Aspiro offers real music for the mobile, in cooperation with Sony Music, EMI and BMG

By newly signed cooperation agreements with several larger record companies, Aspiro is now able to offer ring tones that use real music. The launch will take place in the Nordic, Spanish and British markets during spring and summer, shortly followed by other markets. The ring tones will be offered via Mobilehits, Aspiro’s own mobile music store, and via several major telecom operators.

Aspiro has, through its subsidiary Aspiro Mobile S.L., signed international agreements with several major record companies. The agreements give Aspiro the right to market real music in the shape of ring tones, so called “Real Tones”. Aspiro has signed agreements covering several key markets in Europe with the record companies EMI, Sony Music and BMG. “Aspiro is committed to ensuring artists are rewarded for their work. Therefore we have initiated the cooperation with EMI, Sony Music and BMG,” says Håkan Persson, CEO at Aspiro. “With these agreements, we are now able to offer the very latest within mobile music services: Real Tones, which is an entire new experience in the mobile phone.” As from May, Real Tones will be available at Aspiro’s own digital music shops, www.mobilehits.se and wap.mobilehits.se, and also via operators Vodafone, Tele2, TeliaSonera and 3 in Sweden. Aspiro has also signed and agreements with operators O2 in the UK to launch Real Tones on the British market. Consumer price for downloading a Real Tone will be between SEK 20-30 on the Swedish market. In order to secure quality and operational stability, Aspiro has carried through a test period of Real Tones on the Spanish market for six months. Together with the Spanish record company Vale Music, Aspiro has offered these ring tones via Spanish Vodafone. Already, the down load frequency of Real Tones has increased to more than 10,000 signals per month in Spain. Aspiro is experiencing a general increase in demand for ring tones and music for the mobile phone as quality improves. Aspiro’s total download frequency of ring tones has increased with 50 percent during the past six months. Technically, the development of ring tones has gone from one-tone (monophonic) signals, to several-tones (polyphonic) and most recently: to real music, the so called Real Tones. Aspiro is now offering high quality mobile music as an alternative to the traditional ring tones. Initially, Real Tones with artists such as Kylie Minogue, Beyonce, Robbie Williams, Outcast, Pink, Blue, The Ark, Iron Maiden, and Frank Sinatra will be launched.