Published on Sat, Oct 04, 2008 at 09:01 | Source : Business Line
Updated at Sat, Oct 04, 2008 at 09:13
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Nokia makes music downloads free
Like a tail wagging the dog, the world’s number one maker of mobile phones, overwhelmed the global unveiling of its first smart touch phone, with an announcement that came later.
For such buyers, the biggest plus point for forking out Euro 279 ($390) for the 5800 (this is the price before any service provider subsidies) lies in Nokia's new "Comes With Music" service: Buying this handset or new units of the 5310 XPress Music phone or the N95 smart phone, means one can access a music repertoire running into millions from publishers such as Universal, Sony BMG, Warners or EMI - as well as local music companies in every geography, for one year after purchase.
You can keep all you download for free, during this period, thereafter. The Senior Vice-President (Entertainment and Communities Business), Mr Tero Ojanpera, added that there was no restriction as regards to the format: users could use the 'Nokia Music For PC' software to re-format tracks to any standard and also 'rip' CDs directly into their phones.
Music publishers plagued by piracy might decide that rather than spend time and money trying to stop the unstoppable, they were better off being paid in bulk by large handset makers such as Nokia - leaving music essentially free for the end-user (provided he/she bought a particular handset).
The 5800 would be launched in India towards the end of 2008 at a price around Rs 20,000, the Nokia Vice-President, Ms Jo Harlow, told Business Line. By then, the company hopes to put together some Indian content into its localised "Comes with Music" initiative.
