PARIS-European company Musiwave has signed deals with Sony Music Europe and several independent record labels for its technology and services.
The Sony agreement will make available to mobile phones Sony Music artist ring tones extracted from the original recordings of songs rather than simple tones. At launch, music from more than 100 Sony Music artists will be available through Musiwave, with plans to expand that number.
The ring tones will be available through European operators T-Mobile, Vodafone, Telefonica Moviles, and others and will be initially marketed in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
In a separate deal, Musiwave signed three separate licenses with European independent record labels Sanctuary, Edel Music and Pschent, which cover vocal server applications and Musitones, Musiwave’s ring tone gallery.
Last week, research firm IDC said the market for downloadable ring tones in the United States could grow to as much as $1 billion by 2007. A Strategy Analytics report released earlier this year predicted that entertainment applications will generate revenues of $30 billion in 2008, with music and media overtaking games as the leading entertainment category in 2007.
Also last week, Nokia teamed with Warner Music International to market the Nokia 3300 music device. The Nokia-WMI partnership, reportedly the first international campaign between Nokia and a single music company, allows wireless consumers to legally access and download music content.
