Telecom Lead Middle East: Qanawat, a mobile VAS service provider in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has signed an agreement with Egyptian singer Mohamed Fouad.

Qanawat will exclusively distribute the artist’s albums internationally on all digital platforms for the next five years.

Qanawat has a customer base of over 250 million mobile phone subscribers and a market share of between 60 to 70 percent of the GCC’s Arabic and Islamic digital content sales.

“Every singer hopes that people in every part of the world have a chance to purchase their albums and listen to their songs. While this was too much to ask for until a few years back, today, with the advancements in digital technology, this has certainly become a possibility, especially with the expertise of pioneers like Qanawat. My partnership with Qanawat can be described as a perfect fit given their solid track record as a leading distributor in the digital market,” said Fouad.

“Qanawat creates optimum market exposure for Mohamed Fouad in the digital world, leveraging the company’s global market base of over 250 million mobile users. Our exclusive partnership with Mohamed Fouad and other top-selling artists in the region reaffirm our comprehensive market reach and the high-quality standards of our core services and value-added offerings,” said Khalid Gamal, general manager, Qanawat.

Mobile phone subscribers in Egypt will be a key target market of the agreement, as the number of mobile subscribers in the country has reached 91.91 million as of March 2012, up from 83.12 million at the end of December 2011.

The number of mobile subscriptions is expected to further increase and reach 107.7 million by 2016, equivalent to a penetration rate of over 120 per cent.

“Moreover, this agreement is in line with Qanawat’s aggressive expansion strategy in the digital market, strengthening our unique localized content and providing more personalized products and services to various niche markets,” Gamal added.

Qanawat also exclusively distributed digitally the latest albums of Lebanese singers Nancy Ajram tiled Super Nancy and Wael Gassar titled Kol Deqiqa Shakhsiya.

Qanawat has signed exclusive worldwide digital distribution agreements with A-class artists and currently has a comprehensive portfolio of over four million music tracks, more than 200 record labels as content partners and over 100 independent artists as partners.

[email protected]