Nokia Music Store Album of the Week

Further to our post about the new Nokia music store – guess which artist they launched with as ‘Album of the Week’?

None other than local favourites, John Butler Trio.

Loyal JBT mail fans were advised:

The recent JBT “Union of Soul” show in Wollongong was the first concert Nokia recorded and is available for download via this store as of Tuesday.

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Nokia diversifies: now selling music online

Source: SMH reports on Nokia Music Store

The Nokia Australia music store opened their virtual doors for business 22 April 2008. Nokia wants to to expand and strengthen their market hold on more than just mobile devices – to all things mobile or “on the go”.

Whist Australia quite often misses out on new developments such as this, we are actually one in 10 countries to have a localised Nokia music store. For this we must thank and congratulate Nokia!

Nokia’s Australian music store will also have a strong local flavour – alongside their international offered tunes. Perhaps more importantly – they’ll be supporting independent artists as well. A big yay!

“So who can access it – and how?”

According to the Nokia press release:

With a single account, Australian music lovers can access the Nokia Music Store via their personal computer or directly from their optimised Nokia devices including the Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N81 8GB and the N82. In addition, the ability to sync from a PC is available on a wider range of Nokia models including the latest Xpress Music handets, Nokia 5610 and Nokia 5310.

“What if any, are the limitations?”

Whilst i’m excited about any new options for downloading music online, I discovered that (at this stage at least) the Nokia Music stores aren’t compatible with the Mozilla Firefox browser. Hmm, do they not realise how many the world over have switched to Firefox as a safer better internet browser? So at this stage, I haven’t set up an account to check it out properly.

And – for Apple lovers, you cannot sync to your iPod family of digital music players. The files are in WMA format.

So, can they seriously tackle the Apple / iTunes market? I guess any competition is good competition, right?! This is only their beginning…

“What’s it gunna cost me?”

Individual tracks will cost A$1.70 per track and albums from A$17.00. Their will also be a monthly subscription offered for PC users to stream an unlimited number of full length tracks for A$10.00 per month.

“Where can I try it out for myself?”

Go for it! Check out Nokia’s online store.

Let us know what you think music lovers

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Australian Independant Records Labels Association (AIR) Awards

AIR held their second annual Awards in Melbourne this week. Among the winners of the 2007 Jagermeister Air Awards were:

• John Butler Trio: Grand National – Best Performing Independent Album
• Sneaky Sound System – Best Performing Independent Single and Best Performing Artist
• British India – Best New Independent Artist
• CW Stoneking: King Hokum – Best Independent Blues and Roots Release

Many more awards and winners are announced on the AIR website.

Support Australian independent music! Check out the website and all artists represented on there.

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