Nokia splashed on the dough to announce the launch of their new music subscription service that is tagged to the Nokia mobile phone, called “Comes with Music”:http://www.comeswithmusic.com/singapore/. Basic premise is buy a new supported Nokia mobile phone, you will get an access to millions of music you can download for free (data charges apply if songs are downloaded on the mobile) and even when your subscription expired after 12 months, you get to keep the tracks. Caveat is the DRM applies on the downloaded track, tying you down to one mobile and ONE computer. Yes, ONE computer.
That is worse than iTunes’ Fairplay DRM (no more when Apple went DRM-Free) which was limited to 5 PCs and any number of registered iPods.
And if you are a Mac user thinking of getting a new Nokia phone to tap the unlimited downloads of music, forget it. Nokia’s Music Store, which is where you get your music, will “not work”:http://iheartapple.org/2009/02/nokia-music-storefail/ on a Mac.
You are better off getting an iPhone and registering yourself the “US iTunes Music Store”:http://iheartapple.org/2008/11/getting-into-the-us-itunes-store-with-itunes-gift-card/.
DRM is the deal killer here. Heard it on the radio and thought it was too good to be true. If not for the DRM, this is something I’d personally go for. In fact, if the music came DRM free, I’d be more than happy to get it for a reasonable amount of limited downloads.