Malaco Music Group, long-time provider of Southern music, has launched pay-per-download ringtones with the help of m-Wise Inc.

Malaco currently sees around 2,000 hits per day on its Web site and expects a significant boost with the launch of its ringtone offering.

"The strategy of the partnership between m-Wise and Malaco is to expand the reach of Malaco's unique music catalogue and make it available to the growing number of fans that use their mobile phones also as media players," said Zach Sivan, CEO of m-Wise Inc., New York.

"M-Wise has been working with numerous record labels such as Universal Music Group's UMRG and Interscope and now we expand our services in the music industry beyond hip hop and urban to Gospel, R&B and southern music genres," he said.

Malaco Music Group has some award winning artists and Billboard music chart spot holders on its roster and is known for providing a variety of Southern music genres such as Gospel, Southern, Urban, Blues, R&B, and Soul.

The mobile offering is set to be promoted virtually via the Malaco Web site, blogspot, Twitter and on physical CD's. The CD promotion involves a coupon code on many new releases from Malaco in 2009, which can be redeemed for a free ringtone.

The coupon code can be redeemed online at http://www.malaco.com.

The pay per-download ringtone feature will be done using MOMA, an m-Wise software.

According to m-Wise, MOMA is integrated as a one stop shop for wireless carriers, content providers, wireless application service providers and media producers.

"With the growing number of mobile devices that allow download and display of music and with the expansion of high bandwidth networks worldwide the fit of record labels such as Malaco into the mobile world has become very natural and even quite essential," Mr. Sivan said.

"Malaco has been enthusiastically very involved in this entire process and we foresee their new ringtone and full-track features being very successful," he said.

The MOMA platform provides users with a technologically advanced mobile experience, yet maintains simplicity in content management and delivery of games, music, and videos.

MOMA also adds real-time end user capabilities such as voting, mobile marketing, advertising and access to live data. Transactional billing, customer care and marketing capabilities are also supported on MOMA within this package.

Some of Malaco's ringtone offerings include the popular "Do the Ricky Bobby" by BHamp and will feature artists such as the gospel group Bebe and Cece Winans and Queen Emily from the last season of "America's Got Talent."

Malaco hopes to use songs from her upcoming album as ringtones within this feature as well.

"M-Wise's vision is that mobile marketing will become an integral and essential part of any marketing strategy," Mr. Sivan said.

"We believe that the powerful position of the mobile device cannot be ignored by marketing executives as this unique device is being carried by everyone anywhere and it evolves to allow comprehensive messaging, Internet and rich multi-media capabilities," he said.

"The future of mobile is taking us to a new interactive world where we can remain connected to our favorite artists, music groups, brands, information and much more anytime and anywhere."