I was invited to a one hour session on Nokia Comes With Music at Nokia Singapore Office. The Nokia Comes With Music service will arrive on our shores soon while the much anticipated Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will arrive on our shores before the end of this month.

What is Nokia Comes With Music?
Taken from the press release:

“Comes With Music sets a precedent for consumer value and convenience that the rest of the digital entertainment industry is already copying,” said Andrew Connell, Head of Entertainment & Communities Category Management, Nokia. “The freedom and simplicity of the service is unparalleled. Comes With Music gives you unlimited access to the millions of tracks in the Nokia Music Store and the music is all yours to keep – because its not a revolution unless you get to keep your music.”

Nokia plans to roll out the commercial Comes With Music service in Singapore and Australia in Q1 2009. These markets follow after the United Kingdom which will be the first Comes With Music market with sales starting this month.

EMI Group has joined as the latest major label to support Comes With Music, in addition to Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. In Singapore, Comes With Music will be supported by prominent Asian independent labels, Ocean Butterflies Music and Rock Records Singapore. “We are very pleased to also have leading Asian labels as part of our Comes With Music offering for Singapore consumers. This will allow our consumers to enjoy even more localized music as long as they want, anytime anywhere”, said Grant McBeath, General Manager for Singapore.

Comes With Music offers one year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalogue and customers can keep all the music that they have downloaded at the end of the year to continue enjoying their music collection. Comes with Music will be available across a range of Nokia devices, including the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia 5310 XpressMusic.

Summary, taken and updated from previous blog post:

  • It is a pre-paid service that is bundled to Nokia mobile phones. Currently available on the 5310 XpressMusic, N95 8GB and 5800 XpressMusic
  • You need to pay a little bit more for the bundled phones
  • Prices for Singapore is still unknown at the moment
  • You get 1 year of unlimited music downloads through Nokia Music Store
  • The music you downloaded, you get to keep it after the 1 year
  • It is DRMed and hence the format is in WMA
  • Music is sync between your computer and mobile phone and hence only one registered computer AND one registered mobile phone is allowed
  • Deactivation of laptops/mobile phones is allowed to a maximum of 4 times per year
  • Currently they have 5 million tracks
  • Over the air downloading of music tracks is allowed on your mobile phone using WiFi or 3G network

Recap Blog Posts

Press Release: Nokia Amps Up Music Offering with the debut of Comes With Music and the New Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Facebook Gallery: Nokia Singapore Office