Nokia and Orange today announced that they will, exclusively, launch the Comes with Music edition of the Nokia 5800 in the UK. From May 29th, the Comes with Music Edition of the 5800 will be available on a number of two year Orange contracts, ranging from £25 to £45 per month. For the duration of their contract, consumers will be able to download unlimited music from the Nokia Music Store. Read on for my thoughts.

This is, effectively, take two for Comes with Music in the UK market. The initial launch, with Carphone Warehouse, on the Nokia 5310 (and SIM free N95 8GB and N96), failed to meet expectations.

Some of the problems were caused by poor marketing, which failed to adequately explain the offering to consumers, and the choice of launch handsets.

In other markets, notably Singapore and Australia, which both included the 5800 as a launch device, Comes with Music has been more successful. In Singapore, for example, Nokia are projecting that Comes with Music will increase the digital music market by 30%.

With a major operator partner, and a music focussed handset, Comes with Music stands a good chance of wider uptake the second time round. Orange will roll out the offering through its major retail partners (Orange Shops, Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and online channels) and are likely to back it up with a joint marketing campaign with Nokia.

The basic premise remains sound - unlimited legal music downloads is a very compelling proposition, especially when the cost is rolled into the contract price, as it gives the perception of unlimited 'free' music.

Although there are some concerns around DRM in the long term, these are can be over-stated because of the influence of early adopters in online discussions (who tend to have an aversion to any form of DRM).

A rough eye-balling on existing price plans suggests Orange is adding a premium of between £4 and £7 per month for the Comes with Music offering. This would suggest a cost of roughly £120 (£60 per year) for Comes with Music. However, it is impossible to put any exact figures on this due to the effects of subsidies. Music labels are very wary of setting a cost-per-year on music as it would likely lead to a price war and decreased music revenues. This is why we are very unlikely to see Comes with Music unbundled from a contract (i.e. available as a separate subscription).

From the press release:

Orange Comes with Music price plans

Each plan includes two years access to the Comes with Music service. After the two years is complete, consumers can no longer download new music, but they do keep any music they have already downloaded.

Downloads can only be played back on the PC and the Comes with Music device.