July 07, 2008

By By Antony Bruno, Denver

Some of Jay-Z's biggest hits are today available as mobile phone ringtones, but only exclusively through provider Thumbplay.

Universal Music Group struck a deal with the service for 10 Jay-Z tracks that were previously unavailable as ringtones, as well as other types of mobile content.

Thumbplay is a direct-to-customer service, meaning subscribers of any U.S. mobile operator can access the ringtones without buying them off the carrier content menu system.

The service is advertised on both the Web and mobile portals of AOL and MSN, and is the exclusive ringtone retailer for the iLike music service. It also recently began advertising ringtones on Clear Channel radio station Web sites.

UMG began licensing music to Thumbplay in April of 2006.

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