17 January 2009

Nokia's 'Comes With Music'
Set for Australia and Singapore This Quarter!

Nokia, the Finnish mobile telecommunications giant, plans to roll out its ambitious 'Comes With Music' service in Australia and Singapore later this quarter and is eyeing further expansion in Europe and hopes to launch in the US and globally later this year.

Tero Ojanpera, the head of entertainment and communities at Nokia, told the MidemNet annual digital music gathering in Cannes that the roll out would continue following a good experience in Britain.

"The next two countries which we are going to roll out in the next 10 weeks are going to be in Asia, in Australia and Singapore," he told the conference. "We'll be launching there in the first quarter of 2009, in February and March."

Like any organization trying to sell music, Nokia needs to secure rights agreements with both the recorded music side of the business and the publishing side. Ojanpera said the group had recently secured a breakthrough on a pan-European publishing deal. "In 2009 we will also be looking at the United States and Latin America," he said. "That's the plan."

Nokia's "Comes With Music" service offers unlimited music from the four major music labels and many independents. The music can be kept after the yearly contract has expired. Although Comes With Music does indeed allows owners to download as many songs as it is naturally possible in one year, transfer them to a PC and keep them at the end of that time as well but in order to put those songs on a CD you'll need to pay additional fees for every single track.

Of course, thanks to the Microsoft’s 'PlayReady' DRM scheme tracks will not be playable on any other phone or a device like the iPod or Zune. Last but not the least, once when the year is over, you’ll have to buy a new phone to get another 12 months access to the music base.

Carphone Warehouse, the sole retailer of Nokia's service in Britain, recently cut the price of one of the phones and analysts speculated that the phone had yet to take off.

Ojanpera declined to say how the phone was selling in Britain but said the service would gain momentum as it increases the number of handsets on which it is available.

He said the company was considering providing some content in exchange for advertising, such as videos and news from music magazines to accompany the sale of music. "2009 will be a very big investment from our part," he said.