New York - Mobile entertainment publisher Thumbplay announced that it has partnered with Universal Music Group to offer a suite of exclusive Jay-Z ringtones and other mobile content. The ringtones include ten singles not previously made available, including "Can I Get A," "Encore" and "IZZO (H.O.V.A.)."

San Antonio, Texas - AT&T (NYSE: T) announced on Monday that a number of top-selling artists will record exclusive tracks for a "Team USA" soundtrack for the U.S. Olympic Team, with proceeds from music downloads and ringtone sales to benefit the team. NBC will also feature excerpts from the songs and music videos from the album in its Olympic Games coverage. Contributing artists on the project include 3 Doors Down, Army of Me, Colbie Caillat, Sheryl Crow and Nelly.

New York - Major label EMI has settled the ringtone royalty lawsuit it filed in January against mobile content distributor InfoSpace, MocoNews reported, citing an InfoSpace regulatory filing.

New York - Digital advertising and entertainment network New Motion, Inc. (NASD: NWMO), which does business as Atrinsic, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired the assets of Ringtone.com, a mobile entertainment portal, for $6.25 million in cash.

Beijing - Hurray (NASD: HRAY), a Chinese music management firm, record label and wireless music distributor, announced on Friday the resignation of president, COO and acting CFO Sean Wang. Hurray said that current VP and financial controller Xiaoqing Guo will assume the role of acting CFO, but did not mention replacements for the other positions.

Basking Ridge, N.J. - Expanding on the band's existing extensive library of live recordings, Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Pearl Jam to distribute mobile "bootleg" recordings from the band's 12-city U.S. tour this summer.

New York - Universal Music Group said this week that it has tapped Qualcomm (NASD: QCOM) to launch a number of direct-to-consumer mobile content and services, which will be made available through its artist Web and WAP sites, CD packaging, and its GetMusic.com portal. UMG will use Qualcomm's BrandXtend service to deliver ringtones, video ringtones, wallpapers, artist updates and more.

Hong Kong - Chinese ringtone retailer A8.com has filed for an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange, and aims to raise up to $28 million, China Web2.0 Review reports.

Los Angeles - Virgin Mobile USA on Wednesday announced a ringtone promotion with fast food chain Burger King and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), to create a "Virgin Mobile Ringtone Value Menu" that will offer a selection of ringtones for just $1 each. Artists whose songs are included in the promotion include Flo Rida, Mana, Buckcherry, Estelle and War.

Los Angeles - While U.S. CD shipments were down 17.5% in 2007, digital formats now account for 23% of U.S. recording revenues, up from 16.1% in 2006 and 9% in 2005, according to year-end shipment data calculated by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). A total of 809.9 million digital song downloads were sold in 2007, a 38% increase from 2006, along with 42.5 million digital albums, up 54% from the prior year.

New York - Sony BMG's (NYSE: SNE) RCA Music Group announced on Monday that Alicia Keys' "No One" has become the first ringback tone to be certified "Gold," representing sales of over 500,000 copies. A ringback tone plays when a caller dials your cell phone number -- instead of the usual ringing. RCA added that the song has also sold over 2 million master recording ringtones, and that Keys has sold over 4.3 million mobile downloads since the end of last year.

New York - Ringback tones -- the ringtones that can be programmed to play when a caller dials your mobile number -- will lead mobile music growth and surpass $210 million in U.S. retail sales this year, up 50% from 2007, according to a projection from performing rights organization BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.).

Framingham, Mass. - LiveWire Mobile, a unit of NMS Communications (NASD: NMSS) that provides managed personalization services for mobile operators, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Groove Mobile, a provider of mobile music delivery services, for $14.5 million.

Hampshire, U.K. - The global mobile music market is expected to be worth $17.5 billion by 2012, with growth driven by rental music services and full-track downloads, according to a new report from Juniper Research. "I think it's fair to say that 2007 marked the tipping point as far as mobile music adoption was concerned," said report author Dr. Windsor Holden. "Far more subscribers began downloading and subscribing to music content in developed markets, and it must be said that that the publicity surrounding the iPhone launch undoubtedly contributed to consumer awareness of mobile music services per se."

Paris - Vivendi has launched a subscription-based mobile content service, Zaoza, that charges users about $4.42 per month for unlimited downloads of music, ringtones, games and videos, MocoNews reported. Content partners at launch include Sony BMG, THQ and Eidos. The site already claims 100,000 beta users in France. Vivendi hopes to grow this number to 500,000 by year's end, spurred by launches in Germany and the U.K. planned for later this year.

Los Angeles - Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) and major record label Sony BMG (NYSE: SNE) on Tuesday announced a digital licensing agreement for the Southeast Asia and India markets, in some areas creating licensing rules in countries where none previously existed.

New York - Vringo, a distributor of video ringtones, on Wednesday announced a deal with Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Turner Broadcasting System Europe, that will allow subscribers to download clips from Cartoon Network and Adult Swim as video ringtones. New York-based Vringo also has partnerships with Discovery Channel and Universal Music Group.

San Antonio, Texas - AT&T (NYSE: T) announced on

New York - Mobile entertainment distributor Thumbplay on Thursday announced a deal with iLike, a social music discovery application that claims 15 million users, that will place "Get ringtone" links on artist, album and song pages on iLike.com and the iLike Facebook application. Thumbplay claims a catalog of 75,000 pieces of mobile entertainment content.

Los Angeles - AT&T (NYSE: T) has recently scored exclusive ringtone deals with former ringtone holdouts the Dave Matthews Band and Van Halen, Billboard reports. Van Halen, which is on a reunion tour, gave AT&T a limited exclusive on ringtones for its popular songs, which will eventually be available across all networks. AT&T is exclusively offering ringtones from live Dave Matthews performances, but will later add studio tracks as well. As to why Matthews finally decided to offer ringtones, AT&T director of music and personalization products Mark Nagel told Billboard, "It was a case where he was being searched for literally thousands of times a month with no content to give. We took those figures to the label and the band's management and let them know that people are asking for this."