Nokia unveils new music service

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Nokia has announced details of its Comes with Music service, which will allow 12 months of unlimited music downloads on pay-as-you-go phones.

From 16 October, the bundle will be sold for £129.95 exclusively from the Carphone Warehouse.

The service boasts more than two million tracks, available first on Nokia's 5310 XpressMusic handset and on more models later.

Also unveiled was a new 5800 handset that will support the service in 2009.

Major music label EMI has announced that it is taking part in the service.

That means that all of the major labels are on board, and Nokia announced it was also partnering with several independent labels.

The deal allows 12 months of unlimited free downloads, but users can keep the music they have downloaded indefinitely.

The music available via the service is not free of digital rights management software which limits what people can do with it.

The music is wrapped in the Windows DRM software and can only be used on a Windows PC and one of the Nokia phones that supports Comes With Music.

Nokia has already sold 10 million 5310 XpressMusic handsets, making it the best-selling music phone. The Comes With Music service will also be available on the N95 handset, but a date for that has not yet been set.

To coincide with the launch, Nokia also unveiled its first ever touchscreen handset, the 5800 XpressMusic. It will be available from late this year at 279 euros (£219) worldwide, with the Comes With Music version available in early 2009.

"We know how much our customers love music and we hope to make music millionaires of people everywhere," said Simon Ainslie, Nokia UK's managing director.

With the 5310 handset, music must be first downloaded to a PC and then transferred to a registered phone, but it will be possible to download directly to the N95 and 5800 handsets when they join the service.