Nokia's 'Comes With Music' tracks will be hard to move

Nokia's upcoming mobile music service may be called "Comes With Music," but the question many of its charter subscribers will be asking -- especially those who've already been burned out on DRM -- is, will the music stay put?

When the first word in the text of a contract is qualified with an asterisk, it's generally a sign that the document should not be taken at face value. And when that first word is "lifetime," "unlimited," or "free," it's a safe bet that it was placed there more as bait than a statement of fact.

Despite Nokia's conditional use of the term "Unlimited" when describing Comes With Music -- on track to premiere on October 16 in the UK -- the service contains few surprises that the company does not acknowledge up front.

As promised, the 12 or 18 month subscription authorizes the use of one Comes With Music device (phone) and one associated PC. The PC runs the Nokia Music application that enables music to be transferred to and from the phone, and only supports Windows Vista or 32-bit Windows XP SP2.

Also as promised, any music downloaded in the period of time the user subscribes to Comes With Music is available for unlimited plays after the subscription ends. However it cannot be burned to a disc or transferred to other media; and two years after canceling the subscription, the music will not be able to be transferred to other PCs. Before that two years expires, though, the authorized Comes With Music device or PC can be changed as often as once every three months.

The service will launch in the UK through a deal with Carphone Warehouse. £129.95 buys both the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic handset and one year of Comes With Music.