By MATHEW INGRAM
According to a news release from Nokia, the mobile-phone maker now has three of the Big Four labels signed on for its upcoming "Comes With Music" service, which is expected to launch later this year (EMI hasn't signed up yet, but apparently it is planning to).

Although the terms of the deals are unknown, Nokia has reportedly paid the record companies millions of dollars for the right to offer some of their songs free for download, and will build some of that cost into the price of Nokia handsets. Warner boss Edgar Bronfman Jr. was full of visionary enthusiasm for the project: "Nokia's Comes With Music service will be a significant step forward in the evolution of digital music. It's the first global initiative to fundamentally align the interests of music companies with telecommunications companies," he said in a statement.

(Of course, Edgar Jr. was similarly enthusiastic about the benefits of a merger between Seagram and French media conglomerate Vivendi a few years ago, a deal that would eventually vaporize billions of dollars in shareholder value, along with a substantial chunk of his Montreal-based family's fortune. But I digress.)

The Nokia service will apparently allow users to listen to - and download - millions of songs from the major labels, and will even let them retain the right to listen to those songs after the year-long deal has expired.

However, while users will be able to download the songs to a PC, they won't be able to burn them to a CD without paying extra, and won't be able to move them to a portable player at all. And after the year is over, in order to get access to new music under the same terms, users will have to buy a new Nokia phone.

Will the new generation of music fans buy what Nokia is selling? I don't think so - and if they do, it won't be long before they find a way around most of those restrictions.

However, while users will be able to download the songs to a PC...

I smell Microsoft... More DRM? "visionary enthusiasm"? Bronfman?

And after the year is over, in order to get access to new music under the same terms, users will have to buy a new Nokia phone.

Or go back to LimeWire.

I'm sorry, but listening to music on my phone makes about as much sense to me as watching movies on my toaster.

Movies ona toaster! yay!
how do I trademark a vibrator that plays Elvis' love me tender?

I just wonder how the artists get paid on this Nokia deal...?

Actually, editors use "toaster" when making movies.

lol (but true! do a wiki on "toaster")

Actually, I'd rather watch a movie on the side of a toaster than on the damn phone, which seems to be just as popular.

My phone lets me call people and talk to them. That's all I want my phone to do.

There's a guy I see at the grocery store all the time with one of those Bluetooth things implanted in his head and doesn't realize how annoying it is when he stands right next to you and keeps chattering at full volume. I'm wondering how that Bluetooth thing works after someone pitches a can of yams at it. No, the big can....

I hate Nokia.

Many people all over the world boycott Nokia. China and Germany both have boycotts against Nokia for different reasons.

Youtube has many protest/boycott videos against Nokia. Many protest videos against Nokia come from Germany via Youtube: look up "Bochum" (and) "Nokia."

There are German websites dedicated to the Nokia Boycott:
http://www.art-mix.de/boycottnokia/
http://www.b245.de/no-nokia.htm

Nokia = Junk
Boycott Nokia.

Here are some funny boycott videos against Nokia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Bu7Tc2msY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuniIiIMhnM

Spread these videos all over the internet!

After owning a couple of Nokia phones and both of them being abysmal, I see three reasons for never taking this offer up. Way to go, Nokia!