By Andrew Fisher

While the music business may have hit a rough patch, it has never been better positioned to thrive.

Music's future, however, depends on our ability to expand our sights beyond just music itself and be ready -- everywhere -- when consumers want to engage. Maybe we can all learn something from the ice cream man?

Sometimes being a great marketer means knowing how to engage with consumers in a special way.

To this day, when I can hear the distinct music coming from the ice cream man's truck, it takes me right back to my childhood.

I can remember ice cream being the furthest thought from my mind until I heard that music and then couldn't wait to gather around the truck with all the neighborhood kids, holding those giant ice cream cones that would melt faster than we could eat them!

In that moment, if there were no truck or that magical music, it probably wouldn't have dawned on any of us to walk down to the grocery store to buy some ice cream. And even if it did, the experience just wouldn't have been the same.

Marketers in the music industry are finally beginning to take a page out of the ice cream man's book -- a trend that needs to continue if we are to realize the full market potential for music.

Above all, this means being ready the instant that consumers hear a song they love and giving them access to everything they need to immerse themselves in the moment.

Today, the mobile phones that have found their way into the pockets of just about everyone allow anyone with a stake in the music business to do just that.

While music sales at traditional retail outlets continue to decline, mobile marketing offers the music business tremendous opportunity to realize growth from other areas, including full-track and ringtone downloads, merchandise sales and ticket purchases. And it all starts at the point of discovery and inspiration.

Just like that feeling of excitement or nostalgia that comes over us when we hear the ice cream truck in the distance, hearing a song we love when we are out living life suddenly makes us want to engage right then and there. It is at that moment that we feel closest to the artist or the song.

Attempting to re-engage consumers or expecting them to just "remember" when they are finally in front of a computer or out at the mall amid a hundred other distractions is a dying business model.

Today, music, while still the most important link in the chain, serves as the gateway to much more, all accessible via a mobile phone.

Of course, there will be times when consumers want to engage, but will not want to make a purchase at that particular moment.

In these cases, it is important that they always have the ability to immediately tie into social networks to add artists to their friends' networks or simply be able to find out more about the artist or song to take their experience even deeper.

You can believe that it will pay dividends down the line as they further establish a relationship with a particular artist over time.

And remember, it will all come as a result of being able to start the relationship and get the most out of the experience when and where they wanted.

We have yet to find the Holy Grail of mobile music marketing, but the partnerships that are happening today, between newcomers and established players alike, is an important first step and needs to continue to the point where everyone is involved, no exceptions.

Artists are doing their job by producing the music. Consumers are doing their job by listening to the music. Now we have to deliver the goods.

Andrew Fisher is CEO of Shazam, a London-based mobile music discovery provider. Reach him at .