Sony Ericsson adds 5M tracks to PlayNow: Company has deals with 10 labels for mobile music offering

Sony Ericsson said it has secured deals with 10 music labels, adding 5 million new tracks to its mobile music service.
The company, a joint venture between Sony Corp. and L.M. Ericsson, announced agreements with Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, EMI, The Orchard and six others for its PlayNow offering, which allows users to download tunes to mobile phones or PCs. PlayNow came to market four years ago as a storefront for ringtones; the service has expanded to offer games and full-track downloads to users in 32 countries.
“This will help realize our vision for PlayNow arena as a service that will be developed in collaboration with our partners,” Sony Ericsson VP Anders Runevad said at the MIDEM conference in Cannes, France. “Our commitment is to work with the industry to ensure we are building an experience-based and intuitive content delivery platform, enabling the development of an ecosystem that provides a unique experience for the consumer and a business model where everybody prospers.”
Sony Ericsson’s aggressive direct-to-consumer play mirrors Ovi, a multifaceted mobile service being rolled out by fellow handset manufacturer Nokia Corp. Sony Ericsson said it hopes to offer the expanded PlayNow service in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland by May with other markets to follow.
Meanwhile, Ericsson said it is teaming with Napster to bring their mobile music service to Telecom Italia. Napster Mobile, which was announced a year ago, is also offered through AT&T Mobility.