THE ORCHARD AND EMUSIC GO WIRELESS

The Orchard, a large distributor of independent music owned by Dimensional Associates, announced on Monday that it has licensed portions of its 300,000-song catalog to eight mobile services, which will in turn offer them as master ringtones to their customers. The deal will license The Orchard’s content to Dwango Wireless, Zingy, 9 Squared, HIFI Ringtones, IAM Mobile, Securycast, Arvato Mobile and Hudson Soft. In addition to tracks from artists ranging from Beck and Coldplay to Ravi Shankar, the agreement includes comedy tracks from Jerry Seinfeld and George Carlin. Additionally, New York-based Dimensional Associates announced the formation of Dimensional Mobile Entertainment (DME), a new unit that will focus on mobile media through development and acquisitions. DME plans later this year to launch an eMusic Mobile service, offering a single subscription to its eMusic catalog for both PC and mobile usage.