Warner Music Japan buys stake in FrontMedia

Warner Music Japan (WMJ) has acquired a minority stake in mobile broadcasting company FrontMedia. FrontMedia operates a radio/video broadcasting platform through a mobile Web site called Marugoto Station on NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone and KDDI. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The investment guarantees WMJ's content will continue to air on the carriers' networks--in May FrontMedia and WMJ facilitated a live broadcast of Japanese pop star Ayaka across the three major carriers. It's also worth noting that FrontMedia developed full-length, over-the-air (OTA) track downloads for NTT DoCoMo and the first interactive mobile broadcast, using Qlick.TV. The FrontMedia deal is only the latest in a string of worldwide initiatives for Warner Music: Last month the Warner Music merged its Korean unit with SK Telecom.

For more on the WMJ and FrontMedia deal:
- see this press release