Nokia shutters India online music store

Beleaguered smartphone maker Nokia has shuttered its online music store in India, making music content available only through mobile devices. 

In a message posted on the Nokia Music local site, the company said music downloads will no longer be available via desktops and consumers will need to have an active Nokia Music Unlimited subscription to access the content on their Nokia phones. 

The move comes after last week's announcement that Microsoft will buy Nokia's devices and services unit for US$7.2 billion. 

In a statement to Indian tech blog, Medianama, which first broke the news, Nokia said it had communicated in 2011 its "ramp down of desktop downloads" in India as part of the company's "mobile-first strategy", but noted it would continue to "invest significantly in the success of Nokia Music" in the country.

A company spokesperson also told BGR India it had maintained the website and desktop client service until existing subscriptions ended, and moved to a mobile-only subscription model since then. 

Nokia in January 2011 had shut the Music Unlimited service, then called Ovi Music Unlimited, in most locations across the globe, with the exception of China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa while users had up to a year-long subscription.