In a bid to fight piracy, the Indian Music Industry has made announcement about the launching of an initiative, Music Mobile Exchange (MMX).

Under the initiative, mobile store owners will be issued licences from the right holders to encash on the rising music demand on mobile chips, without breaching the Copyright Act.

Mr. Savio D'Souza, IMI Secretary General, told, "There is a huge demand for music for mobile phones and we have even seen people advertising download offers, which is illegal. We are offering a legal way for shopkeepers to make money from the increasing demand for music content on mobile chips."

MMX has signed up seven members including Saregama, Aditya Music, Tips, Venus, Sony and Universal, which account for a major share of the copyright titles being pirated.

Now, this content would be available legally via licenses.

Mr. D'Souza said that a shopkeeper will have to pay a monthly charge of Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,000 per computer for licence depending upon the type and site of the shop.

According to IMI, an independent poll conducted by the industry shows that an average shopkeeper makes around Rs 7,500-12,500 monthly through music downloads and other music applications, which makes the licence fee a affordable amount and a profitable business for the shop owners.

'Music on mobile' consists of products such as ring tones - monophonic and polyphonic; true tones; ring back tones; full song mobile downloads, music videos, etc.

Mobile chip piracy refers to transferring music from the web or illegitimately copying them from cassettes or CDs and then downloading them to cell phones.