February 3, 2006
New Fugees album exclusively available through VCast
Verizon Wireless has partnered with Columbia Records and reunited hip-hop act the Fugees , for a series of industry firsts designed to promote Verizon's new VCast music service. Billboard reports.
"Music from the upcoming new Fugees album will be made available exclusively to the service. Although "Take It Easy,"the first track from the untitled album, is currently available at a number of digital services (including iTunes and Rhapsody), subsequent singles will be limited to VCast.
And while record labels have made a standard practice of debuting singles as ringtones, this is the first time that studio masters to an unreleased album will debut exclusively via a wireless full-song music download service.
The use of exclusive content is considered essential to drive awareness and adoption of mobile music services. The VCast service went live only last month, with competitor Sprint operating a similar service since last November.
Sprint is making the live performance of the Rolling Stones' Super Bowl halftime show available as an exclusive download of its music store, powered by Groove Mobile."
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