The long awaited cell phone music service from Nokia, Comes With Music, has finally been penciled in for launch in October. Nokia will initially launch its 'all-you-can-eat' service in the UK before a global rollout to other countries. The success of the iPhone in particular is seen by Nokia as a challenge in the very lucrative digital music download market. The ace up Nokia's sleeve though is that their service will be unlimited rather than the pay-per-download model that Apple use for its iTunes Store.

Purchasers of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic device will be able to access the music service for a year and download an unlimited amount of media; an added bonus is that consumers will get to keep their downloads even after their subscription ends. The Comes With Music service also offers a social networking element where users can connect and share their music.

The executive vice president of Nokia, Tero Ojanperä, said, "Sharing music becomes legal, and you can start to build the offering into a social network."

For more information on music social network services, be sure to take a look at the following articles:

• Maestro.fm review - a social music network that gives you online storage for your music library.
• Top 4 Music Streaming Sites

According to a recent article by The Business Review, Trans World Entertainment Corp. is trialling a digital kiosk in two of its For Your Entertainment stores (Colonie Center, NY, and at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.) This is the first time that a U.S in-store digital music download service has been launched, and if successful, the company is planning to launch a further 38 kiosks by the fall.

The chairman and chief executive officer, Robert J. Higgins, said, "Customers can burn songs onto iPods and other MP3 players using the Mix and Burn kiosks in stores. Previously, they could only burn songs onto CDs"

If you're a keen user of the nostalgic Muxtape service then you may already know that the very large finger of the RIAA has pressed it's stop button for the time being. Muxtape enables users to create a virtual custom mix-tape that can be shared with others who can listen to it via streaming audio. At present, visitors to the Muxtape website will see the image of a cassette tape with a short message that reads: "Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA".

The fact that users can upload music, and create playlists that are available to others via streaming audio has raised concerns with the RIAA. It is the unauthorized hosting and delivery of this music that has caused the shutdown due to copyright violation.

Streaming audio is rapidly gaining in popularity through the use of streaming services, and Internet radio in particular. The danger for the music industry with this latest development is that music discovery sources such as Muxtape could be muted, resulting in less promotion for music artists and a decrease in music purchases.

I've always thought that analog tapes were unreliable, but on this occasion it's the RIAA that has chewed one up!

We7, a UK-based digital music service, has struck a deal with Warner Music to provide free streaming music tracks to its registered users. The agreement will enable users to listen to an unlimited number of full-length tracks rather than the 30-second clips that are usually the case with download services. The streaming music service will be funded using audio advertisements that will be played prior to each track; listeners will also be able to use We7's a la carte download store if they prefer to purchase the music.

The idea behind the latest deal is to give consumers the chance to listen to songs in their entirety which could boost paid-for sales. Users of We7's website will also be able to create personalized playlists, and embed code in their blogs, and other websites to stream music. The new agreement between Warner Music and We7 also paves the way for special digital content offers through the website such as videos, albums packaged with bonus tracks, and interactive booklets.

John Reid, the president of Warner Music Europe, said, "This innovative partnership brings together two increasingly popular modes of consumption, ad-supporting streaming and MP3 downloads, to create a rich, versatile digital musical experience that will monetize a broad spectrum of consumer behavior."

For more information on streaming music, be sure the read our Top 4 Streaming Music Sites article.