MUMBAI: Indiatimes 8888 and digital music distributor, Soundbuzz has launched a catalogue of Indian MP3 ringtones ever to be made available across all the countrys mobile carriers.

To ensure the continued growth of mobile music in India, Soundbuzz has worked with the licensing arm of the Indian music industry, Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), to deliver the first fully copyright-protected MP3 ringtone library to mobile subscribers, according to an official release.

Indiatimes 8888 is the first and leading retailer to make this library available to its customers. Soundbuzz is the technology partner for PPLs 140 member music labels, providing mobile subscribers with access to a massive catalogue of more than 23,000 MP3 ringtones in multiple Indian languages.

According to PPL CEO Vipual Pradhan: Largely on account of illegal mobile music downloads and lack of music licensing control, the key factor for the music industry is to control illegal distribution of its content, and the deployment of this licensing platform by Soundbuzz is key to achieving that."

Times Internet MD and CEO, Dinesh Wadhawan, said: While it will always be tempting to share free music, the fact is that it is illegal and deprives content-creators and IPR owners of incomes which is their right. Our partnership with Soundbuzz is one step towards correcting this and we are confident that consumers will evolve and pay for downloads.

India, along with other Asian markets, is leading the world in the adoption and sale of value-added mobile content, particularly full songs and videos which have grown significantly since being launched in quarter one this year.

A recent analyst report estimates that mobile music revenues out of Asia-Pacific will contribute upwards of 40 per cent to the US$14 billion the industry is expected to generate by 2010. This makes the region the powerhouse of the mobile music industry, with Europe a distant second at 27 percent of revenues, informs the release.

According to Soundbuzz CEO Sudhanshu Sarronwala, Soundbuzz brings the necessary multi-market experience and tested technology to the PPL to support implementation of a protected MP3 ringtone business. Together with our partner, Indiatimes 8888, we can ensure with this introduction of MP3 ringtones, a solid start and business base for the next stage of mobile music in India.

According to Indiatimes director telecom Sanjive Sethi, Our partnership with Soundbuzz has enabled Indiatimes to take a market-leading catalogue of more than 23,000 MP3 ringtones to mobile subscribers throughout India. Our clear mandate is to deliver relevant, compelling content to consumers in India as, when and where they want to enjoy that content. This new trutone service is a critical plank for us in delivering on that promise.

Some of the MP3 ringtones available to Indias 120 million-plus mobile subscribers (those whose handsets are MP3 ringtone-capable) via Indiatimes 8888 service are: Tere Bin by Atif; Ya Ali by K.K; Shaadi Se Pehle by Sukwinder Singh, Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan; and, Bluffmaster by Abhishek Bachchan and Sunidhi Chauhan.

Industry estimates have the number of MP3 ringtone-capable handsets at more than 150, with this figure set to grow as the number of handsets capable of playing MP3 ringtones and full songs continue to flood the market.

Fast Facts:

 Global mobile music market by 2010US$14 billionMobile music revenues from Asia-Pacific by 2010US$5.6 billionProportional share of ringtones in the next 4 years51% from 81% currentlyProportional share of full over-the-air tracks in the next 4 years32% from 9% currentlyAverage number of mobile music downloads per month across Soundbuzz and client services3 millionProportion of mobile handsets with music-playing capacity

27% - 200670% - 2010

Number of mobile subscribers in India 110M ?“ growing at 4-5M per month