Thumbplay Scores Excluvise Ringtone Distribution Deal From Billboard

Thumpblay has announced that it has scored a deal with Billboard.Com to be the exclusive provider of ringtones. Through the deal, the content, including links to mobile music previews and downloads, will be available on all Billboard.com chart and artist pages. This includes access to Thumbplay’s catalogue of music-related content, which includes content from the four major labels EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. As reported by Tricia Duryee at MocoNews, Thumbplay replaces Zingy/Vindigo, which exited the mobile content business.

While I do believe that Billboard can continue drive some paid mobile content sales from their branded sites, the market is mature and will fundamentally shift in the coming years (see my blog post “Ringtone Market: While Still Showing Signs of Life, Moving Increasingly Towards Free and Greater Levels of Personalization“).

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