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Tomorrow, the let's-get-Apple-at-its-own-game club gains another member, Nokia. Because that's when the mobile phone and smartphone giant will officially open the Nokia Music Store in the UK, an important component in its most direct challenge to iTunes and the iPod/iPhone yet.

According to Nokia, its music store will offer millions of tracks and a host of interactive features. Songs will go for 80 pence each and albums £8 (around $16.50). The majority of the store's tracks will be delivered at 192kbps in the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format.

With a single account, you'll be able to access the Nokia Music Store through your desktop or directly from optimized Nokia smartphones, starting with the new Nokia N81 8GB (see top image with Nokia Music Store) and Nokia N95 8GB. Nokia's upcoming 5310 XpressMusic and 5610 XpressMusic phones will also be compatible.


                      Nokia N95 8GB

You can transfer purchased songs to one of the handsets using Windows Media Player or with the new Nokia Music PC client, which is due to become available later this year.

Nokia's says the PC client will enable the reverse synchronization of playlists, ripping from a CD to a mobile device and PC simultaneously, the auto-synchronization of purchased music and direct access to the Nokia Music Store.

It plans to set up its music shop in additional European markets and in Asia in the coming months. Thus far, there's been no mention of Nokia setting up a US music store.

Nokia is the second giant to launch a direct challenge to Apple's mobile music hegemony in little over a month. Internet retail goliath Amazon.com opened up an MP3 store with over 2 million DRM-free songs from more than 180,000 artists in late September.

The Nokia Music Store isn't going to be Nokia's only music shop. There's also Music Recommenders, a Web site geared towards those who are passionate music fans.

What differentiates Music Recommenders from other services is that tracks are selected by real experts, Nokia said. With the site, the Finnish phone maker is working with people who run 40 leading independent music stores (i.e. Fat Beats in New York, Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, Aquarius in Kingston, Jamaica, Modern Sound in Rio de Janeiro, Pure Groove in London, Hard Wax in Berlin and Mona Records in Tokyo ) from all over the globe.

Each of the 'experts' come up with download suggestions in their area of expertise, across a number of different genres - such as hip hop, indie rock, jazz, Asian pop etc. - each month.

As a bonus, David Bowie contributes his own recommendations as well as features and podcasts.

Users can browse, search and listen to 30-second samples of each recommended song. And, if they choose to, purchase them in some markets. In addition to browsing the site, you can tag your favorite genres and have recommendations e-mailed monthly.