Tower Records Japan's mobile content division, Tower Mobile, has done a deal with the UK's Association of Independent Music which will see tracks from British independent artists featured on their 'truetone' service.
Truetones are ringtones which take part of an actual track rather than a polyphonic reinterpretation of it. Although a relatively new service in much of America and Europe, the mobile savvy Japanese are already spending £52 million (GBP) a year on truetones, making it lucrative for the recorded music sector who, until the latest developments, benefited little from ringtone sales which only paid out publishing royalties into the music industry.
The new deal - actually between AIM's new media division Musicindie and Japanese mobile content provider Crosswarp - will mean the music from labels like Beggars, Grand Central, Ninja Tune, Domino, Cooking Vinyl and Gut will be available for truetone download via Tower Mobile and Crosswarp's own Music 100 service.
It is hoped that the ringtone service will be extended so that record labels can target customers who download their truetones with deals on gig tickets, CDs or merchandise.
Announcing the deal Steve Johnston, Head of Licensing at Musicindie, told reporters: "This deal is the first of its kind and enables UK independent record labels to digitally distribute their music to Japan, the world's second largest music market and one of the most important for those labels."
Peter Anshin, President of Asia Entertainment Finance Associates, who set up the deal added: "This deal is groundbreaking both in terms of scope and quality of music, and involves not only realtones but also mobile phone sales of albums and merchandise."