Edgar Bronfman, CEO of Warner Music Group, has high hopes about the future of music on mobile phones–and even higher hopes about the money people will shell out in order to hear “Fergalicious” in between text-messages to their pals:

In a question-and-answer session with reporters and financial analysts on Tuesday, Mr. Bronfman said that mobile music pricing will be generally higher than the $0.99 model set by Apple, but competition among the carriers will set the ultimate price.

“We will sell them at our wholesale price and carriers will determine what kind of margins they want to make on that wholesale price,” Mr. Bronfman said. “I am very optimistic seeing what I am seeing coming in handset introductions in 2007.”

Bronfman also expressed hopes that the growing popularity of mobile music would act as a “populist” deterrent to piracy, particularly in Asia–because, you know, the downtrodden, downloading masses would like nothing more than to rise up and fight for their right to pay even higher prices for digital music files. Right.

Bronfman Does Mobile Dance [Red Herring, via Hypebot]