Europe UK : Vodafone and Warner Music International have completed an agreement allowing new music and mobile content from Madonna’s highly anticipated new “Hard Candy” album to be distributed and promoted exclusively to Vodafone customers around the world, prior to the April 28th global release of Madonna’s 11th studio album for Warner Bros. Records.

Starting on April 21st, a total of seven tracks from “Hard Candy”, with songs by the multi-platinum, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and video visionary, will be released at a rate of one a day counting down the week before the album is available. Each track will remain live for 24 hours for download before being replaced by the next one.

In addition, Vodafone customers in selected markets including Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium will get exclusive mobile access to the newly released single “4 Minutes”, effective immediately.

As part of this unique music experience, Vodafone customers in all participating territories will have access to Madonna’s mini site on Vodafone live! which will include one week of exclusive, associated mobile content, including ringtones, ringback tones and SMS tones.

“As the number one digital music service provider in the mobile telecommunications industry in Europe, Vodafone has revolutionised the way people experience music on their mobiles and the collaboration with Warner Music builds on this heritage,” said Frank Rovekamp, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone Group. “Through our unique insight into what our customers want and how they prefer to listen to music this is yet another example of delivering superior music experience to customers.”

John Reid, Vice Chairman WMI and President, Warner Music Europe, said, “We are delighted to be able to debut such a rich menu of content from ‘Hard Candy’ through Vodafone live! This is an innovative way to reach millions of Madonna fans around the world, building anticipation and excitement around this landmark release and helping to create a real event for Vodafone customers.”

Vodafone is the number one digital music service provider in the mobile telecommunications industry in Europe and number two digital music service provider overall in Europe. Leading the mobile music industry the company uses music to build the Vodafone brand and awareness of products and services across its 250 million+ customer base globally.

Madonna, the multi-Grammy-award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, cultural icon, world renowned stage performer, video visionary, children's book author, director and documentary film maker has sold over 200 million albums in the course of her unprecedented two decade plus career and has just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.