A link to the music store will be pre-loaded on every N81 and N95 8GB device that ships. At present the N81 has been listed by O2, Voda and sim-free by The Link and Carphone Warehouse. The N95 will be available exclusively from Voda till Christmas. Nokia remains confident that T-Mobile and 3UK will also range the handsets. Orange could be a harder nut to crack.

Music Store is Nokia’s big entry into the content services space. It links users directly to a Nokia-controlled music shop, from which they can download songs, tag tunes, and listed to 30 second clips. Music is paid for using an e-wallet topped up using credit card, paypal or in-store voucher. The process can also be enacted online.

ME was among those invited to the pre-launch. We tried the service, which was fast and easy to use. It also retrieved the weird angular jazz tunes we searched for. There will be two million tracks available from day one.

Music Store will subsequently be pre-loaded on all forthcoming Nseries devices to launch, and eventually on mid-range Nokia devices such as the Xpress Music range. There will be a similar strategy for the new games service N-gage, also pre-loaded on N81 and N95. N-gage will be ‘switched on’ in December.

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