Today Zune, Microsoft's end-to-end music and entertainment service, announced jointly with Fania Records the availability of a custom collection of Fania albums consisting of never-before-digitally-released productions. For the first time, the Fania collection will be digitally remastered and available exclusively on Zune Marketplace. The collection will include legendary artists such as the Fania All-Stars, Hector Lavoe, La Lupe, Celia Cruz, Ricardo Ray and Bobby Cruz, Cheo Feliciano, Mongo Santamaria, Bobby Valentin, and many more.

During the 1960s and 1970s Fania Records produced the best in salsa and Latin jazz and has been credited with starting the New York salsa movement. Fania and its roster of stars have introduced Latin music to the world, and Zune will now make this music available digitally for a new generation to discover.

“It’s exciting to partner with Zune to offer our collection digitally and for new content from such classic artists. Our hope is to have a new generation of music lovers discover these masters of music from such a significant musical era,” said Leda Ceccarelli, director of New Media, Fania Records.

The Zune Marketplace Latin content producer worked with the label’s digital distributor, the Orchard, to select the content released through the custom-built Zune boutique page. The addition of Fania to Zune Marketplace demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to integrating Latin music across the platform and enabling music lovers of all genres to discover these artists. Most recently, the Zune Marketplace team also produced a special event with Tijuana-based artists to highlight Mexican culture, featuring graphic and visual artists Acamonchi and VJ PR4, DJ sets from Loud Noises and Tremolo Audio, and live performance by Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich + Fussible.

“We wanted to bring a sense of retro music to Zune Marketplace, and to do that, there’s no other label to work with than Fania,” said Mariel Cruz, Zune Marketplace Latin content producer. “Fania’s renowned roster of musicians made it easy to select iconic artists, and we’re happy to bring this collection to our subscribers.”

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