Nokia Adds Warner Music to Upcoming Service

— -- Nokia continues to prepare for the launch of its Comes With Music service, signing a deal with Warner Music on Tuesday.

Comes With Music was first announced in December, and will package a mobile phone with a year of unlimited access to music. When the year is over users will be able to keep their downloaded songs.

It's expected to launch in the second half of 2008 on a range of Nokia devices in selected territories, according to Nokia.

The company has so far signed distribution deals with Universal and Sony, which means that only EMI is missing for Nokia to have all four major record companies on board.

"We set out to create the music experience that people are telling us they are looking for -- all the music they want in the form of unlimited downloads to their mobile device and PC," said Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president and general manager of Nokia's new markets unit.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music's chairman and CEO, calls it the first global initiative to fundamentally align the interests of music companies with telecommunications companies.

But what Bronfman and other record company executives stand to make from the arrangement remains a closely guarded secret. The Finnish phone giant isn't commenting on the financial details of the deals with the record companies, according to a spokesman.

In April reports surfaced that it would pay up to $35 for every phone incorporating Comes With Music, but Nokia said the reports were just speculation.

As part of the deal, content from Warner Music will also be sold through Nokia's Music stores, which currently operate in Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden and the U.K.