Verizon Wireless makes its first music star

Verizon Wireless named the winner to its Calling All Bands contest, announcing that a Lexington, Ky., quintet, the Parlour Boys, would be first band to gain nationwide distribution through its music portal V Cast Music.

While Verizon Wireless and music editors from social-networking site MySpace determined the final winner, the MySpace online community narrowed down five finalists from 4000 entries. Verizon Wireless will now release full-track songs, ringtones and ring-back tones of the Parlour Boy’s single “Lovers” available exclusively on V Cast Music in May, and an independent filmmaker from MySpace will work with the Parlour Boys to create a music video, also distributed on Verizon’s music portal.

While Verizon Wireless will ultimately have rights to single, it doesn’t lay any claim to the band’s other music. The hope is that the publicity from the contest and the exposure through V Cast music will lead to the Parlour Boys being signed by a major record label, a Verizon Wireless spokesman said.

Verizon is just one the carriers looking outside the traditional record label/distributor medium to find music to differentiate its new music service. Last week, Cingular announced it would use its exclusive marketing agreement with the Fox Network’s American Idol to distribute ringtones of the live performances of Idol contestants, the day after they were performed. Like the Parlour Boys, the Idol contestants are unsigned, meaning Cingular doesn’t have to go through a drawn-out negotiation with the record-labels to get permission to distribute the music, giving Cingular a key time-to-market advantage. Though Verizon Wireless’ May-release timeframe is more protracted for the Parlour boys, it’s still a significantly fast turnaround compared to the process it would have to engage in to get a signed artist up on the V Cast portal.