• Reuters, Monday, January 30, 2006 3:31 PM

The music industry has had more than its share of trouble adapting to the digital age, but at least one aspect of the business is benefiting from fan interest in online music services: marketing. Before the digital age, music labels had to pay the full freight for marketing a new album. But that is changing now as much of those costs are being shared with new partners willing to pay for exclusive content. For example, when Madonna launched a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign for her album "Confessions On A Dancefloor," the single "Hung Up" was released as a ringtone ahead of the radio debut in October. Other artists have also struck deals with Internet and mobile telephone companies who have become partners in an album's release in exchange for the rights to sell audio and visual downloads of songs. Also, after years of supplying videos free of charge to MTV and other outlets, record labels are now getting revenues for videos from Internet, cable, satellite and wireless services.

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