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(Credit: Nokia)

By now, you've heard about the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, which was announced at the Nokia Remix event in London on Wednesday. Sure, the main headline may be the 5800's touch screen (a first for Nokia's cell phone line), but the handset isn't all about looks; it's got musical talent too.

Like the company's other Xpress Music phones, including the Nokia 5610 Xpress Music and the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music, the 5800 offers some advanced multimedia capabilities, particularly in the music category, but unlike previous models, the 5800 steps it up with the Nokia's Comes With Music service. What the heck is that you ask? Good question.

To provide a little background first, Nokia first unveiled its plans for the service back in December 2007. Nokia Comes With Music isn't an add-on service, but rather comes preloaded on select devices and gives you a year of unlimited access to any songs from the Nokia Music Store. Everything's included in the price of the handset; there are no additional subscription fees.

To give you a better idea of what is and isn't offered by the service, we've compiled this short Q&A about Comes With Music, which were answered with the help of a Nokia representative. Also, if you have a question about Nokia Comes With Music that wasn't covered here, please feel free to post it in the comments section and we'll do our best to get answered for you.

Q: Comes With Music lets customers buy an unlimited number of tracks from the Nokia Music Store but are there any limitations or restrictions?'
A: Comes With Music gives people a year of unlimited access to the Nokia Music Store catalog--from millions of tracks from a wide range of artists, including international hits and local talent--with the capability to keep all downloaded tracks.

Q: After a year, what's the cost to continue the service?
A: Once the Comes With Music first year service has expired, users can keep all the music they've downloaded and continue to update their collection with a la carte purchases. Pricing of a la carte depends on the Nokia Music Store pricing in the various regions.

Q: Will the tracks just be limited to use on the phone or can they downloaded to users' computers as well?
A: Nokia provides seamless access to a world of music--people can download music directly to their Comes With Music device or via their compatible personal computer. Plus, people can easily transfer tracks and playlists between their Nokia device and computer using the Nokia Music for PC software.

Some details are starting to emerge about Nokia's Comes With Music phones, which will come with the right to download music at no extra charge. According to a report yesterday on PaidContent.org, Nokia will pay Universal Music Group $33.50 per handset for the first 2.5 million sold, with the rate dropping after that.

Nokia will reportedly pay Universal about $35 per phone to allow users to download songs at no extra charge.

(Credit: Nokia)

It sounds like the download model will not be strict all-you-can-eat, but instead will be similar to eMusic--users will be able to download a limited number of songs over a certain time period, and those songs will be theirs to keep. It's not clear what happens when the period's up--the latest reports say that Comes With Music will not be a subscription model, so perhaps users will just be able to add a la carte downloads after their time expires.

As I've said before, any music service that's limited to a particular label will fail--music buyers don't shop by label, and often don't even know (or care) which label their favorite artists are on. So assume that Nokia signs the other majors and a few big indies for the same rate. Glenn at Coolfer estimates that such a deal would cost Nokia $116.32 per phone.

Hypothetically, imagine Nokia or the carriers subsidizes some of the cost to get the program rolling, and charges an extra $80 per phone. Most cellphone contracts are two years long, so it would make sense for the free music download period to last the same amount of time. So the last variable would be number of songs. How many songs would they have to offer to convince you to buy a Comes With Music phone?

My next phone's probably going to be an iPhone--the interface, apps, and browsing are excellent, and I seldom purchase music from iTunes anyway, so the $0.99 per song seems fine. To be swayed to buy another phone, I'd want enough content to fill it--say 1,000 songs. Otherwise, I'll just stick with my current MP3 players. But the labels are probably imagining a number closer to the $0.99-per-download paradigm that still rules the industry--say 100 songs.

Yesterday, U.K. music download provider Omnifone announced a forthcoming program, MusicStation Max, that will offer cell phone buyers unlimited free music downloads. Of course, "free" is never free, and in this case, Omnifone is enlisting handset makers to subsidize the estimated cost of the downloads and pass that cost along to you in the form of a higher up-front price for the phone. So far, LG Electronics is the first cell phone maker to sign up for participation in the program. No confirmation yet on carrier partners, but the service builds on Omnifone's existing MusicStation subscription-based music download program, which has more than 30 carriers signed up worldwide, including Vodafone in the U.K. (No U.S. providers, however.) It's supposedly due out in the first half of 2008.

Later this year, MusicStation Max will offer unlimited free music downloads to LG handsets.

(Credit: Omnifone)

MusicStation Max will give carriers some leverage against Nokia's forthcoming Comes With Music service, which is due out late this year. That is, if people like the idea of paying a bit more (how much?) up front for free music downloads, carriers will be able to offer them phones from other handset makers, and won't be locked into Nokia's hardware, service, or prices.

But that's the big question: will people like the idea? With both services, there's an expiration period after which customers either have to buy a new phone to keep using the download service (although they will be able to keep the songs they've bought), or move to a monthly fee. Similarly, songs will be playable on phones and PCs only, and won't be burnable to CDs or transferrable to other types of devices.

So the success of such a service depends on whether people are truly ready to make their cell phone their primary source of and playback device for music. I know that people live on their phones, but I think an Internet-connected computer's hard to beat--you have nearly infinite selection and pricing competition, immense flexibility once you've gotten the music onto your computer, and the ability to hook it into all sorts of playback hardware for better sound quality.

Regardless, though, both Nokia and Omnifone are taking important steps toward the only logical future business model for the music industry, in which the cost of unlimited "free" music is subsidized by pooled payment from customers to some third party, be it ISPs, hardware manufacturers (PC, portable music player, cell phone, flash memory stick, whatever), or music software companies. That's the only economically sensible way to compete with piracy.

(Credit: Crave UK)

Yesterday we inflated a very appealing balloon. We told you Nokia was launching a new music service that offered the very attractive "unlimited downloads" model of purchasing music. Disappointingly, it turns out that Nokia's free lunch comes with a big fat side order of fail.

We knew the unlimited downloads would be DRMed, and we accepted that, with some skepticism. But it transpires that although your music is still valid when your "subscription" ends, in order to acquire more music you'll need to purchase a whole new device! This is because the subscription is between Nokia and Universal, not the record label and the consumer. Not only that, but in order to put those downloads on a consumer-friendly CD you'll need to pay additional fees for every single blinkin' track.

What's more, none of these downloads will be transcodable into other formats thanks to the DRM, so be prepared for a hard time listening to your "free" music on your favorite MP3 player or in the car.

Ars Technica dug up some further info so pop over and take a glance if you're after some more details, but forget about Nokia's new service offering anything more than a crippled train wreck of a service. Just stick to whatever you're doing now, which hopefully involves not supporting DRMed media with your money. We recommend checking out iTunes Plus, eMusic or 7digital, supporting EMI's releases (it's the only major label that understands DRM) and buying major-label releases from used CD outlets, sellers and online stores, such as Amazon's Marketplace.

Update: Nokia has responded to some of the specific criticisms of the service raised by Ars Technica's piece. It confirmed that consumers would have to buy a new device at the end of the year's subscription period if they wanted to continue downloading music, but added that it was in negotiations with several record labels over this business model.

Nokia also said that handsets with the "Comes With Music" service will be available SIM-free from Nokia stores at a "competitive" price, but made no comment on whether it would be available on contracts.

(Source: Crave UK)

At a press conference in Amsterdam this weekend, Nokia launched a new service dubbed "Comes With Music." As the name suggests, it's all about music. The promise is that customers buying a compatible handset from Nokia get a year of unlimited downloads from a huge catalog of tunes. More interesting still is that the music is yours to keep even after the year-long subscription ends.

(Credit: Crave UK)

It's worth noting that the only major label on board to begin with is Universal, a company not known for its support of DRM-free music. True, it provides AmazonMP3 with a DRM-free selection, but it's a far cry from EMI offering its entire catalog in DRM-free form. So we assume this music will be DRM'd to hell. There's no mention of prices or subscription costs either, or any mention of a fair-use policy--a term companies like to use when offering "unlimited" packages.

The Comes With Music deal will come with a new phone--possibly a whole new handset, possibly the N81--that'll be launched in the middle of next year, according to Nokia. Also, "unlimited" really does mean unlimited--you can download every song possible in one year if you want, either via your phone network, over Wi-Fi or via the Web on your PC. Seriously.

Downloads will be in protected WMA format, but a bit rate hasn't been disclosed, so we're still in the dark there. There's also, apparently, no massive fee for the service--it's simply something that will come with this new handset and there's nothing extra to pay for the year.

Now, Universal signing up to this unlimited deal is one thing. But if the other three majors get on board too this could truly be the best mobile, hell, best PC-based subscription service ever--the songs are yours to keep. Permanently. Forever.

(Source: Crave UK)