Ah Nokia Comes With Music. You’ve had a troubled few years. Once billed as a true iTunes rival, your unlimited-DRM-laced-music-downloads never exactly exploded here. Then you were set to get a name change. Now though, Nokia really is pulling the plug in the UK, we’ve confirmed.
Reuters reported this morning that the Nokia Comes With Music service – which for a one off price gives you unlimited downloads from all the major labels that can be played on your PC or supported Nokia phone – would cease in all but a few developing nations, and we’ve confirmed that is indeed the case. If you’re a Nokia Comes With Music user in the UK, well, you won’t be for much longer.
A spokesperson gave Electricpig the following statement today:
“We are currently working with our partners to deliver new, innovative music services as part of the Ovi experience during 2011. As we focus on delivering these, we will continue to offer 12 month Ovi Music Unlimited in China, India and Indonesia, while offering 6 month subscriptions in Brazil, Turkey and South Africa. For other markets, we plan to cease producing Ovi Music Unlimited-edition devices at the end of the year.
Naturally, there will be no disruption to the service for our existing customers in these markets or anyone who in the future purchases an Ovi Music Unlimited-edition device from stores while stocks last – they can continue to enjoy unlimited downloads for the duration of their original Ovi Music Unlimited subscription and keep those tracks forever.
Ovi Music – our DRM-free, a-la-carte music store – is not affected in any way and music fans can continue to purchase music in 38 markets.”
So there you have it. Nokia Comes With Music will end operations in the UK at the end of the year, though frankly, we’re struggling to find any phones on sale with the service bundled in still – and the Comes With Music website appears to have lost its domain name as well.
If you’ve amassed a large collection through Nokia Comes With Music, don’t get too down however: there are (unethical) means of busting out the DRM and turning your tunes into regular MP3s, and the tracks you already have won’t stop working when the download service does. And for around the same price per year, you can run Spotify on lots of Symbian S60 Nokia phones.
Did you use Comes With Music? Will you miss the service? Are you a Spotify stalwart? Shout up with your comments below!
