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When Madonna's latest album, 'Confessions on a dancelfoor', was released, tie-ins were set up with various telecommunications companies internationally to market the songs through a variety of channels.

In France and in what what was probably the most sophisticated, multi-channel launch to date, Warner Music linked with France Telecom in a range of agreements, including the making available of hi-fi ringtones. But was it a success?

Madonna on the phone

  
Yes, says Thierry Chassagne, head of Warner Music France, speaking in the French newspaper Le Figaro. 'Confessions on a dancefloor' has so far sold 600,000 copies in five weeks, practically as many as the singer's previous album, Chassagne tells the paper.

In terms of results of the link with France Telecom, Chassagne says that more than 500,000 digital sales have been achieved, with almost 200,000 hi-fi quality ringtones having been downloaded, in addition to 65,000 polyphonic excerpts from the first single taken from the album. In comparison, he says, most leading artists sell no more than between 60,000 and 90,000 ringtones.

This degree of success has ruffled 'physical' outlets such as Fnac and Virgin Stores, Le Figaro counters and asks Thierry Chassagne how he would analyse their reaction. True, he admits, the additional digital channels upped the promotional pressure around the launch, but this was to the benefit of all those in the marketplace. Being digital, he continues, allowed Warner to measure consumer traffic and habits.

If traditional outlet chains face competition from telecoms companies for future music sales, they themselves are going to have to look at getting into telephony, he concludes. The promotion around the Madonna album will then have served to open the dialogue between the different parts of an industry rapidaly changing in shape.

To read a longer version of this article, in French, click on the link below (left) to be taken to the Le Figaro website. Alternatively, click on the link below (right) to visit Warner Music France.