Business | Telecoms
Nokia confident of deals prior to launching mobile music service
Firm in talks with leading record companies and independent labels.
- By Andrew Parker, Financial Times
- Published: 00:38 March 29, 2008
London: Nokia is increasingly confident of securing deals with the world's leading record companies ahead of launching its flagship music service for mobile phones later this year.
In December, Nokia announced plans for its Comes With Music service, under which people will be able to buy mobiles giving them access to Universal Music's entire back catalogue for up to one year.
Nokia is in talks with the other three leading record companies - Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music -plus about 10 independent music labels about giving people access to their catalogues.
Comes with music
Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's executive vice-president responsible for marketing, said he was hopeful the Comes With Music service would feature tracks from artists with all four leading record companies.
"We have negotiations and discussions ongoing with all the majors and a number of indies as well," he said. "I am hopeful at the time of launch, technically we are able to deliver other labels. Certainly our target is to have other labels on board."
Comes With Music, which is expected to launch in the second half of this year, is intended to be one of the cornerstones of Nokia's expansion into internet services.
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