Sony BMG joins Nokia's unlimited music service

Comes With Music customers will have total access to the music of Alicia Keys as well as every other Sony BMG artist free for a full year.

(Credit: Sonybmg.com)

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.

"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," said Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's President of Global Digital Business.

Sources told CNET News.com last month that Apple has discussed a similar offer with the music labels, adding that the concept behind Comes With Music is not exclusive to Nokia.

Should the concept of supplying year-long all-you-can-eat music catch on, other device makers wishing to gain access to music may be forced to adopt similar services.

[paul.saulnier]

Useless without iPod support

At first, this seemed too good to be true, and ended up being exactly so. Music providers are eventually going to have to allow people to buy music at a reasonable price and let them use it on any device they wish. Not being able to transfer songs to iPods and other devices renders this nothing more than a gimmick. Nice try to lock users into Nokia handhelds though.

[catch23]

The lock is on Apples part

Nokia and others would love to make it available for the iPod. Steve Jobs won't allow it.

With any luck, services like this will break Apples crushing hold in the music player market, and 'Apples way or the highway' will go the way of the walkman

[badasscat]

"Comes With DRM"

What is it with C-Net falling in line with the DRM industry over the past few months? First everybody who uploads anything to YouTube is automatically a "pirate" and now we're all supposed to be thankful for this panacea of "free" music *forever*, except that oh, it's saddled with DRM that doesn't let you play it on anything but the device on which you bought it. How awesome is it to "own" music "for the rest of my life" that I can only play on a Nokia phone that supports the same DRM scheme? Where do I sign up??

[AppleSuxLeo]

AmazonMP3 and you really own it...

not renting their low bitrate , DRM`d , crap. And it plays on anything. Rented low quality DRM files ?
You have to be kidding !

[ReverendRob]

For Once, AppleSuxLeo Is Right

This is almost as bad as other subscription services, only now,
your music is married to your PHONE, which you pretty much
HAVE to change every 2 years. Amazon mp3s are universal, and
even Apple, who had DRM forced on them before, is moving
away from it (besides the fact that its hardware/software combo
allows for use of other, more standardized formats). The labels
STILL don't get it, and now they're dragging Nokia down with
them.

And of ALL the DRMs, Microsoft PlaysForSure? Even the Zune
can't read that!