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 that are extracted from the original recordings of songs rather than simple tones.
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.
