• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, August 15, 2007

DJ Envy, one of America's most popular hip-hop radio DJs, is set to distribute "mixtapes" downloadable to mobile devices for a fee. The mix tapes, seven tracks long, will include music culled on a weekly basis from DJ Envy's "Hot 97" show and his "Hip-Hop Nation" program on Sirius Satellite Radio. The seven tracks in each mixtape will be made available both as ringtones and full-length tracks.

In addition to the music, subscribers will get inside news about stars and video blogs with celebrity interviews, also viewable on mobile. The entire service is delivered by Cellfish Media, which specializes in creating and distributing media content for mobile devices. DJ Envy will be promoting the new downloads via a variety of channels, including on-air, street marketing, online viral and print ads in music publications.

The mixed subscription- and fee-based service draws on the widespread popularity of mixtapes, compilations of hip-hop songs that often feature unique tracks and new or hard-to-find artists. Although there is a busy consumer-to-consumer traffic in bootleg mixtapes, commercial releases sell about 500,000 copies a week, according to DJ Envy, who is also CEO of Blok Entertainment, a production company.

Mix tapes, which straddle the boundary between professional and user-generated content, are proving to be a popular vehicle for radio promotions. Also on Tuesday, XM and MySpace announced a contest inviting aspiring hip-hop and R&B artists to "Show Us What Ya Got!"

Participants can submit their original song to the online talent search to win a chance to perform at the "Mix Show Power Summit" in October, along with a mixtape created with a well-known DJ. The submissions will be judged by a panel of music editors and industry artists, who will select five finalists for a popular vote on MySpace.

As part of the contest, various hip-hop heavyweights will post video blogs on MySpace about industry trends and techniques.