The Orchard and ZTE StrikeLandmark Alliance

The Orchard and entertainment, and ZTE, announced, at the MIDEM conference in Cannes, a strategic partnership that will further strengthen The Orchard's already significant global distribution reach and provide ZTE and its partner companies in China and internationally access to The Orchard's substantial catalogue of independent music.

Under the deal, The Orchard and ZTE subsidiary, ZTE Mobile Tech Co Ltd (ZTEMT), will jointly develop marketing programs and content bundles to bring The Orchard's diverse international repertoire to ZTEMT's domestic partners, including China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, as well as providing a wide range of music to ZTE's expanding international customer base.

Commenting on the alliance, Regan Lee, Director of Value-added Services, ZTEMT, said "The Orchard is a leading digital music distributor and marketer, representing a large catalogue of independent music. ZTE’s comprehensive value-added services product, Anyservice, has been adopted in 50 countries and provides services for more than 60 carriers worldwide. The cooperation between ZTE and The Orchard, which brings digital music content and telecom technologies together, will significantly develop and optimize the business chain of digital music. With the addition of The Orchard, ZTE will be able to provide telecom operators and mobile service users with extensive digital music services, creating an all-win situation for all parties involved".

ZTE, which delivered 30 million mobile handsets globally during 2007, covering GSM, CDMA and 3G standards, is adding a comprehensive suite of applications, including music downloading and playing features to their mobile handset product range, such as those offered with their recently launched i626 model. In addition, ZTE's Anyservice offering, which supports music features such as color ring back tones, has been adopted by a number of international carriers including SingTel and Telemobil (Romania), Sotel (Kyrgyzstan), Penta Mobile (Czech Republic), Algeria Mobile Mobilis, Libyana (Libya), OTE (Greece) and Etisalat (UAE). The offering will enable The Orchard's catalogue to be accessed by the significant numbers of mobile users and telecom operators served by ZTE in these and other emerging and rapidly expanding telecom markets.

"ZTE offers a wide range of innovative products and customized services to major global mobile operators,” commented Greg Scholl, President and Chief Executive of The Orchard. "ZTE's strength in the domestic Chinese market, as well as in many high-growth, emerging markets, offers Orchard's artists and labels access to a vast and diverse customer base. This partnership harnesses Orchard's strength as a digital innovator in the merchandising, promotion and sale of music, and especially international music, much of which has been previously unavailable."