Our friends over at World Of Nokia, Dan and Christian, have reminded us that today is official Comes With Music day, at least in the U.K., where Nokia pays attention. If you’ve missed out on the past 15 months or so, Nokia’s Comes With Music program is designed to help encourage consumers to realize that their phone makes an excellent portable music player, and experience – with no risk – the convenience of downloading music tracks directly through the Nokia Music Store. Comes With Music devices, such as the 5310 XpressMusic that launches tomorrow, and the upcoming N95 8GB and 5800 XpressMusic, will come with an in-box voucher for unlimited downloads through the Nokia Music Store.
The unlimited shopping spree only lasts for 12 months, after which you can continue to use the Nokia Music Store at regular prices, or you can purchase a new Comes With Music device. While the program has come under fire lately due to the Windows DRM that Nokia is using in its store, it’s still a year of unlimited music downloads, which isn’t bad. The pricing isn’t bad, either, with the 5310 XpressMusic priced on a prepay setup for GBP129.95 (US$225) – contract free. That’s essentially the same as paying less than $20/month for unlimited music, ala Napster ToGo, and you get a free handset. Hard to beat, if you ask me.
In any case, the deal’s only available at Carphone Warehouse in the U.K., so if you live anywhere else, today is basically a normal day for you. Rough stuff. If you’re interested in how the whole thing works, the gang at MusicAlly have had a chance to play with the setup recently, you can read their exploits here and here.
