Hong Kong: Nokia has rolled out its music stores in 10 countries to-date. In Asia Pacific- the two markets are Australia and Singapore.
Claiming that the music stores are the fastest rollout of retail digital stores ever, Nokia's executive vice president, head of entertainment and communities Tero Ojanpera told the Music Matters audience that the company is now aggressively investing in music as the 'future lies in music'. Delivering the keynote address on the second day of the conference, Ojanpera outlined Nokia's other initiatives - the Nokia Green Room, where artistes offer a glimpse into their off screen worlds and the Independent Artiste Club, which taps into the talent of aspiring musicians. The Club, launched in 7 countries thus far, has 2000 bands already signed up, Ojanpera said.Nokia's Comes With Music is a new business model the company has launched, that offers a simple value proposition for consumers that gives access to download from the company's music catalogue for a year with the option to retain the songs after the year is over. Nokia has already tied in Sony BMG for the CWM project and is looking at partnering with other labels as well.
Ojanpera said the company that had a 39 per cent market share in the first quarter of 2008, and sold 437 million mobile devices globally last year.
For the Comes With Music offering, the company will be partnering local music labels for local offerings too, he said.