Download Free Music For a Year!

Here's how you can get free and unlimited access to millions of music tracks for a whole year.

I remember my first ever mobile phone. It was a brand new Nokia which I finally managed to get after saving my £12 a month pocket money for eight long months. Although it looked and weighed like a brick, I still thought I was the coolest kid on the block.

Mobile phones have come a long way since then, and with the launch of technological wizardry such as the iPhone 3G, owning a mobile phone can now be just like having a PC in your pocket.

One other feature many modern phones have is the ability to play music tracks, which you can load onto your phone from your own personal music collection on your computer.

But how would you like unlimited access to millions of music tracks - all for free?

Freebies with your phone

Nokia has thrown down the gauntlet in the mobile phone market with the launch of its `Comes With Music' service. This gives you unlimited access to millions of music tracks for 12 months, when you purchase either a Nokia 5310 or the 3G enabled Nokia N95.

Once you've registered your phone, you're free to download as many songs as you wish from the Nokia music store onto your PC. You can transfer all the music you've downloaded onto your phone just as you would an iPod or MP3 player.

Tracks can also be played on an authorised computer of your choice, and if you opt for the N95, you also have the option of downloading the tracks straight to your phone without the hassle of connecting it to your computer.

Pocket Jukebox

The Nokia 5310 is available on pay as you go for an upfront fee of £129.95. Alternatively, you can get the handset free with contracts costing from £25 a month with the Carphone Warehouse.

The N95 is currently only available on a contract. If you plan to download songs straight onto your phone, I recommend you opt for a plan which includes unlimited data, or it could end up costing more than you bargained for.

For example, Orange's Dolphin 40 tariff comes with unlimited data and texts, as well as 750 cross network minutes and a free handset. However, at a cost of £720 over the life of the contract, weigh up your personal call use before simply giving into the gimmick of free music.

Positives and pitfalls

In my opinion, the best thing about Comes With Music is that once your contract expires, all the music you've downloaded over the year is yours to keep - for life.

However, you will only be able to play these tracks on your existing phone or registered PC, and won't be able to transfer them onto a different device, such as your iPod.

Plus, after the year has elapsed, if you want to download any more tunes from the Nokia site, you will have to fork out for a brand new handset to renew your subscription.

In addition, the service is currently only compatible with Windows operating systems, so if you have a Mac or use Linux, you won't be able to take advantage of this service.

The shape of things to come?

So, is Nokia set to revolutionise how we download and how much we pay for our music forever?

Over the years, sales of CD singles in particular have been in decline since the introduction of music downloads, which, as Emma Lunn highlighted in The Cheapest Places To Buy Music Online, can be bought for as little as 25p per track.

Services such as these will only push prices lower, and could very well lead to the demise of the CD single as we know it.

In addition, Sony Ericsson plans to launch a similar service called PlayNow early next year. The service, which debuts in Sweden within the next few weeks, offers an equally extensive music library of around three million tracks.

And, unlike the Nokia deal, when your contract comes to an end, although you won't be able to keep all your songs, your 300 most played tracks will not only be all yours to keep, but can be transferred onto your iPod or any other MP3 player of your choice. Phones will also come pre-loaded with around 1,000 of the most recent and popular songs.

At the end of the day, everyone loves the word `free', and the deals mentioned above provide good value for avid music lovers looking to cut the cost of their music downloads. With single music tracks on iTunes costing 79p a pop, you could end up saving yourself a small fortune.

Students looking for a new mobile or an iPod upgrade with a twist may also see this as a cost effective option, and parents may consider this an apt Christmas present to stop their teenagers constantly nagging them for money to buy music - well, for a year at least.

However, as both a Carphone Warehouse press officer and I agreed, these phones won't quite be rendering the iTunes store and others redundant just yet.

Nevertheless, they provide an excellent money saving idea, and should give you some food for thought next time you're bopping away to your favourite tunes.

More: Two Ways To Cut Your Mobile Phone Bill / Grab A Great Dongle Deal