mpGreek signs deal with Lyra and MBI to offer Greek music downloads

mpGreek signs deal with Lyra and MBI to offer Greek music downloads

New York, mpGreek®, the global leader in Greek digital music services, today announced that it has signed a deal with Lyra and MBI to sell their digital downloads internationally. mpGreek is the first Greek digital music service to sign with Lyra who own one of the oldest catalogues of Greek repertoire.

Under this new agreement, a selection of Lyra and MBI repertoire will be included in mpGreek’s ‘a la carte’ digital download service. All Lyra and MBI repertoire will be served centrally by mpGreek directly to its users and will be protected with digital rights management software and will allow mpGreek users to burn a limited number of CD copies and export tracks to portable devices. A large variety of repertoire and music genres (Rembetiko, folk, Neo Kyma, ethic, traditional) as well as the work of important Greek composers and songwriters, will now become available for the first time for digital downloads on the web.

Mr. Panos Maravelias, Managing Director, of Lyra commented: “With no doubt, legal digital music downloading is the nowadays solution against digital music piracy. In addition, it leads the way to a new business model, yet not well developed in Greece, on how record labels can promote and sell music by taking advantage of new media technologies. We have already positive reactions from artists who are willing to help in any promotional efforts regarding legal downloading, as they understand that the Internet will soon be one of the biggest exhibition and selling points of their creative work. Furthermore, the Internet is definitely the most efficient way to attract music funs around the world to learn more about Greek music and consequently buy it. We are happy to have mpGreek as the first official partner in digital music downloading for Lyra and MBI music catalogues. I am sure that our collaboration will be constructive and fruitful as our catalogues include most respected artists and music titles. I hope that mpGreek is going to give new opportunities to music marketing and music distribution via the web for the benefit of the Greek music.”

Alexis Kombogiannis, Managing Director of mpGreek said: “Lyra and MBI is one of the oldest Greek labels with very respectable repertoire to partner with mpGreek and we’re proud to offer legal downloads to mpGreek users. The addition of the Lyra and MBI catalogue to the 75,000 tracks we already have available is great news for Greek music fans who value quality music and quality recordings.”

About Greased Networks, Inc.
Greased Networks is a leading technology firm at the forefront of Greek music downloads with its service mpGreek. mpGreek has long been recognized as one of the largest providers of Greek digital music content in addition to being one of the largest Greek online music stores over all since February of 2005.
Founded in August 2003, Greased Networks Inc manages the software and systems that cover all aspects of music content aggregation and delivery, including content acquisition, media storage, secure delivery, digital rights management and customer billing, to ensure that all rights holders are fairly compensated for their work.

About Lyra
LYRA, General Publishing Company S.A, is the oldest and most significant independent company to have survived the invasion of the majors in the Greek music industry. Its creation, in the mid-60’s, coincides with the dynamic flourishing of Greek songwriting, a development which LYRA not only brought to stage, but also nourished to a great extend. Presently, LYRA promotes some of the most expressive movements of popular music. At the same time, it invests heavily in important aspects of nowadays music business development, which include new media technologies like the Internet and the digital music distribution so as to capture a strong position in the world music map.

About MBI
MBI is the oldest independent Greek label. Founded in 1959, during its long presence in the music industry and through collaborations with many important artists, MBI has proved quality work and efforts to promote Greek music in Greece as well as abroad. Its catalog includes a large variety of repertoire and music genres like the ‘60s folk, rembetiko, and recently many pop acts.