Nokia not only sells Lumia smartphones that use Windows Phone, it also lets owners of those phones access its own in-house Nokia Music online service. It first launched in Europe and came to the U.S. in September 2012. It started as a free streaming music service that allowed Lumia owners to listen to millions of music tracks.
In early 2013, Nokia Music+ launched, which let Lumia owners access unlimited downloads of songs, among other features, for just $3.99 a month, which is much cheaper than Microsoft's own Xbox Music service, which costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year.
Now that Microsoft is slated to acquire Nokia's smartphone business, we wondered what that meant for Lumia owners who are signed up to use Nokia Music and Music+. We contacted the company and received this statement from a spokesperson:
Nokia Music is part of the Smart Devices business and hence part of this deal. It’s business as usual for the near term as the agreement was only announced on Tuesday, and the closing is expected to take place in Q1 2014. As the closing of the deal approaches, we’ll be able to share more information on future plans.
It's more than possible that Nokia Music could shut down once the deal with Microsoft is closed, and if that happens Lumia owners will lose out on the cheap Nokia Music+ service. We will certainly post any updates as we learn more about the ultimate fate of Nokia Music in the coming weeks and months.
Image via Nokia
36 Comments - Add comment