Nokia hires Dave Stewart of Eurythmics to support artist-friendly collaboration

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Nokia has hired Dave Stewart, 55, of Eurythmics fame from the 1980s, as a creative consultant. Stewart’s role is to help the Finnish mobile phone giant to set up its Nokia Artists' Advisory Council to support artist-friendly collaboration.
      Nokia aims to use the artist-led expert panel to create an artist-friendly atmosphere in the firm, and to guarantee that the artists’ views are taken into account when developing new business models for the mobile entertainment market.
     
"As mobile devices and the world of entertainment have converged, the proposition of working with Nokia is very exciting. My first project with Nokia will focus on sharing my experience as a musician, song writer and producer to help move our industries forward together, as digital entertainment expands its reaches through new technologies. This will also be a great forum for the artists participating to explore how technology is being leveraged to help support the causes that many of them care so deeply about", Stewart says in a Nokia press release.
      The advisory council will be formed by Stewart and Tero Ojanperä, executive vice president and head of the new Nokia Entertainment & Communities business group.
     
The idea behind the undertaking is to strengthen Nokia’s credibility at this crucial juncture for the entertainment industry, where equipment manufacturers such as Nokia and Apple are competing over the traditional music industry market.
      In the future, the advisory council is also meant to act as an ideas factory working out the intricacies of the relationship between the creative process, social responsibility, and technical innovations.
     
Today Dave Steward lives in Hollywood and heads a production company called Weapons of Mass Entertainment. On its website Stewart describes his company as a "Creative factory for popular culture that links ideas, talent and capital to create a portfolio of new valuable projects."
      Among his co-operation partners Stewart lists a host of film and TV corporations, MySpace, Visa, and Nokia. On the charity side Stewart has collaborated, for example, with Amnesty International and Greenpeace.
      In the 1980s Stewart and vocalist Annie Lennox’s band Eurythmics developed into one of the most noteworthy music acts of the decade. Eurythmics, whose attraction was based on Lennox’s cool alto and androgynous image, as well as Stewart’s innovative production style, sold in excess of 75 million records.
      Of late, Stewart has produced, for example, Ringo Starr’s latest solo album Liverpool 8.


Links:
  Nokia Press Release
  Weapons of Mass Entertainment

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