AMBY VALLEY, INDIA: Nokia launched OVI Music Unlimted (OMU), a bank of  4 million legal digital tracks, including 1 million Indian songs - latest and largest catalogue - available to music buffs free for a year. "This makes Nokia India's biggest music company in terms of the number and variety of songs that we are offering" said D Shivakumar, MD, Nokia India Pvt Ltd.

Consumers who buy a Nokia Ovi Music Unlimited enabled device will be able to download millions of tracks for free, direct to their mobile phone or to their PC from the Ovi Music Store for 12 months.

And they will get to keep all their downloaded music forever. Tracks can also be shared between OMU users via Bluetooth technology. New songs by major labels will also be available when released in India.

However there is a catch. This service will be available only on a select set of model (X2, X6, 5800 XM, 5530, 5235 and 5130), and after a year if the user wants to renew the service he will have to buy a new phone. Their existing phone will not support this service.

Speaking at the announcement, noted movie director and producer Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra said, "I hope technology will soon enable such services for movies too".

The new service created specifically for the Indian market will offer more than four million tracks from across 19 genres including Rock, Rap, Hip Hop, Pop, Bollywood, Sufi, Indipop, Indian Classical, Devotional, Ghazals, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi and Bhojpuri, amongst others.

Shivakumar also added that "this service will also address key challenges of accessibility, affordability and piracy that have existed around music consumption."

Elizabeth Schimel, global head of Music and Connected Entertainment, Nokia, said, “In partnership with major global labels and more than 150 local music labels and publishers, the service offers the richest choice of local music paired with tracks from major international artists, creating the largest catalogue of its kind in India.”

India is the 30th market to launch this service after the recent launches in China and Indonesia. The service will include catalogues from major global labels Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music. Nokia’s local partnership with Indian Music Industry (IMI) brings a consortium of more than 150 music companies - Hungama that represents major labels including Yash Raj, Tseries, Eros; and SIMCA (South Indian Music Companies Association), amongst others.

To address poor broadband penetration and low PC access, Ovi client size has been reduced from 60 MB to 3 MB, and sharing music through Bluetooth is possible amongst the members of the service.

Nokia also announced today the launch of Nokia X2, the latest Ovi Music Unlimited enabled music phone. Designed for young music lovers, the Nokia X2 comes with dedicated music keys and 3.5mm AV connector, FM radio with built-in antenna, a digital music player and loud stereo speakers for sharing music. Plus Nokia X2 offers a 5 megapixel camera with flash and a video recorder. Priced at a little over Rs. 5,000, the Nokia X2 will be available in India during the third quarter of 2010.

The service is free for one year, but Nokia is looking at lots of revenue possibilities, besides new phones that users will have to buy if they want to renew their service. "According to a recent KPMG survey of Indian youth, 83 per cent of respondents said music is as essential to them as food and air, and 39 per cent respondents wanted music on their mobile phone", shared Shivakumar.

The survey also revealed that over 80 per cent of the respondents are okay to receive ads if they get music free. Similarly, if Nokia starts to charge for downloading songs and there are enough buyers, once the free period offer is over, it could be the biggest music company in India in terms of revenues too.