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Adith Charlie

Tie-up with Indian Music Industry

MUSIC ON NEW N-SERIES: Mr Vineet Taneja (left), Director, Multimedia, Nokia India, and ghazal singer Jagjit Singh at the launch in Mumbai on Thursday. — Shashi Ashiwal

Mumbai , Dec. 14

Users of Nokia music edition mobiles can now get to hear the tunes of Indian music legends. The company has partnered with the Indian Music Industry (IMI) for placing 100 songs of over 10 Indian music legends in the latest Nokia N-series (Nokia N91, N73 & N70) music edition mobiles.

Some of the top names one will be able to hear on Nokia mobiles are Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, A.R. Rahman, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, S.D. Burman, R.D. Burman, Mohd. Rafi, Geeta Dutt and others.

The public will have to buy the latest Nokia N-series music edition mobiles costing between Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 to avail itself of the facility. The songs can be unlocked by using a code available on a scratch card that will come along with the mobiles at no extra cost.

`Legends of India'

All the songs in `Legends of India' will be DRM (Digital Rights Management) compliant, allowing content owners to determine and control users hearing the music files. Users of the select 100 songs will not be able to transfer the songs to other mobiles.

Even if they manage to do so in select handsets (N70/N73), the receiver will not be able to play them without paying the licensing fee. Hence, this affiliation will help in creating a new revenue stream for the music industry that is losing about half its revenues to illegal distribution of music content, according to Mr Subroto Chatopadhyay, Chairman, IMI.

Regularise distribution

Adds Mr Vineet Taneja, Director of Multimedia, Nokia India: "We are confident that our new initiative will contribute towards promoting the music ecosystem at large and help the Indian music industry to regularise the distribution of legal music content."

"With the N-series devices, companies will be able to keep a tab on the precise number of usages of music content," Mr Chatopadhyay said. The overall Indian music industry is valued at Rs 1,200 crore, according to Mr Vipul Pradhan, CEO of Phonographic Performance Ltd.

IMI is open to the idea of partnering with other mobile handset manufacturers for providing music content. For the N-series, Nokia has obtained the license for every song from individual music companies, said Mr Taneja, without divulging further details.

Mr Chatopadhyay said royalties would be made available to the various artists depending on the nature of the contract each company has with them.

Based out of Mumbai, IMI is a trade body registered under the West Bengal Society Act. It is the second oldest music companies' associations in the world engaged in protecting the interests of music companies in India.

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