Sony BMG joins Nokia’s free music service
The concept behind Nokia’s new music service “Comes with Music” is starting to catch on with the major music labels. Sony BMG, one of the four top recording companies, announced Tuesday that it has partnered with Nokia to make its music catalog available on select Nokia devices. After buying one of the devices, users will get unlimited free access to the music of Alicia Keys, the Foo Fighters or any Sony BMG artist for a full year. During the 12 months of the offer, users will be able to transfer their Comes With Music library to a PC as well as to a new Nokia handheld, but they won’t be able to transfer it to iPods or other non-compatible devices. At the end of the year, Nokia users will have the choice of acquiring new music by either purchasing downloads from the Nokia Music store or joining its subscription service.
Nokia is expected to launch the Comes With Music service in the second half of the year. What is groundbreaking about these deals–Universal Music Group was first among the labels to join the service–is that Nokia users can download any song from Sony BMG and keep the music for the rest of their lives. There is no ceiling on the number of songs and the music doesn’t disappear at the end of the year. This is believed to be the labels’ deepest foray into free music, and is reflective of the industry’s attempt to find new business models that can compete with piracy, shrinking CD sales, and iTunes.
Source: Cnet
how about Sony Ericsson?
ok people will just remove the protection from the files and transfer to what they want
“how about Sony Ericsson?”
It is a service brought to you by Nokia, how could Sony Ericsson possibly join then? It are music labels that join nokia to deliver the music. Sony Ericsson wished they had come with this idea! Sony Ericsson phones suck anyway so this is a good moment to buy a proper phone if you are into this service…
Fact is that SonyEricsson is the little stepchild of Sony and is the one they want to get rid of. In the USA the MYLO range is allready taking off. Nope I am all for SONY DUMPING ERICSSON!!!
who cares
I’m wondering what products Nokia will include this service, just bought myself a shiny new N81 8GB so its aimed at a someone who wants portable music (3.5mm jack and all). So hopefully they extend this offer to the N series of phones.
This does seem almost too good to be true, free music?