This could be huge if the reality plays out as promised. With Nokia's new Comes With Music scheme, you can buy a phone and get a year's worth of music subscription.
And get this: when the year is up, you can keep everything. It sounds great, but the money has to be coming from somewhere. Perhaps Nokia is paying Universal (currently the sole label on board), perhaps there will be some kind of monster sign up fee for the service, or maybe we all just died and woke up in a better place. Nokia boss Anssi Vanjoki:
At the Gadget Lab, we're a cynical bunch, so we'll make a few guesses (and right now, these are just guesses – Nokia's press release is very sparse on details). We expect that you'll only be able to download as much as the phone can hold (ie. no uploading to a PC), and that once the year is up, you'll be left with only that music.
Press release [Nokia]
*[Update! Nokia was kind enough to clarify a few things for us this afternoon. Apparently when you purchase a a Nokia CWM, a unique PIN accompanies it. You can use this PIN to register both your PC and mobile device to a CWM account as well as download music directly to said PC or mobile device. What's better? You can transfer your CWM library to a new CWM device up to three times per subscription period. And say you burn a CD of the music you've downloaded? Why you can purchase an upgrade of the songs you wish to burn. Kinda sweet.] *
