Digital & Direct: Digital choice - Blip.fm

Blip grabs songs suggested by your friends from music search engines, and asks 'what are you listening to, right now?'. Each 'blip' links to Amazon's music store.

The service's appeal rests on its 'micro' nature and integration with FriendFeed, Twitter, Pownce, and Tumblr.

As the music business strives to restore the multimillion sales of yesteryear, Blip's creators have embraced the fact that the traditional means of distributing music are no longer viable. The platform empowers artists (any band is free to add their music to the network) and taps into existing music communities.

There are some rough edges, such as the spammy invitation process. Blip also needs a decent database for the retail model to work. This, though, is the big opportunity for record labels and music retailers.

Agency: In-house.

This article was first published on Marketing