Russia's MTS Starts Selling Music Content Under its Own Brand

MOSCOW, Aug 16 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia's largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems, or MTS, has started selling music content under its own brand name, Russian business daily Vedomosti said Wednesday.

MTS has launched a WAP portal to sells ring tones, real tones and full-length tracks calling it Zhivoi Zvuk (Live Sound).

MTS charges US$0.99 per full-length MP3 track, excluding value-added tax (VAT), and US$2 for three tracks bought simultaneously.

However MTS also charges additional money for the volume of music files downloaded, said Andrei Shvechkov, chief spokesman for Russian mobile content provider Nikita Mobile, Vedomosti reported.

MTS buys music content from Russian content provider Inform Mobile, said Stanislav Fedulov, director of MTS' public relations department, as cited by Vedomosti. Fedulov said that Inform Mobile only sells legal music content and pays all royalties.

Meanwhile, earlier this month Russia?s second largest mobile operator VimpelCom signed an agreement to use music content owned by Warner Music International.

Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon also sells music content, under the MegaFon Pro brand.

End"

Posted to the site on 16th August 2006