Nokia Willing to Share Revenue Of Music Bundle With Operators
1 February 2008Nokia is willing to share revenues with phone operators through a program to sell mobiles with unlimited music access.
“In those cases where we cooperate with operators, there will be an arrangement so they can get a piece,” said Tero Ojanpera, an executive vice president and a member of Nokia’s executive board, at the Midem music industry meeting, according to Bloomberg.
Nokia rolled out its “Comes With Music” program in December, which lets customers to buy a phone with a year’s worth of unlimited access to the millions of songs in Nokia’s library. Nokia currently offers tracks from Universal Music Group and is in talks with the other major labels.
Universal Music Group is still a large fan of DRM, so all the music files currently come with DRM. Songs can be shared between the owner’s phone and computer, but not from that computer to another. “Our policy is still that we are still strongly attached to DRM,” said Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy at the Midem meeting.
Nokia’s move to this model is a signal that this will be a viable business model in the future. Including services in this way, and sharing the revenue with their business partners gives this model the opportunity to spread like wildfire. “This is something new,” Ojanpera said at the meeting, “You actually buy a device that is complete. You can’t buy the same device without the content.”
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