Secure Digital Container (SDC), a Swiss provider of the DRM (digital rights management) technology for mobile music services, is to deliver a full-track mobile music download service in China starting January 31, 2007.

The new service, the first to be DRM-protected in China's booming mobile content market, will be offered by the country's mobile handset retailer Beijing Digital Telecom in collaboration with SDC and Siemens. The service uses SDC's advanced wireless DRM technology and the SDC Java Media Player to protect artists' copyright and to meet global and Chinese record industry requirements for mobile distribution. Siemens will operate the service via its Music2You (M2Y) platform, which also incorporates the ADORA rights management platform supplied by SDC's sister company Digital World Service.

Slated for launch on Wednesday, January 31 in the run-up to the Chinese New Year festivities, the new service will offer titles from a number of local and international labels for download via the WAP portal of China Mobile. Subscribers can choose music titles from an extensive catalogue and then download the complete version, with CD sound quality, direct to their mobile phones.

Beijing Digital Telecom is promoting the service throughout its vast retail network in China. The company has over 800 retail outlets nationwide, covering 24 cities and provinces. The service will be sold straight to consumers using China Mobile's network and billing system, making it available to over 250 million users.

"China is looking to become the world's largest market for mobile music and SDC is supported by more than 100 [brands of] handsets, including [those by] Chinese manufacturer ZTE. It makes a lot of sense to be partnering with Beijing Digital Telecom," says Michael Bornhausser, CEO of SDC.

The mobile DRM solution of SDC enables secure video, full-length music and other rich-media-content delivery across wireless devices and personal computers, and has been adopted and deployed by 18 major carriers around the globe.