April 01, 2009

By By Andre Paine, London

Nokia's unlimited music offering Comes With Music has launched in Italy and will be rolling out in Sweden this week.

The service debuted in the U.K. last October, followed by launches in Australia and Singapore earlier this year.

Italy is the latest market where consumers can sign up to the all-you-can-eat subscription service, which offers a catalog of millions of DRM-protected tracks via PC and mobile. All the majors and numerous indies have licensing deals with Nokia for the service, which allows users to retain the tracks they downloaded on the designated PC and handset when the subscription period is up.

In Italy, Nokia is offering its 5800 model as a pre-licensed handset for the service. It costs ?469 ($621.60) for 12 months' access to Comes With Music.

The unlimited service will also launch in Sweden on April 3 and will be available with four different handsets.

Nokia's move into the Nordic market with Comes With Music was welcomed by Jacob Key, business development director at Warner Music Nordic and Baltic

"Right out of the box, Comes With Music enables fans to explore a vast array of content as well as own and enjoy it on first-class music-enabled devices," said Key in a statement.

"This highly innovative business model aligns the interests of music companies and telecommunications companies so both are equally focused on offering the best possible music experience to attract, engage and retain customers. We're delighted to welcome the service to Sweden and look forward to working with Nokia and our roster of artists to develop the exciting new opportunities created here."

Further launches are planned in Mexico, Portugal, Norway and South Africa in the months ahead; a U.S. launch is not yet confirmed although it is understood to be a possibility for the fall.

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