Today’s mobile handsets are a feast for the senses. They offer color screens, a multitude of ringtones, sleek designs and the ability to vibrate. Nevertheless, while camera phones have transformed the way people take pictures, the audio features of most mobile phones are lacking, particularly when it comes to playing music.

Help is on the way.

At least that's we gleaned today from Nokia's announced partnership with Loudeye to create a music download service and player for its mobile phones and smartphones.

On the surface, Nokia appears to be playing catch up, as Motorola inked a similar deal with Apple last month. Apple will deliver a version of its iTunes music player for Motorola phones next year, allowing consumers to sync audio files from their PCs for playing on their Motorola handsets. Nokia gave no timetable for the arrival of its music service.

JupiterResearch expects the budding digital music industry to grow from $270 million this year to $1.7 billion in 2009. Partnering with Nokia and Motorola helps it tap into the world's 1.5 billion mobile phones, by far the largest market for any portable electronic device.

Loudeye's Pesident & CEO Jeff Cavins said "this agreement with Nokia represents a significant strategic opportunity for Loudeye to work with the leading mobile communications company in the world to develop an advanced wireless music platform."

While Apple and iTunes offer the ring of name recognition for Motorola, Nokia's Loudeye agreement takes a music service for phones in a different direction. That's because unlike Apple, Loudeye is only the platform provider, not the retailer.

Consequently, Nokia's mobile operator clientele can use Loudeye's music platform to create brand-specific download music stores. That's a plus for Nokia, since wireless carriers prefer to present new services under their own banner.

Instead of promoting Apple, as Motorola's iTunes deal does, the mobile operators fronting a music download service from Nokia promote themselves. It is also hard to see how mobile operators can make money from customers downloading files to their PC and then syncing them to a Motorola phone.

One advantage of Apple's iTunes platform is its AAC files. Unlike more common MP3 audio files and the Windows Media files currently supported by Loudeye, AAC is a part of the next generation MPEG 4 specification, making it digital rights management (DRM) friendly.

By supporting DRM, AAC files deliver a degree of copy protection not found in competing standards. It is a format more to the liking of the content providers for any download music service, record companies.