By Matthew Henry
SYDNEY: Nokia will lock horns with Apple’s iTunes Store from next Tuesday when the mobile phone maker launches its own online music store in Australia.
Nokia today announced its Australian Nokia Music Store (www.music.nokia.com.au), making the local subsidiary one of the first 10 countries in the world to get its own localised music store when the service goes live on 22 April.
The store will offer a mix of major global artists, local independent artists and up-and-coming Australian acts, with tracks available from $1.70 each, or $17 for a full album.
In what could be a unique advantage over Apple’s iTunes Store, Nokia will also offer a $10 per month subscription service giving users stream an unlimited number of full length tracks.
“Australian consumers can be confident that the Nokia Music Store will have a broad range of genres including popular and non-mainstream genres and independent artists as we aim to make our store more locally relevant than any other digital music store in Australia,” said Nokia general manager, Shaun Colligan.
The service will be accessible via a PC or with selected Nokia handsets including the N95 8GB, N81 8GB and the N82.
Due to the popularity of its music-capable phones globally, Nokia claims to be the largest maker of digital music players globally, ahead of market pioneer Apple and its iPod.