The music business will join forces with the internet that has nearly killed it next weekend as the mobile phone giant Nokia streams a live concert by the singer Rihanna from a secret venue in London.

The concert on November 16 is being streamed live around the world to mark the release of the new X6 Nokia handset, although it will be available to view to anyone with internet access who registers to view at the special Rihanna page of Nokia’s website.

The concert will act as a showcase both for Rihanna’s new album, Rated R, and for Nokia’s suite of social networking applications. Viewers on the mobile platform will be invited to share their thoughts on the concert via Twitter and Facebook while it is in progress, and will be able to access exclusive backstage footage of the chart-topping singer before and after her performance.

Liz Schimel, Global Head of Music for Nokia, told The Times, “We are thrilled to be working with Rihanna, who’s a massive superstar and brings great excitement to what we are doing. Together with Rihanna, Island Def Jam and her label Universal, we are pioneering new ways of connecting artists and fans around the world.”

Although music concerts have been stream live in the internet before, this marks the first attempt by a mobile phone company to integrate a concert with social networking tools, into what Nokia calls “a 360-degree experience”.

In partnering with Nokia for the event, Universal becomes the latest record label to attempt to harness the power of the internet to rebuild its business, which has been damaged by illegal filesharing.

Streaming services such as Spotify and We7 now enjoy the full support of the beleaguered record labels, which until recently fought tooth and nail to keep their copyrighted work off the internet. Robbie Williams announced on Friday that his latest album will be exclusively available for listening via Spotify for the next three days.

Mark Mulligan, a specialist music analyst with Forrester Research, told The Times, “We are in a period where the balance of power is shifting. Record labels are becoming a weaker part of the value chain. Recorded music is declining but live is still strong, publishing is still strong, so artists and their managers are by default becoming slightly stronger players.

“This fits in with the sort of thing Radiohead have done, Paul McCartney signing with Starbucks, Prince with his front cover mounted CD, all of these things are basically artists learning that there are different ways to get to market other than get a deal and get your CD in the shops or on iTunes.

“It is commendable in this case that we have a major record label seizing the initiative itself, but we are essentially in a period of massive experimentation. Unfortunately, the first time someone tries one of these things you cannot judge its popularity accurately. It will always over-perform because of the amount of press buzz it gets.

“Every time a Radiohead or Madonna does something a bit different, it is rightly a story in itself, but that story generates a buzz that makes it disproportionately successful. Really we need to wait another two or three years to work out just how well these things are going and which are really working.”

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