News
SE adds 5m tracks to PlayNow
Tim Green Jan 28 2008, 11:49am
Sony Ericsson has added over five million new tracks from 10 record labels to its PlayNow catalogue.
It has also unveiled a new design and URL for PlayNow arena and launched PlayNow Uncut, (formerly M-Buzz) as a music promotional space for new, unsigned and developing artists.
The new tracks have been supplied by Sony BMG, Warner, EMI, The Orchard, IODA, The PocketGroup, Hungama, X5 Music, Bonnier Amigo and VidZone. Sony Ericsson is now negotiating more deals with regional labels to keep building the roster.
The handset giant announced a major push for PlayNow in November, revealing PlayNow Arena as an evolution of music service it first introduced in February 2004 and which is now available in 32 countries around the world. The plan is to integrate the basic content store with discovery tools like TrackID, which currently records more than 125,000 hits a day.
It’s not all about music, though. SE has also added 250 new games through existing deals with publishers such as EA Games, Gameloft, THQ, Glu, Digital Chocolate and I-Play.
Links to PlayNow are embedded in selected handsets, but unlike Nokia, SE will remove them for operators that prefer to direct users towards their own content stores.
PlayNow arena will launch in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland in May 2008 with more European markets to come at the end of Q2 2008 and further expansion in Europe, Americas and Asia during Q3 and Q4. Sony Ericsson predicts that the PlayNow(TM) arena will be active in close to 30 markets by the end of 2008.
