Nokia plans to launch its online music store in India by the end of this year. Nokia has already started testing its Music store has already gone live
“Right now our own people are testing the site, and we will go live as scheduled in the second half of this year,” a spokeswoman for Nokia. Also, the accessibility to the music store will be available only through vouchers, which will be given to the users when they buy a new handset or any other equipment from Nokia.
For Nokia, to allow users to buy music from their online music stores, will require a payment mechanism. Nokia has tied up with HCL Infosystems which will handle all the online retailing for Nokia, in India. Nokia will promote legal music exclusively and has tied up with Indian music labels like T-series, Times Music, and Universal Music India. Nokia will use Microsoft DRM technology on its online music store.
A number of companies including service providers in India are now into online music retailing. I wonder how many of them actually buy online music from the service providers. If you take a look at the ARPU in India it’s not fairing that well.