Label:Life

As expected, mobile phone sales dipped a bit in the first half of 2006, while sales of music-enabled phones rose to 10% of all shipments in the second quarter, up from 5% in the same period a year ago.

The U.S. mobile-phone market remained strong in the first half of the year, with sales for music-enabled devices doubling since last year.

Manufacturers shipped 67 million units, a decrease of less than 2 percent from the second half of last year, The NPD Group said. Sales reached nearly $4.4 billion, after rebates and promotions.

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R&B queen Beyonce Knowles has topped nominations for this year’s Music of Black Origin (Mobo) Awards.

The glam singer has been short listed in four categories, including the award for best international female artist, where she faces strong competition from Mary J Blige and Nelly Furtado.

The 24-year-old US star is also up for best song and best video for her yet to be released track, Déjà vu.

She has also been named in the best R&B act category.

But Beyonce’s strong showing has been undermined by claims that Mobo organisers have rigged the rules of the awards to allow her onto their short list.

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Online independent music magazine I Like Music has entered into a commercial agreement with the Ministry of Sound, a UK dance music and lifestyle brand. The Ministry will now provide online media representation for I Like Music.

I Like Music had previously gone without online ad sales management and representation for 5 years, while gradually building itself into a site that contains news, reviews, gigs and tour listings, interviews with folks like 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Killa Kela and DJ Format, as well as coverage of multiple genres like Pop, Hiphop, Rock, Dance, Indie and Urban.

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Russia’s largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems, or MTS, has started selling music content under its own brand name, Russian business daily Vedomosti said Wednesday.

MTS has launched a WAP portal to sells ring tones, real tones and full-length tracks calling it Zhivoi Zvuk (Live Sound).

MTS charges US$0.99 per full-length MP3 track, excluding value-added tax (VAT), and US$2 for three tracks bought simultaneously.

However MTS also charges additional money for the volume of music files downloaded, said Andrei Shvechkov, chief spokesman for Russian mobile content provider Nikita Mobile, Vedomosti reported.

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Nokia has agreed to buy the Seattle, US-based digital music distributor Loudeye Corp. in all cash deal of about $60 million. The Finnish mobile phone giant will pay $4.50 for each share of Loudeye. This acquisition is aimed at providing a music download service under Nokia’s own brand in 2007 and is expected to be completed in Q4, 2006.

“By acquiring Loudeye, Nokia can offer consumers a comprehensive mobile music experience, including devices, applications and the ability to purchase digital music,” Nokia said in a statement.

Loudeye has customers in over 20 countries, who include MSN Music Store, Deutsche Telekom and Coca Cola.

More@moneycontrol

EMI Group PLC said Wednesday it was in talks with video Web site YouTube Inc., about distributing its music content via the site.

A spokesman for the London-based music company said EMI was discussing “a variety of different business models” which would enable it to make music videos available on the site, but it said no agreements had been reached yet.
YouTube, a California-based startup, registers over 100 million views per day of its content, which consists of a mixture of homemade videos and archive video material.

A variety of possible business models could be used, from a pay-per-download system similar to that offered by Apple Computer Inc.’s (AAPL) iTunes, to the advertising-supported operation of Yahoo! Inc., or a subscription-based service.

A press report Wednesday said YouTube was in talks with other music companies including Warner Music Group Corp.

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