Cingular Wireless has signed up with MySpace social network and mobile content developer InfoSpace to create a Mobile Music Studio where unsigned artists and bands can turn their music into ringtones that can be marketed to fans.

MySpace already has more than 1 million bands and artists using its site to connect with fans. The service, acquired last year by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., is especially popular with young people, who build profiles and find friends on the network with similar interests.

Artists using the site will be able to upload an audio file of a self-produced track to a special web page on MySpace. InfoSpace will guide the user through a licensing and production process to make sure the content is original and appropriate for the service.

Once the review is completed, InfoSpace converts the audio file into a 30-second ringtone. Artists will then get a link to the ringtone so it can be posted on their existing MySpace profile web pages.

Fans can then listen to the ringtone and decide if they want to buy it. However, the ringtones are only available for download by Cingular customers for playing on Cingular phones.

Cingular is a joint venture of AT&T and BellSouth, which announced plans to merge last month (see AT&T Buys BellSouth for $67B). Shares of AT&T fell $0.27 in recent trading, while BellSouth shares dropped $0.36 to $33.94, News Corp. shares rose a penny to $18.04, and InfoSpace shares climbed $0.11 to $27.85.

Bands Line Up

So far, the companies have been testing the service with 75 different bands and artists.

“With more than 68 million members and more than 1million bands, we are exploring new ways for them to connect,” said MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe in a statement. “The Mobile Music Studio allows this to happen in a way that seamlessly blends the online and offline experience.”

Cingular began working with MySpace about a year ago, according to Jennifer Bowcock, director of consumer PR at Cingular. The two companies launched a text-messaging service last month and debuted the Mobile Music Studio on Thursday.

Cingular has been getting into social networking heavily of late. Last month, the company also announced deals with two other social network services in partnership with AirG and Rabble (see Cingular Pushes Wireless Data and Cingular Adds a Social Network).

“The concept with social networking sites is all about friends,” said Ms. Bowcock. “If you’re a MySpace user and you have your own band, you can send us a song and we’ll turn it into a ringtone and make it available to everybody for purchase.”

She acknowledged the service is targeted at MySpace’s young audience. “A lot of times, kids have these garage bands and they never have the opportunity to market their music,” she said. “This relationship provides a platform to market their music ultimately to our 54 million customers.”

The first band to offer the ringtones will be the Australian rock band Shifter, which has been promoting its five-song CD on MySpace.

“It’s just really cool to think about millions of people potentially purchasing and downloading your music as a ringtone,” said Michael Nason, lead singer of Shifter.