August 11, 2006
Warner Music inks licensing deal with Russian wireless carrier
Warner Music International has licensed songs from its catalog of music by Madonna, Green Day and other artists to Moscow-based mobile carrier VimpelCom Group, informs The Mercury News.
The deal appears to be the first of its kind to involve a major Western record label and a Russian mobile operator. VimpelCom boasts more than 50 million subscribers. It provides mobile service in Russia as well as Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Georgia.
As part of the deal, VimpelCom will have a five-month exclusive to sell ringtones, video clips, full-track downloads and other content from Madonna.
The Russian mobile music market represents a safer bet for record companies, who have seen sales sapped by digital piracy on online file-sharing networks or Web sites that make songs available for free or well below cost, but without permission.
The nature of mobile networks makes them far harder to hack than Internet-based networks.
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