Sony Ericsson Unveils M-Buzz

Mobile phone manufacturer, Sony Ericsson has unveiled M-BUZZ , a music download service for its mobile phones, which will use both Sony Ericsson’s enhanced version of its PlayNow service and the M-BUZZ website. Sony Ericsson has partnered with Sony/ATV Music Publishing for the venture. The download service will initially showcase a limited number of artists and bands each month, picked from the Sony/ATV’s worldwide roster.

Features of the service include featured artists’ full tracks, videos, biographies, gig schedules and other content. Artists on M-BUZZ at launch will include Kish Mauve, Embassy, Dirty Perfect, FKLV, Iggy, The Head Set, Bobby Kray, Anjulie, Lights and Monte Rosa. The first phones offering M-BUZZ will be the W850 and W950 Walkman phones which are scheduled to ship in European, Asian and Latin American markets during the second half of 2006. M-Buzz will initially offer content for download to the phone, but other commercial aspects will be developed later as additional features.

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M Buzz will go live on October 2 and downloadable content will be made available, in a phased approach, in 20 markets which already offer secure music download services through Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow service.

Martin Blomkvist, Head of Content Acquisition and Partner Management at Sony Ericsson said, “M-BUZZ is all about breaking new artists; it’s about giving tomorrow’s stars, the artists that have not yet been picked up by major record companies, the exposure they deserve and the possibility for them to reach a wider audience. Sony Ericsson is very excited to be providing this new stage and taking on a more active role in the music industry going forward. Music is about innovation, creativity and change, and with the addition of M-BUZZ we will broaden our already wide music offering even further at the same time as we are allowing people to discover fantastic new music that otherwise might pass them by,”

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