Wisin & Yandel, the reggaeton duo with an uncanny knack for delivering hit singles, will become the first act to get its own customized Zune player, Billboard has learned.
The limited-edition Wisin & Yandel Zune device will hit Wal-Mart stores nationwide October 29, before the release of the duo's new album, "Los Extraterrestres," November 6.
Featuring the new album, videos, exclusive pictures and customized packaging, the MP3 player is but one aspect of a multiplatform Microsoft promotion that targets a new Latin consumer at the same time it promotes a hip Latin act.
Wisin & Yandel are Juan Luis Morera Luna (Wisin) and Llandel Veguilla Malave. Their breakthrough album, 2005's "Pa'l Mundo" (Machete), has sold nearly 600,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and more than 1 million worldwide, according to their label. In the digital realm, they've sold more than 1 million mobile and digital tracks combined, according to SoundScan, and are Machete's top-selling digital act.
In 2006, the duo became the first act to place four singles in the top 10 of Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart.
The new album's first single, "Sexy Movimiento," is gaining traction beyond reggaeton stations and is expected to reach the top five of Hot Latin Songs by release week.
"I sing reggaeton, that's what I do," Wisin said. "But we do fuse many rhythms, and we have evolved enormously in the past two years."
"Los Extraterrestres," he said, features live instruments on many tracks, as well as fusions that go from reggae roots to pop, and seven collaborations that range from Fat Joe and Eve to Don Omar and Franco De Vita.
The choice to go Latin for its first customized device "is a statement," Zune multicultural marketing manager Javier Farfan said. "Latin music as a whole is a big priority for Zune and for Microsoft."
In partnering with Wisin & Yandel, Zune picked a youth-appealing, top-selling Latin act that also has traction in mobile and digital sales.
"In this particular partnership we were trying to reach the acculturated Latino in the U.S.," Farfan said. "They are an act that embraces technology and showcases technology to their audience."
For Microsoft, it's about not just selling devices, but also selling subscriptions to its music service.
The Latin digital marketplace is served primarily by iTunes Latino, which has upped its marketing and promotion in the past year. For the week ending October 7, digital sales of Latin albums stood at 367,000, which equals 1.5 percent of total Latin album sales so far in 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's almost double the 198,000 Latin digital albums sold in the same time period of 2006, but still significantly below the industry average: Across all genres, 10.6 percent of total 2007 album sales have been digital.
"Within the U.S., the Latin market is one that many technology companies have sought to become more active in marketing to," said Ross Ruben, director of industry analysis at NPD Group. But Microsoft in particular "has talked about working more closely with artists in general."
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Saturday, October 20, 2007
Microsoft offers Latin market a Zune of their own
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