Nokia: Comes with Music tracks are WMA 192kbps and 128kbps

Slowly, ever so slowly, a picture is beginning to form of Nokia’s all-you-can eat, free-for-1-year, keep-your-songs-for-life, Comes with Music (CWM) service. We know what it’s not — Universal’s Total Music (the similarities are just a coincidence) — and now we know more about what it is. The following details were just confirmed to us directly by Nokia:

• Audio is wrapped in an old-school, WMA DRM wrapper
• Songs can be burned to CD only after purchasing an upgrade of undisclosed cost
• Nokia has not announced any CWM devices, yet
• You can download music directly to your CWM device or computer using a unique PIN
• Songs will play only on your CWM device and the computer you registered with your CWM account
• Oh, and tracks will “typically” be delivered in 192kbps, while “older tracks may be delivered at 128kbps”

There’s no mention of registering the music to new devices after the phone or PC gives up the ghost. Understandably, Nokia was not willing to discuss the financial arrangement they are offering the labels. But come on Nokia, surely you can convince ‘em to drop the DRM by mid-2008, right? There are plenty of places to hide any added costs.

[via ]