Good news if you haven’t yet been spotted by a major music label or simply resisted “selling out” to them, especially if you’re based in the Asia-Pacific. The Independent Artists Club (IAC) has been created for you by mobile phone giant Nokia to be heard by people all around the world.

With more than 200 million music-enabled devices in the hands of people across the world, Nokia is not only able to provide a platform for new artistes to showcase their work but also offer them one of the world’s most compelling and personal distribution opportunities– the mobile phone.

Launched on Oct 25, IAC will be rolled out progressively across the region, including countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand over the next 6 months. The local roll-out will be signalled in each country by the launch of a localised website where artistes will be invited to upload their tracks, and have those tracks rated, consumed and downloaded by music lovers. By mid December, artistes can upload their tracks themselves. Music lovers can start voting in the last week of December.

Artistes who accumulate the most votes for their tracks via the IAC website will be listed in the Nokia Independent Artists Club Chart, which will be distributed to the industry and various media bodies.

Speaking at the launch at the Esplanade, Recital Theatre, Mark McCallum, Director of Marketing, Asia Pacific, Nokia, “Music is an important pillar of our Consumer Internet Services Strategy, so it is important for us to nurture the local music industry, which will ultimately be the catalyst for great local content to be discovered and appreciated by consumers.”

Invited bands have already begun uploading their music, while all other bands can begin uploading their tracks to the site by mid December. Music lovers can check out the IAC website and download music at www.nokia-asia.com/iac. The localised site for Singapore is already live, with other local sites all around the world going the same way in coming weeks.

During a chat show hosted by wacky local host Najip Ali, leading local acts like the Great Spy Experiment, Firefight, and West Grand Boulevard performed their numbers.

A demonstration on how to go about downloading these local tracks legally was also conducted by Lim Wee Khee, Senior Marketing Manager for Nokia Singapore.