Having been a fierce opponent in the past to Nokia's efforts to break into the mobile music arena, Orange has now admitted to ongoing negotiations with Nokia regarding the Comes with Music (CWM) service.
While no agreement is in place today, Orange admitted it was aware that Carphone Warehouse was currently selling CWM prepay and pay-monthly handsets with Orange Sims in their stores. A quick decision is expected given that Nokia used this weekend to launch a multi-million Euro pre-Christmas campaign to promote CWM using major TV channels and print media.
3UK already sells CWM on the Nokia N95 8GB with 300 minutes and texts for €45 per month, and would be the only operator to benefit from Nokia's marketing campaign--something that Nokia would want to avoid and Orange would wish to gain from.
But Nokia's chance of gaining Orange as a reseller of its music service looks likely to be disrupted following the agreement by EMI, Warner Music and indie label Beggars Group to launch their own service offering unlimited music downloads for €130. The new service, Datz Music Lounge, can be played on any mobile phone or portable music player. Like Nokia's offering, subscribers will be given access to it for a year and keep all the music they download.
For more on this story go to:
Brand Republic and Mobile Today
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