If you haven’t heard of it, the opportunity to download unlimited music LEGALLY is here.

Get a Nokia handphone that has the service ‘Comes With Music‘ (CWM) enabled and you will be entitled to a database of over 3 million songs.

The service lasts for a year from the day you subscribe to it, and you get to keep all the songs you downloaded permanently, except that it can only be played on 1 PC and 1 phone (yes, you can’t send it to all your friends!) since it has DRM (digital rights management. Seems reasonable since downloading and unlicensed distribution is spiraling out of control.

And did I mention that it is NOT Mac/iPod compatible? It makes sense because it can only be on a PC and on Nokia phones. Nokia doesn’t produce iPod. So even if they do make it compatible, you can’t transfer it to an iPod anyway. I’m not sure if they are trying to get people to use their phones more as an MP3 player though. I sure don’t listen to my music on phones often… or PC (if use a PC I would rather stream music).

However, the downside is that you cannot renew your subscription, and if you want to continue the service, the only way is to get a new mobile phone. Seriously, this doesn’t really bother me that much because youngsters nowadays change phones like they change clothes. Technology always evolves and who knows, maybe you’ll even get another phone before one year is up (and you know you can ‘upgrade’ your contract every 12months). The only thing is CWM-enabled phone comes at a $100-$200 premium over a non-CWM phone. A normal N85 costs $828, while a N85 CWM costs $958.

And you thought you were really getting the music for free.

Perhaps Nokia can produce solely CWM models and non-CWM models, instead of having the same phone with or without CWM. That way when we buy a CWM model we would never realise that we are paying $100-$200 extra (that is if you stop reading this article and other related articles now). By incorporating free music into the phone set, at least we don’t feel the subscription pressure – we can download whenever we feel like it. (Don’t you feel forced to download if you do a monthly based subscription? It’s called Singaporean kiasuism)

I looked at the models that Nokia is offering and I must say I am pretty impressed. Nokia’s designs have improved over the years, and even without the CWM service, I would be quite tempted to get their Xpressmusic 5800. Hence CWM is definitely a bonus for me.

Free music certainly fits us. It’s just like the way we chow at buffets. Nokia had better take extra precaution maintaining their website because you can never underestimate the power of downloaders.