Sometimes simple systems work the best and SayNow might be one of those cases. The service, still in private beta, is targeting musicians on MySpace who want to exchange voice messages with their fans. They can record voice messages, SMS alerts are sent when new messages are available and fans can leave messages in response after listening to a recording from the musician they are following.
Of course this model could be applied to any one-to-many form of communication in a mobile enabled context where vocal intonation and ease of use are important. Though easy to use, SayNow is less simple than it might appear and is a possible acquisition target for a larger company interested in integrating voice recognition, SMS and a compelling consumer experience. I like the service as it stands though too and can imagine it being successful without being acquired. Good functionality, clear demand and viable business model.
The eight person team behind SayNow is based in Palo Alto and has gone through one undisclosed round of funding.
SayNow is billed as a more personal way to communicate with your fan base, voice being more personal than text, while still protecting privacy by mediating between two sides of a phone number exchange. Though the system is still in private beta, beta testers and my own initial exploration of the system make it clear that SayNow has been put together very professionally. For such a seemingly lightweight use, this is an application that’s had some time invested in its development.
Voice recognition and an ajax web interface that responds to your phone activity give the system a great feel. To see a SayNow MySpace widget in action, check out featured artist AM Kidd’s MySpace page. Among the featured artists using SayNow are several with tens of thousands of friends on their MySpace acount. I think this is service is going to be met with a definite demand in the social media market. It’s not a cool technology looking for a market.
The long term revenue model appears to be wrapping phone messages in advertising; something I expect will be quite viable if the service catches on. I don’t think that people will mind hearing a company name and one line of advertising before or after their message - in exchange for communicating with an admired musician.
Before I used SayNow to send a few messages, I wasn’t excited by the idea. After trying it out, taking a look at the team behind it and thinking about the business model, though - I’m convinced that this is a startup that could go somewhere.
Thanks to Noah Kagan for pointing us to this one.
Comments
Well, okay so I checked out the guys MySpace page, had to hunt and hunt, then finally found the little “Shout” image.
Went to the start of the system, but there was no way that I was going to give up my PIN for my cell phone to a company which I know nothing about.
My experience ended there, and I probably won’t do it again.
/sidenote/
The entire root of “identity theft” is that people give up their personal information because they believe that there is something to gain.
Fraudulent paypal emails, bank emails, and even huge sums of money from someone you don’t know in Nigeria continue to exist because there are enough people falling for it.
/end sidenote/
Michael B
Michael, as far as I can tell the company just wants your phone number. That’s helpful if you want someone to call you.
I’ve been working on something very similiar, it’s been up since the beginning of June. http://www.supcast.com
whats been up since the beginning of june
What happened to the DayLife post?
Marshall, Thanks for kind words and I am glad you’re excited about the SayNow service!
To answer Michael’s question: The PIN requested by the service is one’s SayNow account PIN (issued to all registered Saynow users) and NOT the user’s voicemail pin.
Hope that addresses your concern.
Prashanth
Product Manager
SayNow Corp.
i think they are better off with video messages to fans.
text
My company offers an even simpler and more widely useful service at http://www.Gcast.com — you can use any phone (not just SMS/mobile phones, but any phone) to record a voice message to update your MySpace page.
Besides bands, there are various bigger names and celebrities already using it… such as comedian Dane Cook (almost 1.5 million friends on MySpace, http://www.myspace.com/danecook) as well as Bono’s ONE Campaign (www.one.org).
Sorry for the gratuitous plug, but if you’re looking for something that offers this functionality already, isn’t already out of Beta, and is already reaching millions of listeners per month, you might wanna check out http://www.Gcast.com.
regards,
ali partovi
Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!
Supcast and Gcast are not offering what http://www.Saynow.com is offering.
http://www.Saynow.com is actually developed for artists and power users. I think they have Tyrese, Lil’ Fizz, Chingy, Crime Mob - I’m just reading this off their home page.
My band just started using it and already has 3,500 fans in our mobile fan club. Thousands of people talk to us a day and its really easy to get back to all of them.
Those shameful plugs above are simply lies. The other sites are very different - they are not terrible - but can’t hold a candle to what http://www.Saynow.com offers us.
Honesty is the BEST policy,
Loren Groves
Hi! Nice site!
please call me plies
Hi my name is dominiqu and I . Just want to be in the saynow promble but I. do not have a e-mail or saynow password I only have what I put in the computer I’am only 14 years old and what ever do to be in this thig I get put out why I do not you tell me thank and have a nice day dominique nicole kearney warrento n.c
WELL ILIKE,YOU GET A CHANCETO LEAVE MESSAGES ON CELEBRITIES PHONE AND I LOVE THAT.
I like this thing but It is kind of nerve wrecking because the celebrity doesn’t really reply back to the messages you send. I love the idea but I think it also just makes us fans even more crazy for them.
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