June 18 - 10:20am EDT   A rumor early on Thursday suggests that Nokia could remove copy protection from all its music services within the next year. Claimed sources for ME say the smartphone maker will switch its pay-per-download store from locking songs with Windows Media protection to unguarded MP3s by late this year. Tellingly, Comes With Music would also reportedly make the switch and would do so sometime in 2010, giving users a year of unlimited downloads they could move to any device, including iPhones and iPods. [full story]

May 13 - 5:10pm EDT   Nokia today launched a Comes with Music edition of the 5800 XpressMusic in Britain. The addition is exclusive to Orange UK and comes in a unique black-and-silver trim. Improving on the special-run 5800 available elsewhere, the touchscreen phone now gets a two-year subscription to Nokia's unlimited, copy-protected music service. It continues to let buyers keep their downloaded tracks whenever the subscription ends. [full story]

April 29 - 2:20pm EDT   Nokia today defended the poor reception to its Comes With Music service in the UK by claiming that the launch failed primarily due to a weak device lineup. Music VP Rob Taylor argues that Nokia is "happy" with its performance in the country but has promptly said that the two phones available with the unlimited music service, the 5310 XpressMusic and N95 8GB, were too old and not enough to draw subscribers. Of the two, the N95 8GB is the most advanced but was roughly a year old at the time of the Comes With Music launch. [full story]

April 22 - 1:15pm EDT   Nokia's Comes With Music unlimited download service has performed well short of expectations, analysis by UK research group Music Ally says. The firm estimates that only 23,000 people have bought the special phones equipped with 1 year of music service and says the number is exceptionally low given the amount of advertising. The UK was the first country to adopt the service and is considered a potential sign of Comes With Music's performance elsewhere. [full story]

April 16 - 8:25am EDT   Nokia this morning reported major falls in both its financial performance and its phone market share for the quarter. The Finnish cellphone maker's operating profit has dropped from slightly over $2 billion in early 2008 to just $72.4 million in early 2009 based on a significant decrease in sales income, which dropped by 27 percent year-over-year. Much of this is attributed directly to a 19.3 percent plunge in cellphone shipments from 115.5 million phones in the first quarter of 2008 to 93.2 million for the same period this year. [full story]

March 9 - 4:30pm EDT   Nokia is teasing the public with an advertisement for an event this Wednesday, March 11th, that would possibly see the release of a music phone, with many thinking it could be yet another handset compatible with the company's Comes With Music service. If so, this would be the third such phone, adding to the current 5800 XpressMusic and 5630 XpressMusic, the latter launched less than a month ago. The event will likely consist of a product announcement, followed by two question and answer sessions, happening in the morning and evening online at Nokia Events. No other details are known, including whether this is indeed a new product announcement or a change to the service ... [full story]

March 2 - 1:30pm EST   Music sold through Nokia's Comes With Music service will eventually go DRM-free, according to one of the company's executives. Adam Mirabella, the director of Nokia's Global Digital Music Retail division, says that the company is currently in negotiations with various groups, and has fixed removing DRM as a long-term goal. No specific record labels have been named, nor has a firm date been set for when the transition will occur. [full story]

February 25 - 4:30pm EST   Nokia on Wednesday announced it will launch its Comes With Music service, along with the compatible Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset, in Australia on March 20th. The handset, Nokia's first touchscreen device, will have access to a library that has more than 4 million tracks. As in other countries, the service will give users the option to download an unlimited amount music to their PC or the 5800 handset for one year and keep what they download, unlike other time-limited or pay-per track services. [full story]

February 13 - 7:40am EST   Nokia on Friday used one of the last days before Mobile World Congress to add multiple new phones to the Comes With Music roster. In addition to existing phones that come with the year-long unlimited music subscription, such as the N96, an introduction of the service into Singapore is also bringing both high- and low-end phones into the mix with the N79, N85, 5800 XpressMusic, 5320 XpressMusic and 5220 XpressMusic all getting the same option. The addition has the same rights as in other countries and lets owners keep any music they've downloaded once the subscription is over. [full story]

February 10 - 9:00am EST   Preparing itself in the run-up to next week's Mobile World Congress, Nokia today launched the 5630 XpressMusic. The new mid-range phone in the company's media-focused lineup centers around a rare voice recognition system that will play artists, songs and other music content just through speaking its name. Its visual interface also borrows from the N97's social component by including a new Contacts Bar on the home screen that provides quick access to the recent calls, messages and photos from as many as 20 favorites. [full story]

January 21 - 4:05pm EST   Nokia on Wednesday officially confirmed an earlier report that it would expand its Comes with Music service to multiple European countries. The world's largest cellphone maker has signed pan-European licenses with various national collecting societies that will allow it to soon offer the music service in Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. [full story]

January 19 - 4:45pm EST   Nokia is planning on introducing its Comes with Music service into Singapore and Australia by March, according to a weekend report. Currently only available in the UK, Nokia is also working on introducing the unlimited music subscription service both in the previously mentioned near-term launches as well as to the US and Latin America sometime later in 2009. [full story]

November 20 - 7:55am EST   Microsoft on Thursday gave its Zune Pass feature an upgrade by letting owners keep ten of the songs they download each month as part of the unlimited subscription service. The plan includes music from all four major labels as well as independents such as Arts & Crafts or Ghostly International and doesn't require any alterations to the $15 monthly subscription rate or to the choice of format for music, which can include either unprotected MP3s or the proprietary, locked Zune format. [full story]

October 2 - 2:10pm EDT   As a companion to news of the 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen phone, Nokia today also kicked off the formal launch details of its Comes With Music service. The company now plans to ship the inaugural, modified 5310 XpressMusic on October 16th and will sell it exclusively through Carphone Warehouse for 130 pounds ($230). As promised, the handset will come with one year of unlimited access to music and will let owners keep any downloaded tracks if they choose not to renew the subscription. Pricing for a renewal still isn't available. [full story]

September 26 - 7:35am EDT   Nokia's defining 5800 XpressMusic is due at a previously rumored October 2nd special event, claim sources for Reuters. The news outlet points to the media gathering, most likely also to include Nokia's already discussed Comes With Music plans, as the starting point for the company's first ever touchscreen phone. The device has been nicknamed the "Tube" and is widely known to be pitched as a non-smartphone but high-spec alternative to handsets like the iPhone, with a sharper 640x360 display and 3.2-megapixel camera countered by the lack of large built-in storage and reduced support for third-party apps. [full story]