Sony BMG and Nokia Will Offer Free Music

Sony BMG Music Entertainment has just joined Nokia's Comes With Music initiative, according to a press release issued today by the Finnish company. Therefore, Sony BMG will add its impressive music catalog to another impressive one, owned by Universal Music Group and already announced by Nokia, back in December 2007, when it first unveiled Comes With Music.

Nokia Comes With Music is a "program" that allows users to buy a Nokia mobile phone and get free, unlimited access to a wide range of music tracks, for a period of one year. After twelve months, users can keep all the music without having to pay for it.

Talking about the new deal with Nokia, Thomas Hesse, President of Global Digital Business & U.S. Sales, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, said: "This initiative represents a critical new way of gaining access to music, through which fans will be able to explore Sony BMG's vast catalog of recordings for an entire year. We think this business model will encourage users to sample a wide range of material, expand their musical tastes, and listen to more music than ever before. In the process, we think it will provide new opportunities to artists from every genre of music, and increase demand for music overall."

Tero Ojanper�, executive vice president and head of the Nokia Entertainment and Communities business, declared: "As one of the leading major music companies in the world, our collaboration with Sony BMG means we can offer a huge range of fantastic music from both international and local artists via Comes With Music. It's great to have them on board as we move forward with bringing our unlimited music bundle to the market."

Nokia Comes With Music is not yet available, as it will be launched only in the second half of this year. By then, Nokia will most probably have made new deals with other important labels, like EMI and Warner, which is obviously a good thing, since this means more music available for users.