Sony BMG, WMG team for Russian content venture

Warner Music Group and Sony BMG have announced an agreement with Russian holding company Access Industries to create Digital Access, a wholesale digital music venture targeting content providers, mobile operators and e-tail sites across Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The deal also includes content from Russian labels Soyuz and Nikitin. Digital Access will begin selling full-tracks, ringtones and video clips in autumn.

While Moscow-based iKS Consulting reports Russian digital music sales generated $122 million in 2006, the country is ranked by the Washington-based International Intellectual Property Alliance among the globe's worst offenders on piracy. The IIPA said U.S. music content owners lost $423 million last year as a result of unlicensed Russian download sites like allofmp3.com.   

"We look forward to providing our artists with an even broader platform in this important region ... as well as to playing an active role in the overall growth and development of the legitimate digital music market in Russia and the CIS," said Sony BMG Music Entertainment Russia managing director Denis Komarovsky.

For more on the Digital Access launch:
- read this CNNMoney.com article

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