Nokia Music to Become Ovi Music, Tracks to go DRM Free!

The Comes With Music Service which opened an all new chapter in the music industry, especially in Europe and Asian markets is all set for a grand change as Nokia hinted at removing the DRM shackles from the tracks downloaded from its online music store.

Rumours of Nokia Music going DRM free first started when Nokia India started mailing out their subscribers late last month, announcing the re-branding of Nokia Music into Ovi Music among other things. This was recently confirmed by  a press statement by Adam Mirabella, director, Global Digital Music Retail, Nokia, who said “We have dialogues going with all of our partners and Digital Rights Management-free (DRM-free) is also on the roadmap for the future integration of ‘Comes With Music’.” More information and the e-mail forwarded by Nokia India after the break.

Nokia India’s e-mail-

As you may know DRM ties down the downloaded tracks to just one PC and one Nokia device, very much to the frustration of users who are deprived of free-will usage of music, despite having purchased the music via legal online channels . With International Data Corporation (IDC), 2008 figures pitching Nokia at the tops spot with a gigantic 50 % market share in the Asia Pacific online music sales; Nokia has made the right decision to go DRM free for their online music store. (For comparison in APAC region, Sony-Ericsson enjoys  5 % market share and Apple’s iTunes has penetrated less than 1% of the market.

So set back and enjoy while the engineers and developers at Nokia toil over to bring DRM free tracks to your 5800s. We are also hoping DRM free versions of all the previously purchased tracks will be available for free from the Ovi Music Store as and when it’s released.