Led Zeppelin Shows O2 a Whole Lotta Love

A British wireless company and Led Zeppelin are teaming up to Bring It On Home.

Hot on the heels of the news that Led Zeppelin will make its vast music catalog available online, starting with an exclusive U.S. mobile agreement with Verizon Wireless, comes word that O2 has snagged the rights to offer the catalog to cell phone customers in Britain.

Fully 27 years after the band folded, Led Zeppelin remains popular all over the world, but for O2, winning the right to offer the catalog in the band's home country is sweet indeed.

"Led Zeppelin is the greatest rock band ever and with over 300 million albums sold worldwide their music clearly has a global appeal that spans generations," David Dorn, senior vice president of e-commerce at Rhino Entertainment, said.

"In a country that contains some of the group's most fervent fans," Dorn added, "both long-standing and new, we are very pleased to be working with O2 to offer for the first time a range of exciting mobile music experiences created from Led Zeppelin's legendary catalogue of recordings."

The deal comes as anticipation build about Led Zeppelin upcoming reunion show—a memorial concert for the legendary Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who died last December—at The O2 arena at London's Millennium Dome.

"We have established our music credentials with events such as the O2 Wireless Festival and our partnership with The O2," said Sally Cowdry, O2's marketing director. "O2 is truly the music fans' mobile network, so we're delighted to be able to offer our customers exclusive access to this material and a chance to get the hottest tickets of the year."

Like Verizon Wireless, O2 will offer Zeppelin ringtones and other mobile features. Customers who download Zeppelin ring tone will be entered into a drawing for one of six tickets the company is giving away to the sold-out show—one of the most highly anticipated rock concerts in years.

Digital song and album downloads are expected to become available on iTunes and other music sites on Nov. 13.

For years, Zeppelin—like the Beatles—refused to license their music for digital distribution. But with major rock bands such as Radiohead experimenting with new distribution models, Zeppelin apparently felt that it could no longer sit on the sidelines.

For rock music fans, gaining access to Zeppelin's catalog online is something roughly akin to a, um, digital Stairway to Heaven.

After all, as Randall Poster, a music supervisor who licensed a Led Zeppelin song for a scene in the film School of Rock told the New York Times's Jeff Leeds: "It's the holy sound of the temple of rock."

by Sam Gustin

^{Photograph of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin by Laurance Ratner/WireImage}