The white and gold W910i Walkman handset comes preloaded with content
from Def Jam artists including Mariah Carey, Ne-Yo and Ludacris. 
  As Reuters Technology Correspondent Matt Cowan reports, the Def Jam
branded phone is just the latest example of how the music industry is looking
to the mobile sector for new sources of revenue and artist promotion.


  The convergence of music content and mobile devices is entering a new
phase in the UK with the launch of the Def Jam handset.
  It's the first time a major music label has partnered with a mobile
handset manufacturer in Britain to launch a branded phone that comes preloaded
with music and videos including exclusive content from the label's
artists.

Kim De Ruiter, Commercial and New Business Manager, Mercury
Records saying:
"I'm going to show you the slip case here.  It actually looks like a
music product.  It's got a tracklisting on the back."

  Kim De Ruiter, new business manager at Mercury Records - which oversees
Def Jam in the UK, says though only 10 thousand phones were manufactured for
the initial rollout, there is a hope that this could be the start of something
big.

Kim De Ruiter, Commercial and New Business Manager, Mercury
Records saying :
"It's about accessing a new market.  For years and years the music
industry has been about selling either pieces of plastic or units of music.
And most certainly, for us to be able to enter into the hardware market place
and to be able to take, both commercially and in terms of a marketing tool for
our artists, a piece of the action - it's very exciting."

  So just over 25 years after the first CD was pressed - the search is very
much on for the next viable model. Apple's iTunes music store is a success,
but revenues from digital music streams have yet to come close to offsetting
the loss in revenues caused by falling CD sales. 

Reporter asks "Is this part of a strategy to maybe not be quite as
reliant on Apple?"

Kim De Ruiter, Commercial and New Business Manager, Mercury
Records saying:
"Absolutely.  The more ways you give consumers to purchase music
legitimately the better."

  And there is evidence that mobile music consumers will be spoilt for
choice in 2008. In addition to the subscription services already available,
new handsets such as Nokia's Comes With Music are scheduled to roll out in the
coming year.  Top U.S. hitmaker Timbaland has a deal with Verizon to produce a
selection of songs exclusively for the mobile.  The latest being a remix of
Madonna's new single.   In the UK, Vodafone customers will get to hear tracks
from her new CD the week before it is released to shops.
  Mobile music really does seem to be going places.
  Matt Cowan, Reuters