Press Release
| Harry Fox Agency Provides Instant Licensing of Ring Tones. |
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NEW YORK, NY, October 11, 2001 - Gary L. Churgin, President and CEO of The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA) announced today that HFA will license mobile phone ring tones on behalf of music publishers, allowing ring tone providers - usually Internet-based services - instant licenses for the myriad copyrighted music they offer for downloading. HFA's enormous database of publishers' catalogs will facilitate immediate identification of the tunes and enable ring tone providers to obtain appropriate licensing from the correct publishers. Ring tones - digitally delivered music files that play melodies for up to 30 seconds in length when users receive incoming calls on their cellular phones - are already hugely popular in Europe and Asia and are becoming increasingly popular here. They enable users to personalize the incoming ring tones with their favorite movie soundtracks, television themes, popular songs and classical music. There are already over twenty ring tone services that have approached HFA for licenses. Ring tone license requests will be processed by HFA via its electronic licensing system, which is able to process thousands of requests at a time. License requests will be processed immediately. "The value that HFA is bringing to our publishers and the ring tone licensees is one point of contact for licensing in this complex digital world," stated Gary Churgin. "This is one of many new configurations that HFA will be licensing on behalf of publishers." The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. is the premiere mechanical licensing, collection, distribution, and audit arm for the music publishing industry. For licensees, HFA upholds a one-to-one relationship as the primary source for publisher, split, and song ownership information and facilitates the licensing process. HFA is the licensing subsidiary of the National Music Publishers' Association, Inc. |
