Nokia Lumia Phones Get Premium Music+ Service

By Paul Thomson :: 3:09 AM

Nokia announced yesterday that users of its new Lumia smartphone in the U.K. will be able to upgrade their music service with a subscription to Nokia Music+.

The subscription music service, which will come with a £3.99 monthly pricetag, offers users the ability to download and organize their music playlists for listening online. In addition, the fee model will allow for limitless skipping of tracks, a lyric lookup service and high-quality audio delivery during Wi-Fi connections.

Users currently taking advantage of the free Lumia music service will not see any changes or interruptions to their service. Nokia has confirmed that the new paid tier will not cause a cascade of advertising or other fees for users choosing not to subscribe to the upgrade package.

The service has not rolled out to users yet, but Nokia hopes to have the capability in place to push it out to consumers by the end of March, 2013.

Pricing for U.S. customers has not been revealed yet. Because Nokia wants to come in at a price point lower than the popular mobile music subscription service Spotify (at $9.99), it is likely that the U.S. offering will be somewhere around $5.99.