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From Reuters:

“FRANKFURT/AMSTERDAM, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Nokia’s plan to offer customers unlimited music on cell phones challenges the dominant pay-per-track model and could upset carriers already worried that it is poaching their customers.

The world’s biggest cell phone maker said on Tuesday it agreed with top record label Universal Music Group to give buyers of particular Nokia devices unlimited access to millions of tracks for a year and let them to keep the music afterwards.” - Dec 4th, 2007

Nokia and Universal’s deal will allow users to download as much and as many songs as they want from Universal’s catalogue of millions. The thing that sets this offering apart is that users can keep the music after termination of the contract. This is a major break from the way that competitors have operated such as Vodafone’s Music Station, which offers users unlimited music while they hold a contract. Upon termination of the Vodafone contract, users loose the music they collected.

This appears to be the first time that a major label has conceded that recorded music is a free commodity to most users. Make no mistakes, Universal will be making money: they get a certain amount of money per phone sold. But notice that valuation is not attached to the music itself. It can’t be. No one pays for recorded music anymore.

So the major labels have finally accepted reality. These are very interesting times to be a musician. Better polish up that live show. It seems that in todays world that’s the only thing musicians have of value, the ability to perform music. It certainly isn’t the ability to record music anymore. Good thing performing music is as fun as it is!

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Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@Next2Friends.com