10Meters News Service

January 18, 2002 – Nokia is music to Finnish ears – and maybe, down the road, a hit-maker for the music industry itself.

The mobile-phone giant on Friday launched a pilot digital music delivery service that allows users to download tracks by popular artists to their Nokia 5510 phone or the Nokia Music Player HDR-1.

The service is available only in Finland.

The delivery is being handled by Emma.fm, an online music store operated by Elisa Communications, Finland's leading provider of telecommunications services for private and corporate customers.

Available in a protected file format, the Emma.fm service allows music lovers to pay for their downloads via their mobile phone bill or through Internet banking and credit cards.

The music is delivered to the user's computer for transferring to the mobile devices through the Emma Player.

"This kind of distribution of music is one of the most potential areas of growth. This trial should generate vital information and experience in this new area of business for all record companies involved," said Wemppa Koivumaki, managing director of EMI Finland.

EMI, one of the world's largest music publishers, owns rights to more than one million musical compositions in 30 countries. It also owns the rights to the music in the "Wizard of Oz."

The Emma.fm service, launched in January 2001, was designed in cooperation with AKT ry (the Finnish National Group of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), international record companies including BMG, EMI and edel, and Finnish record companies Poko Records, Spinefarm, Johanna Kustannus, Love Kustannus and Siboney.