Nokia begins creating music with Peninsula Studios

New Delhi: Finnish handset maker Nokia has begun creating music content in partnership with Peninsula Studios as it launched Nokia Music Theatre in India where the duo discover and bring local artists to perform together and record a music album.

Under the concept, Peninsula Studios and Nokia India selected 17 artists from Rajasthan and recorded their original songs in a music album. Universal Music has launched the album Asha on Tuesday.

Peninsula Studios curated music, facilitated content creation and mentored talent and will continue to do so going forward. Nokia Music Theatre provided artistes with the opportunity to interact with other artistes and the unique experience of recording in a studio in front of a live audience.

The music album will be available at music stores across the country and on Nokia handsets for free download from the Nokia Music Store.

Nokia India's marketing director Viral Oza said that the handset maker was extending its credentials of music offering with this initiative. "Nokia has one of the largest repositories of legal and digital Indian music (through Nokia Music Store) and has built a strong music connect with Indians," he said.

Nokia was one of the first cell phone makers in India to offer low-cost handsets with pre-loaded music and later on offering music exclusively on handsets before release of a movie's compact disc. Oza added that the company had now moved to offering DRM free Nokia Music Unlimited service, which was available on the high-end phones on to the Asha series. The legal music service for the masses allows users to download and share free music from millions of songs from Nokia Music Store.

"Nokia Music Unlimited has been launched on limited devices in Asha series and the S 40 series. To songs are getting downloaded every second. To put it in context, it's nearly the same volume as the number of ring-tones downloaded by users from all operators combined, in a month," Oza claimed.

Nokia Music Unlimited will be rolled out in other handset series over the next few months while Nokia Music Theatre will scan talent in Uttar Pradesh beginning autumn 2012, he added.