Warner Music Group and Sony BGM have teamed up with Russian holding firm Access Industries to create a wholesale B2B distribution vehicle for online and mobile music. Russia is one of the two biggest biggest music piracy countries, the other being China, so this is a significant effort to wean away users to legitimate services, reports Reuters. The new business is called Digital Access, and besides the big two, local music labels Soyuz and Nikitin Records are also on board. It will launch in Q4, and will distribute music, full-track audio downloads, ringtones, video clips and color images throughout Russia and the CIS.

Warner Music entered the Russia market late last year with a deal to supply music to No. 2 mobile phone operator VimpelCom.

DJN: Russian digital music sales via Internet and mobile phones totaled $122 million in 2006, according to Moscow’s iKS Consulting. Earlier this month, the IIPA put U.S. losses in Russia from counterfeit music products at $423 million in 2006, although that figure did represent an improvement on the $475 million recorded for the previous year.