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Here at Scribble we like a good app whether we have developed it or not.  So today we thought we would let you know about the excellent iPhone app from music magazine NME.

The NME app gives iPhone and iPod touch users the most popular content that NME produces, including the latest in music news, pictures and video.

Features of the NME app include:

• Up-to-the-minute NME news
• Bespoke lists of all the news related to favourite artists’ in one easy-to-scan list
• Listings of hot concert tickets
• Exclusive videos interviews with today’s best artists carried out by NME’s own video journalists
• Galleries of the latest and classic NME rock photography from the people who’ve always been at the frontline of the best in new music

The feature we really like is the ability to ‘tag’ artists so you get instant alerts about breaking news from your favourite bands.  Another nice touch is the offline browsing so you can still read the magazine even when you have no connection.

We talked about monetising apps in our last blog post and the NME app is a good example as you can buy gig tickets through the app.  The app allows you to read breaking news of a gig and then you can quickly navigate to where you can buy the ticket without even leaving the app.  Great stuff.

The app is £1.19 and can be purchased through the app store here

Todays blog post is all about monetising apps.  When developing apps for our clients we get asked all the time “How can we make money from our apps?”  So we thought we would share a few tips on the ways you can make money from your apps.

Paid apps

The simplest answer is to charge for your app.  Each store has a differing minimum and maximum amount you can charge for your app ranging from £.059 to £999.  The average though is around £1.49.

In app billing

Although charging for your app may be the most straight forward option it is not always the best.  Approximately 80% of apps are free to download and even charging as little as £1.99 to download your app may put some users off all together.  The solution to this is ‘In app billing’.  You can give away your app for free but with limited functionality and then give the user the option to pay for additional functionality or content.  Subscriptions to the app can also be sold if what you offer is more of a service such as a magazine.

Advertising

If your app becomes successful and you have a large number of regular users you can make space in your app for advertising.  Like the web this can be in the form of banners.  Services such as Admob and now Apples iAd offer payments for per click on the adverts.  Like with any advertising though you have to be careful of the placement and that it doesn’t interrupt the users experience or they won’t return to your app.

M-Commerce

Selling products and services through mobile phones is easier than ever.  More and more people are getting used to purchasing on mobile phones as it gives them the convenience of buying what they need wherever they are.  There are now a variety of payment methods from the traditional credit/ debit card to charging directly to your phone bill which makes it easier to capitalise on those impulse decisions.

For example if you are a musician you can provide direct links to where users can buy your music.  By making use of services such as iTunes the transaction is easy and users can purchase items without even leaving the app. Users can even purchase tickets through the app, have the tickets delivered to the phone and stored in the app ready to be shown at the venue.

So there are a few suggestions on how you can monetise your app.  As with any business model you have to choose which one is right for you and your app.  You could use one or all of these methods, give them a try as you could generate a  great revenue stream right from a mobile phone in your consumers pocket.

The trending story in the social media world at the moment is the launch of Facebook places.  ’Places’ is Facebooks attempt at location based check-ins similar to services like Foursquare and Gowalla.

To use ‘Places’ you will need a smartphone.  If you don’t have an iPhone, you’ll have to use the Facebook touch mobile site on a browser that supports both HTML 5 and geolocation.  The company does plan to roll out Android and BlackBerry versions of Places, but they haven’t released any specific dates for those releases yet.

Version 3.2 of the Facebook iPhone app was launched yesterday and fully supports the new ‘Places’ feature. If you want to check it out unfortunately it is only available in the U.S at the moment and Facebook have yet to release information on international launch dates.

We won’t go in to detail about the specific features on the blog but if you want to know more Mashable has a pretty good guide which you can read here.

For the launch only a few apps have been selected to push information back into Places.  Initially, Gowalla, Foursquare, Booyah and Yelp will integrate with Facebook Places.  If you use those apps for checkins at the moment, you’ll be able to push those checkins to Facebook Places.

Facebook have now opened up the Places API which should allow for some exciting additional features to our artist and event apps.  This will allow some great opportunities for checking into gigs, festivals and other events.  We’ll keep you posted on our developments.

How would you like to see places used in third party apps?

Speculation has already started on the iPhone 5′s specifications after a new appointment to Apple HQ. The new man in charge of m-commerce, Benjamin Vigier has caused a bit of a stir this morning due to his experience in near field communication (NFC) technology.

If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, NFC technology could potentially turn the iPhone into a credit/debit card. In the past Apple has filed a number of patents concerning NFC based services including a mobile payments system that debits money from either a pre-loaded credit card or directly from iTunes, an airline boarding pass app called iTravel, the Grab & Go app which makes for simple transferring of files between your Apple devices and an events ticket app.Patents have also been filed directly for an NFC iPhone, iPod and games controller as well as business and marketing apps such as the iPay, iBuy and iCoupons ones.

NFC tech on board an iPhone (or any smartphone for that matter) makes sense. Especially when it points towards a number of ticket-less systems. The NFC technology has been around for a little while and banks are already starting to use it with some of their products but putting it in a iPhone could bring it in to the mainstream.

So some potentially exciting news but lets not get too carried away just yet.

Simon Cowell’s record label SyCo has launched an innovative campaign for it’s latest signing Labrinth.  The campaign uses QR codes that when scanned with a phone camera direct the user to the Labrinth website.  The QR codes will appear on outdoor and print media, while social media activity on social Facebook, Twitter and Youtube will also drive traffic to the site.

Although QR codes have been around for a while it’s only now that they are being used more in marketing activities. The codes can store text, URL and other data and are a great way of directing people from traditional media to on-line and digital media channels.

Check out the video below for more info on the Labrinth QR codes.