Madonna’s New Album To Come Pre-Packaged On Sony Ericsson Phones

By Robert Andrews - Thu 05 Jun 2008 07:47 AM PST

You’re reading it here first… Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) and Warner Music International are partnering to bundle Madonna’s latest album, Hard Candy, on handsets in 27 countries. Starting this month, the bundles will come in two versions - one with five tracks from the album, another with the full release plus extra wallpapers and ringtones.
SonyEricsson already started offering vouchers with its W890 Walkman, allowing those in Scandinavia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to buy the album later, and those in Belgium and Czech Republic get a CD with their W380i handsets. Now the handset maker is bundling the album digitally also in south and central America and the Caribbean.
Samsung had already struck a deal to pre-bundle Hard Candy on its F400. Sony Ericsson said it hoped its move would drive up mobile music adoption, which still languishes behind expectations. SonyEricsson has previously pre-loaded Def Jam artists on to another of its handsets and SonyBMG has stated its intention to make a bigger splash in all-you-can-eat mobile music downloads. Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) got the exclusive on the Madonna album but staggered track releases by the week. A special remix of the 4 Minutes single has also been doing the rounds as a mobile offering, also used by Verizon.

Source: mocoNews.


Madonna Songs to Be Bundled With Sony Ericsson Phones
Posted on 5th June 2008

Sony Ericsson and Warner Music International (WMI) have announced an agreement enabling new music and mobile content from Madonna’s new album, HARD CANDY, to be sold with selected Sony Ericsson mobile devices in twenty seven countries. High profile marketing campaigns in each country will promote the availability of the phones and Madonna’s eleventh studio album for Warner Bros. Records. HARD CANDY has debuted at number one in thirty seven countries, with “4 Minutes”, the first single from the album, also hitting the top spot across the world.
From this month, a range of Sony Ericsson phones pre-loaded with HARD CANDY will be sold in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The phones will retail in two packages, one with five tracks from the album, the other with the full album and both with extra content such as wallpapers and ringtones. In a staggered roll-out that began in May, a download voucher for HARD CANDY and an array of additional content including an exclusive “4 Minutes” remix is being ‘bundled’ with purchases of the Sony Ericsson W890 Walkman phone in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. Sony Ericsson W380i Walkman mobiles in Belgium and Czech Republic are already available with a HARD CANDY CD.
John Reid, Vice Chairman WMI and President, Warner Music Europe, said, “The evolution of mobile handsets along with technological convergence continues to open up new ways for us to distribute and market our artists’ music. This partnership with Sony Ericsson further expands HARD CANDY’s global promotional reach and puts exciting content from the album direct into the hands of Madonna fans all over the world. Not only that, packaging music from a global megastar with new Sony Ericsson phones will help drive sales of music-enabled devices and contribute to the uptake of mobile music”.
In January, Sony Ericsson unveiled the next stage in the evolution of their PlayNow platform, the popular over-the-air download service. It was announced that Warner Music Group was amongst the companies partnering with Sony Ericsson to add over 5 million new tracks to the platform.

Source: cellular-news.


Le nouvel album de Madonna sur les téléphones Sony Ericsson.

Commençant ce mois-ci, les téléphones seront disponibles dans 27 pays en deux versions - une avec cinq morceaux de l'album, une autre avec l'album complet plus des papiers peints et des sonneries.