The world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia and software giant Microsoft struck a deal today to make it easier for consumers to buy digital music on-line and play it back on their handsets.
In a comprehensive agreement, which involves a separate deal with digital media company Loudeye, Nokia agreed to put Microsoft's music player software into its handsets.
In return, Microsoft, will introduce open standards for digital music compression and piracy protection in its Media Players for personal computers.
"Users can synchronise their music collection with their mobile device," Nokia said in a statement.
"This agreement makes it easier for consumers to download music they want to listen to, without having to worry about whether or not the file format is supported," said Nokia Multimedia unit head Mr Anssi Vanjoki in a statement today.
A Nokia spokesman said the firm would launch a phone already in 2005 that would support Windows Audio.