- Shahnaz Mahmud

NEW YORK Warner Music Group has partnered with SendMeMobile, in an effort to connect Warner artists with fans via SendMe's various platforms.

Starting today, Warner's entire mobile catalog is available to SendMe users. The main platforms are: SendMeMobile.com, which offers thousands of ringtones, wallpaper, video ringers and mobile games; SoLow.com, a mobile sweepstakes site; and Mbuzzy, a mobile social-networking site.

Russell Klein, CEO of SendMe, said the Warner deal is important because it's an integrated partnership across all three brands. "Over the course of the next couple of months, what you'll be seeing from us is a series of custom, exclusive promo giveaways on SoLow.com [such as backstage passes or 15 minutes of recording time with an artist], as well as other exclusives and premium content that will be featured on SendMeMobile.com," he said.

Plans for Mbuzzy, acquired by SendMe late last year, are still in development, Klein said. Mbuzzy has been operated as an ad-supported site, but SendMe decided to "turn the ads off" for now, electing instead to grow the user base first. The company will begin showing the ads again in a few months.

The broader goal is to take a more integrated approach to build incremental high-margin revenue for partners like Warner while helping artists become merchandisable brands. "We're building up the qualitative side of promotion that in turn should help them sell more tickets, sell more CDs and get more downloads," Klein said.

"With SendMe's creative platform, we're able to integrate their mobile product offerings into our marketing efforts to give consumers more ways to experience and access our artists' music-based mobile products," said Stephen Bryan, svp of digital strategy and business development at Warner Music.