Nokia Licenses Warner Music Group for "Comes With Music"

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 1, 2008 - 7:34am.

Espoo, Finland - Mobile phone giant Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced on Tuesday that it has signed a deal to add Warner Music Group's (NYSE: WMG) catalog to its "Comes With Music" line of phones that ship with a year's worth of unlimited music downloads, as well as its Nokia Music Stores. The company previously licensed Universal Music Group tracks for the service in December 2007, and Sony BMG in April.

Slated to launch in the second half of the year, Nokia's Comes With Music will allow consumers to keep forever all of the music they download in the first 12 months of owning a supported handset.

From that point, consumers will be able to continue to purchase and add tracks from the Nokia Music Store.

"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," said Edgar Bronfman, Jr., chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group.