Two Local Artists Get International Push On Music Service

Today, mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson launched M-Buzz, a music content service that focuses on new, up-and-coming artists. Out of the ten hand-picked artists featured in this major international promotion, two are unsigned acts from Toronto.

First up is Anjulie, a singer-songwriter who has written for Emma Roberts and The Philosopher Kings and who is finishing a debut album of her own. Produced by Jon "Rabbi" Levine (of The Philosopher Kings and the brilliant Jon Levine Band), Anjulie's ultra-hooky sound is on-par with the likes of Nelly Furtado and Gwen Stefani, especially the track "Jamba" which could be destined to be a smash pop single.

The other local featured is Valerie Poxleitner, a bubbly young songwriter who goes by the name Lights. A Toronto transplant by way of Timmins, Chesley (Ontario), and finally British Columbia, Poxleitner got her break while modeling at the age of fifteen for a Wal-Mart flyer. The makeup artist on the shoot introduced her to singer-songwriter Jian Ghomeshi, who developed her first demo and now manages Lights. Production is being helmed by Brian West of producing duo Track & Field (Nelly Furtado, K'Naan).

The M-Buzz campaign is significant to the artists not only because they've yet to ink a record deal, but because of its international reach. Other artists chosen at the launch are Kish Mauve, Embassy, Dirty Perfect, FKLV, Iggy, The Head Set, Bobby Kray, and Monte*Rosa. Along with music, Sony Ericsson says that they will also offer artist ringtones, interviews, bios, gig schedules and videos for the twenty markets that have access to the service.

M-Buzz is an extension of Sony Ericsson's existing PlayNow service, which has mainly offered content like ringtones. The featured unsigned artists will be mined from the vast Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalogue, which is co-owned by Sony and Michael Jackson.

The launch is clearly a move to try and make a dent in Apple's wildly-successful iTunes Store, the longtime ruler of the legal downloads market. Apple has been offering TV shows, music videos, exclusive tracks and now full-length movies in their U.S. iTunes store, which all play on the newer models of iPod. Sony will use M-Buzz to promote certain models of their higher-end Walkman-branded handsets. Some of the content can also be seen and heard on the M-Buzz site.