, but it is still a high-end device.”

The music business is only beginning to come to terms with Internet downloading, much of which has been done illegally, and piracy of physical CDs.

Legal digital music sales tripled in the first half of 2005, partly helped by mobile phone “ringtunes”, but CDs and continued their steady decline.

Madonna has followed hard on Williams’ heels, making Hung Up, the debut single from her eagerly-anticipated new album Confessions on a Dancefloor, available first as a ringtone via MTV.com and VH1.com.

The same websites along with LOGOonline.com, which all belong to media group Viacom, will also offer access to the whole album one week prior to the official release date in mid-November.

MTV has also linked up with Colombian-born Shakira, who releases Oral Fixation Vol 2 later this month.

Under the deal, the music channel will offer tracks from the album online a week before they go on general release and produce “mobisodes”, or interviews and performances by the artist that will be distributed to mobile phones.