The American music star Timbaland will release the first “mobile only” album as the record industry targets phone users as a solution to illegal downloading.

Tim “Timbaland” Mosley, the R&B producer responsible for hit collaborations with Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, has signed a ground-breaking deal with the Verizon Wireless network.

Timbaland will release a track each month, featuring star guests, made available exclusively to subscribers of V Cast, Verizon’s mobile entertainment service. Footage of Timbaland recording the tracks will be shown on his own mobile channel.

With CD sales in freefall and the legal downloads via computers failing to make up the revenue slump, the music industry is now looking to mobile phones for salvation.

Teenagers unwilling to buy albums from iTunes appear happy to spend up to £3 on a video track phone download. R&B songs based around an insistent hook, Timbaland’s speciality, are the most popular mobile ringtone and track downloads.

Timbaland’s syncopated sound has dominated the pop charts for a decade, spawning hits for Destiny’s Child, Jay-Z, and prompting comparisons to the legendary producer Phil Spector. He is currently working on Madonna’s new album.

Each month, he will work with a different artist on a track while touring the US on a Verizon bus. The songs will be sold to subscribers for $1.99 (£1) each and then compiled as a mobile album. The tracks can be transfered to a computer.

Ed Ruth, Verizon director of digital music, said: “Our goal is to show the music industry that we’re truly a viable distribution platform for them.”

Timbaland, nominated for five Grammy awards at tomorrow night’s Los Angeles ceremony, said: “Not every place has a CD player but everybody has a mobile phone. Just producing a mobile album has never been done. I’m the first to ever do it.”

Mobile downloads are attractive to the music industry because they are less susceptible to piracy. Sales of mobile full-track downloads doubled last year, accounting for 12 per cent of the digital market. In Japan, mobile downloads sales rose 32 per cent creating an 18.2 billion yen industry (£87 million).

The UK has the greatest penetration of music enabled phones however prohibitive data charges have prevented the market from taking off. A new Nokia service offering unlimited downloads to subscribers is expected to kickstart the industry.

Timbaland said mobile networks could ultimately replace record companies, many of which are downsizing, as distributors of music.

Branded events such as the O2 Wireless festival in London and Leeds attract big name acts. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture with Vodafone, could bring the mobile-only album to Britain.

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