Leslie Horn

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Posted on 19-01-2011

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Nokia is ending its subscription service for free streaming music in 27 countries. Ovi Music Unlimited will continue in a limited capacity, with 12-month subscriptions in China and India and six-month subscriptions in Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa.

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"We have changed the availability of devices bundled with an Ovi Music Unlimited subscription," a Nokia spokesperson told PCMag. "This decision is part of our mission to continue to improve the Ovi experience for the millions of consumers who use it."

Launched in 2008 in the U.K., all of the major labels were on board with the service, Reuters said. Ovi Music Unlimited was first seen as a direct challenge to iTunes, but it failed to offer significant competition to Apple's now dominant music downloading service.

Reuters listed the "use of older supporting handsets for the product at its launch, digital rights management (DRM) software that tied downloaded music to the device, and a difficult to understand product offering" as some of the reasons for the failure of the music service.

"The markets clearly want a DRM-free music service," Nokia told Reuters. Nokia offers DRM-free audio in 38 countries via its music store, which will not be affected.

In the countries where the subscription service is being discontinued, users will still be able to access Music Unlimited until the end of their existing subscriptions.

"We are actively pursuing and planning new music and entertainment services for 2011 with our ecosystem of partners, and will make further announcement at a later date."  

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