Nokia (News - Alert) has revealed that it struck a deal with Universal Music Group to offer free downloads of recordings to buyers of certain Nokia phones.

International Herald Tribune reported from London that the deal is part of an effort to stimulate the transformation of cell phones into media devices and to develop new sources of revenue for a music industry wracked by piracy.

Under the agreement, Nokia handset users may be allowed to download any musical track of their like and keep playing them for as long as 12 months free of cost.

Further more, Universal will let consumers download the songs to new Nokia phones or to their computers, via mobile or fixed-line broadband connections.

Users will pay a subscription to download DRM-free music, which they can keep even when the yearly subscription ends.

The newspaper says the deal may one day turn the mobile phone maker into an Internet company like Google (News - Alert), and enhance revenue sources.

Universal, meanwhile, will get a portion of revenue from sales of the phones.

Nokia said this would start in the second half of next year, and said it was negotiating with other record companies in an effort to get them to join Universal in offering their music in this way.

While cell phone manufacturers, network operators and music companies have had high hopes for mobile music, so far the biggest source of mobile revenue for the music companies has been from sales of customized ring tones.


Narayan Bhat is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more Bhat’s articles, please visit his TMCnet columnist page.