02 September 2008

Nokia's 'Comes With Music' Service
Launching in UK Next Month on the S40 Device!?

Nokia today announced that the United Kingdom will be the first market in the world to launch 'Comes With Music', its groundbreaking service which introduces a revolutionary way for people to discover and enjoy music.

Comes With Music gives people a year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalog with the ability to keep all downloaded tracks even after the year is over. Nokia’s ambitious music service will launched next month, and will then be rolled out in continental Europe and Asia next year. Comes With Music phones will be also exclusively available through the Carphone Warehouse.

However, the most surprising is the Nokia decision that service initially will be exclusively available on the mid-range S40 XpressMusic device not on some of the powerful smart beasts from S60 range as it was expected!

Nokia 5310 is the typical mid-range phone music related handset powered with dummy Nokia's S40 platform, which Carphone sells for £70-£80 to customers on pay-as-you-go deals. The Comes With Music service will increase the price of the mobile, and it is expected to cost somewhere between £100 and £300.

People who buy the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic 'Comes With Music' edition will have unprecedented freedom to find and listen to music from a diverse catalog, including international and UK artists. Carphone Warehouse is accepting pre-orders via http://www.carphonewarehouse.com starting today.

With this new music offering, Nokia is the first cellphone maker to push heavily into content, it is different from any other package on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded during the 12 months. In a rather pleasant surprise, unlike other unlimited music services, if users choose not to buy a new device after a year, they can keep all the tracks they have already downloaded, and they will still play on the user’s computer and handset, which will also still be able to send texts and make calls, reports Guardian.

All five UK networks have held talks with Nokia about this service, but none has found the service attractive - or lucrative - enough to sign up, says the story. They see no reason to subsidize a handset that connects users with Nokia’s own music store rather than their own.

By the launch, Nokia hopes to have signed all the four major labels: Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music have already signed, and EMI is expected on board by the time of the UK launch. It also hopes to some deals done with the mobile operators in UK, which will sell more Nokia handsets enabled with this music service, though users will not be tied with any specific carrier.

Tero Ojanperä, Executive Vice President and Head of the Nokia Entertainment and Communities business, said: "We believe that Comes With Music will transform the way people enjoy music. With unlimited music access for a year, you can enjoy your favorite artists or delve into new genres without having to worry about individual track or album purchases."

Simon Ainslie, Nokia UK Managing Director, said: "Comes With Music is the most compelling digital music offer ever introduced to the UK. You get a fantastic Nokia device with unlimited access for a year to a huge catalog of music. We're thrilled to be working with Carphone Warehouse to bring Comes With Music to the UK."

Andrew Harrison, UK CEO, The Carphone Warehouse, said: "We expect the Nokia 5310 Comes With Music to be the gift for Christmas and at the top of all shopping lists. We know how much our customers love music and we hope to make music millionaires of people everywhere."