Store Number 12 for the Nokia Music service has gone live, and it's a first for the Middle East as the Finns bring their store to the United Arab Emirates (reports Marktoob Business). Alongside the Big 4 music labels of Universal, Sony BMG, Warners and EMI will be regional publisher Rotana and content aggregator Qanawat.

The regional roll-out of Nokia Music Stores is of course because most music contracts (between labels and publishers) are on a regional basis, so EMI in the UK can't give the go-ahead for a German store, and there's rarely one entity in each of the major lables that can give the go ahead.

It is nice to see a regional publisher get involved as well, as this has been the promise of Nokia for some time. The independent labels make up around 25%-30% of sales depending on the territory, and more and more they are representing well known names on the music scene.

The last step would be for a way for musicians in their Sheds to self publish, but that might not be for some time. Until then, we can just watch the stores slowly open up around the world.