Mobile entertainment content service provider Thumbplay (News - Alert) recently announced a deal to provide its content to Clear Channel Radio through the end of 2008. Customized mobile content such as ringtones, wallpapers, games, videos, voice tones and text-based services will be featured on Clear Chanel Radio's 650 radio station Web sites plus several news and sports stations.

 

The format of the mobile content will be customized for each Web site. Listeners who liked a particular song played on the radio can now buy these songs as ringtones or music video and store it on their mobile phones.

 

Larry Linietsky, vice president of business and product development for Clear Channel (News - Alert) Online Music & Radio pointed out that many of their listeners discover their favorite songs on the radio. By accessing the stations' Web sites, listeners now have the option of downloading mobile content including “exclusive station-created ringtones and graphics.”

 

Thumbplay's content will be featured on the homepage of each station’s Web sites, in lists such as “just played” and “Top 20 on Demand.” To make the content more interactive, Thumbplay also offers a widget for the DJ's to choose ringtones of and feature them online.

 

As well as providing Thumbplay a more extensive customer base for mobile content, the radio stations gain a new source of revenue through listeners purchasing ringtones and other content for their mobile phones.

 

“For radio stations, the discovery of relevant mobile content, whether ringtones or music videos, is a natural extension of the listener experience. Thumbplay gives radio stations and their personalities the ability to sell mobile content and to quickly tap into new revenue while requiring minimal resources for implementation,” said Are Traasdahl, Thumbplay’s CEO and founder, in a statement.