Nokia’s Comes With Music Could Mean Windfall For Labels

DETAILS EMERGE BUT HOW WILL ARTISTS AND INDIES GET PAID?

Two informed sources are putting the per unit payout to Universal for Nokia’s new "Comes With Music" cell phones at $33.50-$35.00 per unit.

From there the numbers get staggering. Nokia sold 437 million phones last year and sales are growing. If only 1% of 500 million phones carry "Comes With Music" downloads, the payout to Universal is  $175 million. If it’s 10%, Universal grabs $1.75 billion. Factor in market share and the other participating majors get similar checks.

Also intriguing is the leak that each phone comes with "a limited but relatively high number (of) songs", and that the songs are downloads rather than via subscription.

But the devil is always in the details. For example, what restrictions are put on moving the songs to other devices? How will the revenue be shared with artists?  And how will the indie label community be included and compensated?

That’s not Nokia’s problem….yet.