Telstra, the largest mobile carrier in Australia, announced the availability of a new and huge online collection of MP3s, via its subsidiary BigPond. In consequence, the BigPond Music store now allows music lovers to search and download songs (in MP3 format) from the most famous record labels in the world: Sony BMG, Warner Music, Universal Music and EMI. Local distributors and record labels are also present on BigPond Music: MGM, IODA, Liberation, AmpHead and Inertia.

Since the downloadable songs are available as MP3s, users can listen to them on mobile phones, PCs, iPods or simple MP3 players.

"Until now, many people found it complex to download music legally, and ended up frustrated when they discovered their music was locked onto a single device or was impossible to transfer to the player of their choice," said Justin Milne, BigPond Group Managing Director. "But from today, BigPond's new service means consumers can transfer tracks from their computer to almost any device they care to use. We are confident the popularity of the MP3 format, our Australian-first agreement with all the top music labels and the power of the BigPond brand will mean customers will be clicking and downloading from us because we are the only place in Australia to offer legal downloads in MP3 format from all the major labels."

The MP3s found over at BigPond are encoded either at 256 kbps or 320 kbps, thus allowing users to experience the best-possible music experience.

"We welcome the launch of BigPond Music's MP3 download store", declared Denis Handlin AM, Chairman and CEO at Sony BMG Music Entertainment Australia and New Zealand. "We have been working with Telstra with its Music strategy over a number of years and we believe this is a major step in further building strong retail download services in Australia."

The BigPond Music official website is accessible at this address, either from a desktop PC or from a Web-optimized mobile device.