Once upon a time, there was a song that reminded us that video killed the radio star. Today, reality TV shows like the “Jersey Shore” dominate the airwaves on channels that are still named after the idea of playing music videos on television, which is a phenomenon that I will never understand. Happily,  if you still like watching music videos, and keeping up with the latest news from today’s rising stars of rock and roll, there is an alternative available to you: Grab the free app LP33.TV, and crank up the volume to max on your Nokia Symbian device.

This app, from the California-based company of the same name, is a Web Runtime widget that works on a broad range of Nokia mobile devices, and gives you instant access to a cool catalog of music videos, recordings of live performances, and short interviews (what they call “Featurettes”) with leading artists.

(Note: All of the images in the post are pulled from my Nokia E72.)

As an example, I recently had a chance to see quick interviews with artists ranging from Ringo Starr to David Gray, and watch videos from band I happen to know (and yes, like) including Vampire Weekend as well as numerous groups I’ve never heard of before, but now I’m keen to check out in more detail, like One EskimO and Sea Wolf.

All of the videos and interviews are organized by channels, which are repeated on the LP33.TV website, and while these aren’t defined in any great detail, they are fairly self explanatory (rock, alternative, etc.) and there are several channels that are devoted to some of the big festivals/shows that tour around – and the artists involved, of course (such as SXSW and Lollapalooza).

When you click to play a video, it is displayed using RealPlayer on your Nokia device. You do need an internet connection to stream and watch the videos, but you are not sucking up valuable storage space on your device with downloads either. And the playback quality is pretty decent. I tried the app on both a Nokia E72 and on a Nokia N97 mini. On the E72, the videos default to display in a full-screen mode, but you can change the viewing ratio, so that it is cropped to display in a wide-screen mode.

The videos look great on the N97 mini, where the app takes advantage of displaying the content in landscape mode automatically. Additionally, the touchscreen interface on Nokia S60 5th Edition devices, like the Nokia N97 mini, is an easier way to use this app than on the non-touch version. (For the record, the non-touch version is still quite simple to use, just not quite as smooth/intuitive.)

As you may have noticed, you can also save videos and clips that you like to a personal playlist, for easy retrieval later on. The only downside here is that you cannot sort this playlist, or edit it in any way, so if you save a lot of titles, that list could become quite large and tricky to manage.

The only thing missing from this app – and I hope the publishers add it in to a future version! – is a search feature within the app. This would be a huge help. There is decent search on the LP33.TV website, so let’s hope they integrate it into any updates of the app they create.

Ultimately, if you like music videos – and if you have an interest in seeing some cool clips from new and emerging artists – then the LP33.TV app is handy way to get your fix.

LP33.TV is free to download in Ovi Store.