Warner Music Catalogue

RNS Number : 4032Z

Vodafone Group Plc

21 September 2009

 



VODAFONE TO OFFER MOBILE MUSIC CATALOGUE DRM-FREE FROM ALL FOUR MAJOR LABELS

Addition of Warner Music makes Vodafone customers first to have 100% major label coverage for DRM-free over-the-air downloads

21 September 2009, London - Vodafone today announced a deal with Warner Music which will make Vodafone the first global mobile network operator to offer its customers over-the-air access to the combined music catalogue of the world's four largest music companies in DRM-free format.

Vodafone customers will continue to enjoy their current download service with rights to use tracks they have paid for just once across all of their personal music devices without restriction - but now with the additional benefit of having a far greater number of tracks to choose from.

Furthermore, Vodafone and Warner Music will work together to offer a range of mobile music products such as value-added album bundles that contain additional multimedia content.

'Warner Music's addition to our mobile DRM-free catalogue is really great news for our customers,' said Pieter Knook, Vodafone Internet Services Director. 'The response to the DRM-free offering in all the markets where it has launched has been incredibly enthusiastic. Our customers love music and they love the flexibility that DRM-free on mobile gives them.'

'We're pleased to be expanding our partnership with Vodafone, who share our vision of how to help foster the growth of mobile music and create further opportunities for connecting fans with artists by offering premium album content anytime, anywhere.' Eric Daugan, SVP, Digital Business, Warner Music Europe.

Warner Music's wide-ranging inventory of established superstars and up-and-coming talent will start to go live for mobile in DRM-free format straight away, and will contribute to a total library of over 1 million tracks. DRM-free downloads via mobile are already available to Vodafone customers across many European markets with more to come.

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Notes to Editors:

1)   DRM-free downloads are already available in the following Vodafone markets: UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, 
      Greece and Ireland, with other countries across the Vodafone footprint coming on stream soon.

2)   The Warner catalogue will be available to Vodafone operating companies (Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, 
       Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain and UK) and partner markets (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, 
       Cyprus, Slovenia and Switzerland) across Europe.

3)    Vodafone announced DRM-free mobile distribution deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music 
        Entertainment and EMI Music on 11 March 2009.

For further information please contact:

Vodafone Group

Media Relations

Tel: [phone]

Warner Music International 

James Steven

Email: [e-mail]

Tel: [phone]

About Vodafone

Vodafone is the world's leading international mobile communications group with approximately 315 million proportionate customers as at 30 June 2009. Vodafone currently has equity interests in 31 countries across five continents and around 40 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com.

About Warner Music Group    
Warner Music Group became the only stand-alone music company to be publicly traded in the United States in May 2005. With its broad roster of new stars and legendary artists, Warner Music Group is home to a collection of the best-known record labels in the music industry including Asylum, Atlantic, Bad Boy, Cordless, East West, Elektra, Nonesuch, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Rykodisc, Sire, Warner Bros. and Word. Warner Music International, a leading company in national and international repertoire, operates through numerous international affiliates and licensees in more than 50 countries. Warner Music Group also includes Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's leading music publishers, with a catalog of more than one million copyrights worldwide.

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