Nokia is rolling out a new “all-you-can-eat” music service this week in the U.K. that’s a prototype for a service it plans to roll out worldwide.  “Comes with Music”, currently marketed only by U.K. retailer Carphone Warehouse,  lets users download as much music for one year on their Nokia phones as they want –and port it to their computers –, but there’s  a catch: they can’t move the music from their devices or their computers. If they want to add more songs after the year, they have to buy a new device.

Nokia will cover the royalties it’s paying to three of the four major labels by adding a surcharge to the phones, according to officials at the CTIA wireless show in San Francisco. They insisted the service is not an experiment, but a prelude to what will soon be offered in the U.S. They didn’t specify a time frame.

Any expansion of the service could be problematic for Nokia’s relationship with wireless carriers, who are rolling out their own competitive music services.

Posted under Michael's Blog