EMI Music has concluded a pan-European deal to make more than 200,000 of its tracks available to international mobile-phone carrier T-Mobile’s 60 million-plus customers.
Following the deal, T-Mobile users in nine European markets, including the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands, will have access to full-track downloads, ringtones, downloadable video clips and other artist-related content. Norah Jones, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue and Gorillaz are among the acts participating.
EMI’s latest pact with T-Mobile continues a recent trend in which the major labels have begun unlocking more of their content for wireless distribution.
In November, Universal Music Group International signed a deal through which it supplied more than 100,000 full-audio tracks and related content to Vodafone, Europe’s biggest operator.
Robbie Williams, one of EMI’s best-selling artists, stuck a groundbreaking 18-month content partnership with T-Mobile in July.
Meanwhile, EMI is extending usage of its digitized catalog into physical music stores with the launch of the U.K.’s first broadband-connected network of touch-screen listening posts.
Designed for installation at independent brick-and-mortar music outlets, the listening posts can be updated remotely by EMI Music U.K. with new releases and even pre-releases, where appropriate.
Branded with the name Soundscreens, the listening posts are developed by the EMI Digital Media division and U.K.-based Inspired Broadcast Networks.
