Nokia has signed an agreement to acquire Loudeye Corp., the mobile media distribution company Nokia initially worked with to launch a wireless/wireline music download service in early 2005, for about $60 million.

Analysts initially are viewing the acquisition as a decisive bid by Nokia to strengthen its ability to provide music-enabled mobile devices.

"Music is a key experience for Nokia and Nokia Nseries multimedia computers, and we want to be able to offer the best fully integrated mobile music experience to our customers,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s executive vice president and general manager of multimedia, in a statement. “Loudeye brings a number of key assets to Nokia, including a great team of people, a substantial content catalogue and a robust service platform that will help us achieve this objective.”

Vanjoki added that Nokia is aiming to deliver “a comprehensive music experience to Nokia device owners during 2007."

Loudeye aggregates rights and content from all the major music labels and hundreds of independents, and currently offers a licensed catalog and complete media for more than 1.6 million tracks.

Some Nokia devices already have a music player, and the Nokia Nseries device incorporates a music player, high memory capacity and an FM radio, as well as support for a wide range of digital music formats including MP3, M4A, AAC and WMA.

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