A music label based in Zibo, Shandong, plans to give the 1.3 billion people who reside in China access to independent artists from around the world.

Cowbell China, launched by Australian company Cowbell Digital Music, provides instantly available music to the Chinese people through one of their largest mobile providers which has over 800 million users. Cowbell China also offers direct links to their music store through a partnership with a major Chinese website that receives up to 4 million hits per month.

"Music can often take weeks or even months going through a strenuous government censoring process before it reaches people in China," noted Andy Browne, Chief Operations Officer of Cowbell Digital Music. "With Cowbell China, we have been able to speed up the process in order to give the people our music immediately."

"This is a major opportunity," explained Shayne Locke, CEO of Cowbell Digital Music. "Major Western-based social media platforms are seriously restricted when it comes to China. We are the first Western independent label to be presented to the Chinese through a fully government-sanctioned media."

With this exciting advance, Cowbell China is hoping to get more independent labels and artists to the music fans of China, whose numbers represent over a fifth of the world's population. Creating a partnership with China's prevalent record label, TR Music, Cowbell China is also able to offer physical distribution and touring options for the artists who gain popularity within China.

"We want artists and labels to contact us and express their interest," noted Shayne. "We will evaluate each artist/label and if we think they will be accepted by the post-monitoring process of the Chinese government, then we will consider offering them a distribution placement. We are preparing our artists and their music for our official launch to coincide with the Chinese New Year celebrations on 14 February 2010. We welcome all artists and labels to contact us if they are interested in distribution."