Nokia’s Comes With Music service comes to an end

Nokia’s Comes With Music, recently rebranded to Ovi Music Unlimited, is set to wind down at the end of 2011 in the UK.

Nokia says that all users with a subscription will able to download music as normal until their subscription ends. Ovi Music (Nokia’s main a la carte music service) will not be affected.

Comes With Music/Ovi Music Unlimited – launched in 2007 – was pre-bundled with a select few Nokia handsets and gave users access to unlimited music downloads for a set monthly subscription.

Users could then transfer their subscription to a new Nokia Comes With Music handset, when the time came to upgrade.

However, as all Comes With Music/Ovi Music Unlimited tracks were digitally rights managed (DRM), they would only work on designated devices, which was good for Nokia, who wanted the service to keep users locked into its own phones, but bad for the user, who wanted to transfer files to all manner of devices.

Due to this DRM issue, lack of compatible devices, and the likes of rival services such as iTunes, Comes With Music didn’t attract many subscribers and has now gone the way of the N-Gage and Symbian Foundation.

Another blow to Nokia. Hopefully the release of Meego this year will put a spring back into the manufacturer’s step.