Nokia Corp., the world’s biggest manufacturer of mobile phone handsets, has today announced that music heavyweight Sony BMG has signed on to join alongside fellow music giant Universal Music to boost the content coverage of Nokia’s upcoming “Comes With Music” service.
Nokia signs Sony BMG alongside Universal for upcoming \'Comes With Music\' download service. Credit: Sony BMG.
“As one of the leading major music companies in the world, our collaboration with Sony BMG means we can offer a huge range of fantastic music from both international and local artists via Comes With Music,” trumpeted Tero Ojanpera, executive vice president and head of Nokia’s Entertainment and Communities division. “It’s great to have them on board as we move forward with bringing our unlimited music bundle to the market.”
The Comes With Music service works by enabling anyone who purchases a Nokia Comes With Music portable device to gain one year of unlimited access to Sony BMG’s (and Universal Music’s) catalogue of recording artists. That user access includes track downloads to both the waiting mobile device or a host computer via the Nokia Music Store.
Nokia outlines that once the user’s 12-month access comes to a close, they can keep their downloaded tracks and, should they purchase a new compatible device or computer, they can transfer that content by substituting their new device or computer for the original devices.
This essentially means content obtained during the one-year access period provided by the Comes With Music experience will remain with the user for as long as they want to keep it -- a definite plus point for consumers as the music industry continues to mine new ways to drum up and maintain online interest.
“We think this business model will encourage users to sample a wide range of material, expand their musical tastes, and listen to more music than ever before,” enthused Thomas Hesse, president of Sony BMG’s Global Digital Business & U.S. Sales. “In the process, we think it will provide new opportunities to artists from every genre of music, and increase demand for music overall.”
Currently, Nokia has not divulged the representative price range for Comes With Music devices, but has said that prices will vary according to model. Also, while the service provides users with a full year of unlimited download access to hundreds of thousands of tracks, which they can keep, it will not be possible to burn that content to CD or use it in conjunction with iTunes.
Comes With Music is expected to launch in the second half of 2008 on a range of Nokia devices in selected markets. Nokia is apparently in ongoing talks with various other music labels regarding inclusion into the service.
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