Nokia, the world's biggest cellphone maker, yesterday announced a deal with Universal Music Group that will give customers buying select mobile devices unlimited access to millions of tracks for a year - and lets them keep the music afterwards.
Nokia is hoping that the other Big Three music labels will soon be on board.
Starting in the second half of 2008, the program (called "Comes With Music") lets folks who buy a qualifying phone to have unlimited access to Universal's entire artist catalog for a year. Once the year is over, you can keep all that music without it disappearing when the subscription is over.
The one downside (and it's a big one) is that the tracks are protected with Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM, according to Ars Technica. If you want to burn the music to a CD, you need to pay. Hopefully Nokia and/or Universal will learn the err of their ways and remove the DRM caveat, because that would be the largest stumbling stone preventing this from taking off.
Of course, Nokia isn't disclosing which phones/devices need apply, and they didn't say what the terms of the deal were. But Universal's digital operations chief, Rob Wells, told Reuters in an interview: "Unless there was enough money for the world's biggest record company we would not have agreed to the deal."
DRM or not, it's still a big deal. And one that has the potential to turn both the mobile audio, as well as the unlimited music subscription services, on their collective heads. Nokia moves a lot of phones, and if they make the "Comes With Music" service available on a large number of handsets, that means there's now instant access to millions of songs in a lot of people's pockets.
Why should Satellite Radio care? Because Nokia obviously is seeing a value in providing music on mobile devices, and is pushing their leadership position hard to make sure they have a foothold.
Just a couple days ago, Nokia unveiled Nokia Internet Radio (pictured at right), a free downloadable application that will also be embedded in upcoming Nokia S60 3rd edition devices. It's essentially a directory, and an interface, of internet radio stations accessible on your Nokia phone.
Browse by station name, genre, country or language. Nokia Internet Radio also updates the top ten most popular internet radio stations hourly in its own special directory. The service also lets you save a list of "Favorites" - essentially presets of your top station - so they're accessible right away. And it's free.
The NAB says that there is no other "Nationwide Multichannel Mobile Audio Service" out there to compete with Sirius or XM.
I beg to differ.
I would expect this to be available on Nokia's 3G phone. EDGE would take far too long to download any songs, although they do have the Nokia Internet Radio program available for EDGE users (and fans of ovberly compressed radio).
You can be sure it will be offered on the N95 8GB you have pictured. Problem is it runs for $600-$800. Incredible phone, but ask a cost.
but but...its not from a sat....so its not competition.
;)
I'm in
top right corner of that n95 says"64kbps" I mean dont scare us with your sh*ty sounding music! If i wanted 64kbps i would listen to Octane!
Plus DRM? Yea theres the future.........
If Nokia can get DRM dumped, I want the right to transfer music off my Samsung Helix to my PC.
But ... but .... there's .... there's no Bob Dylan channel. Staples ... err ... Echostar ... uhh ... not technically the same ... not competition .... monopoly! Monopoly! Monopoly!
God bless Stack.
DRM shouldn't scare anyone. There are so many programs out there that will remove DRM.
But as a gadget junkie, I can't get over the phone. The N95 is sweet!
how much is the price of N95?