Last week Sony Ericsson and Def Jam announced a limited edition Def Jam W910i phone with some exclusive videos and music tracks from Def Jam artists (covered here). Reuters has done a piece on the story and interviewed the New Business Manager of Mercury Records (which represents Def Jam in the UK). She said: “It’s about accessing a new market. For years and years the music industry has been about selling either pieces of plastic or units of music, and most certainly for us to be able to enter into the hardware marketplace and to be able to take both commercially and in terms of a marketing tool for our artists a piece of the action it’s very exciting.” For a while now the major labels have been accusing Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) of making money from piracy and demanding a share of the sale price of portable music players, and this seems to be related to that complaint. By selling its own handset Def Jam hopes to get a slice of the hardware market. The company isn’t overly confident—the first run is only 10,000 units—but hopes it will be successful and lead into something big.

• Sony Ericsson Preloads Def Jam Artists Onto W910i
• T-Mobile UK Sidekick Users Get Content Catalogue
• Nokia’s Phone Of The Future: How Would It ‘Morph’ Handheld Content?