Next month the UK will see Nokia launch its free music Subscription, Europe and Asia will have it coming to them in 2009. With Sony BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music already with Nokia, EMI are reported to sign on board before the launch too. With these great giants on board Nokia is going to offer around 2.1 million tracts at the launch.

Although the music service is advertised as free, it seems like they will just include the service in the price of Nokia’s pre-pay 5310 XpressMusic Comes With Music Edition handset (currently priced between £70-£80 for the pay-as-you-go, non-CwM handset) when purchased though the UK’s Carphone Warehouse.

But this is the catch, you have to then purchase by then end of the year another CwM-compatible device in order to continue with your downloads of your favourite tracks. If you do not wish to buy the handset, you will still be able to continue making and receiving calls and send and receive text messages with you 5310 CwM edition phone, and in the same way as your computer allows you to, you can continue to playback all those DRM-wrapped WMA tracks — they will not play anywhere else.
We feel that the fact you are on a time limit on this DRM-enabled device, that it will cause problems and not be as appealing as first thought to consumers, but as everything else I guess a hacker somewhere in the world will work out how to get through the system.

We think that as the “Nokia comes with music” press event is set for October 2, that the Nokia’s pre-pay 5310 XpressMusic will be out shortly after.

Source: productreview via engadget