Music Recommenders launched by Nokia

Forty leading independent music stores from around the world are working with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to create unique and customizable music recommendations. Music Recommenders brings together great new music across continents and genres, keeping music enthusiasts in touch with the latest tracks as well as helping them discover new artists.

Internationally influential independent record stores including Fat Beats (New York), Reckless (Chicago), Pure Groove (London), Hard Wax (Berlin) and Mona Records (Tokyo) will offer a personalised selection of new music across 12 genres – from Pop to Rock to Classical, Jazz and Electronic.

Every month, experts from each of the stores will bring together music from their specialist genre. No other music recommendation experience offers such an extensive combination of human insight, knowledge and expertise, coupled with global reach.

As a fanatical explorer and discoverer of music from around the world, David Bowie is taking the role of music “godfather”. He will be contributing to Music Recommenders every month through features and podcasts, sharing his most exciting discoveries as well as appearing in a short film, shot by Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club), which advocates new music and the culture of record stores around the world.

Users can freely browse the music, search for music according to recommender, genre or style, listen to music clips and read weekly updates, artist interviews, city music guides and even information on the stores and recommenders themselves. Once registered, subscribers can receive an instant playlist of 30 second samples tailored specifically to their tastes and purchase the tracks they like. Once a month, users will receive the latest recommendations and editorial features direct to their email inbox.

Music Recommenders will be available in a beta version starting in November 2006. A full list of participating stores will be soon available on the official site.