Inside Nokia Music

The folk running Nokia Music Store are a generous sort, and they’re giving away free Christmas music (for technical reasons, this link works in Internet Explorer only). No word yet how long it’ll be around for, but you can grab classic tracks from the likes of The Raveonettes, Frank Sinatra, Twisted Sister and the omnipresent Bing Crosby, and a whole lot more. You’ll need to download and install Nokia Ovi Player (get it here), as well as create a Nokia Music account (but you’ve got one of those already, right?) to get your hands on it, but trust me – it’ll be worth it.

There was a great article in last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal about the Irving Berlin classic, White Christmas, and it’s hard to avoid giving the song its due, even if it’s not your cup of eggnog. For instance, Bing Crosby’s version is the biggest-selling record of all time according to the Guinness World Records, with total sales of over 100 million copies. ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) reckons that 500 versions of White Christmas have been recorded, in dozens of different languages.

All of which is a far cry from the song’s debut in the film Holiday Inn, in 1942. Berlin, the song’s composer, was so unsure of how the song would come across that he reportedly hid on set so he could watch Bing Crosby sing it to his co-star, Marjorie Reynolds.