Full details on Nokia’s 5310 Comes With Music UK launch

Fraser’s already written about Nokia’s unveiling of the Nokia 5800 ‘Tube’ handset last night, but the company’s Remix London event was also the coming out party for its Comes With Music initiative. Nokia had already announced that the first Comes With Music phone, the 5310 XpressMusic, would go on sale in the UK this month. But last night saw some new details on the launch, and the service itself.

To quickly restate the basic facts though: if you buy a Comes With Music handset, you’ll get unlimited music downloads for the next year (or 18 months – we’ll get to that in a minute) to your PC, which can then be synched onto the phone. Nokia and the record labels are very keen to point out that this music isn’t ‘free’ – you’re still paying for it as part of the price of the handset. But the point is, it feels free.

Read on for the new details that were revealed last night, including launch date, handset pricing, and how Comes With Music will really work…

1. The 5310 Comes With Music edition will cost £129.95 when it goes on sale at the Carphone Warehouse on October 16th here in the UK. That includes unlimited music downloads for… well, we assume a year.

2. At the last minute, EMI signed up for Comes With Music, meaning that Nokia has a full set of all four ‘major’ labels (the others are Universal, Sony BMG and Warner). Nokia has also signed deals with a host of independent labels. At launch, the company says it’ll have “100% chart coverage” in the UK. For most users, that’ll cover everything they want to download.

3. You’ll get to keep all the songs you’ve downloaded when your Comes With Music contract runs out, although they are DRM-protected WMA files – so you won’t be able to transfer them to any device you like to play them.

4. Also supporting Comes With Music will be the Nokia N95 8GB handset, although it’s unclear whether that means existing owners of the phone will be able to sign up, or if it’s just people buying it after October 16th. The third confirmed Comes With Music handset for the UK is the 5800 Tube.

5. There will be two subscription options for Comes With Music – 12 months or 18 months – with the latter introduced by Nokia to cater for the fact that many people sign 18-month contracts with their operators nowadays. It’s not clear how or if you’ll choose between these – it may be it’s dependent on who you buy a Comes With Music phone from, and which option they’ve chosen.

6. When you buy a Comes With Music handset, you’ll get a leaflet inside with a PIN code. You’ll then login to the Nokia Music Store, enter the PIN code, and voila: all the prices disappear, and unlimited downloads are yours for the taking – this video shows you how it works. Incidentally, Nokia says unlimited really does mean unlimited – although we’ll be scouring the terms & conditions documents to see if there’s a fair usage ceiling.

7. If you and a friend both have Comes With Music phones, you’ll be able to share songs in some way. Since you’ll both have the rights to download whatever you want, there’s no fear in this for the record labels. Nokia didn’t specify whether this means transferring tracks from phone to phone, or (more likely) sharing the metadata to enable downloads.

So there you have it. Comes With Music is a really big deal – for the music industry, for music fans, and especially for Nokia. There are a fair few unanswered questions about the terms and conditions, and how Nokia plans to roll out the service over the next few months. But rest assured, we’ll be having a play with the 5310 on Day One and giving you our full thoughts.

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