Fort Meyers, Florida rapper Plies has become the first artist on Atlantic Records to ink a major deal involving peer-to-peer filing trading services.
According to The New York Post, Sprint and Atlantic have with ArtistDirect’s Media Defender division to push 16 million Plies song files embedded with the Sprint logo on to peer to peer networks over a three-month period.
In exchange for the service, a “substantial six-figure” fee will be split between Plies and his publishing company, Media Defender and Atlantic Records.
The Sprint logo, which will be attached to the song files forever once it is embedded, will appear with Plies’ name and song title on the screen of a desktop computer, iPod or cell phone, in addition to any digital music player.
The new deal officially makes Sprint the first company to underwrite a song that will be on file-sharing networks, according to the Post.
The deal will officially be announced in two weeks.
The T-Pain featured “Shawty” is the lead single from Plies’ forthcoming debut album The Real Testament.
The Big Gates/Slip-N-Slide/ Atlantic Records release is slated to hit stores on Aug. 7.