14 DAY TRIAL // The latest rumors on the Web suggest that Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia might soon remove copy locks from its Nokia Music Store, following a trend on the market that drove a large number of music services to drop DRM. As the offerings would become more popular this way, it seems that Nokia might apply the same treatment to its Comes With Music program as well.
The service offers users unlimited music downloads for a certain period of time, available upon the purchase of Nokia CMW-enabled handsets, which include in their price the subscription cost for the service. According to the news, Nokia might start offering DRM-free music as soon as next year, yet it seems that there are no exact details on what it actually plans to do or on what the move would imply.
Even so, Nokia’s global digital music retail director Adam Mirabella is reported to have somehow confirmed such plans for the phone maker. “We have dialogues going with all of our partners and DRM-free is also on the roadmap for the future integration of Comes With Music,” is what Adam Mirabella seems to have said.
According to mocoNews, it's rather uncertain how Nokia will actually make this step. Currently, the company's Comes With Music allows users to enjoy the tracks they have downloaded only as long as the handset is active, while other services work in a different manner. Some download-to-own models (such as the recently announced service from UK’s Virgin Media) allow users to download an unlimited number of MP3s while paying a monthly fee lower than the price of two albums. At the same time, it seems that dropping DRM on a la carte per-track purchases would be a great move for Nokia, in case it decides to act in this direction.
For what it's worth, the phone maker would really need to drop DRM from its music service so as to be able to gain more traction on the market. Currently, users can listen to the downloaded music only on the Comes With Music-enabled devices or on authorized PCs, and the company will have to make changes in this area to turn its CWM service into a more profitable investment.