Sony Ericsson has announced PlayNow Plus, a "super-fast, high-quality music download service" that will hit the UK early next year.

Essentially, it will offer unlimited music downloads to your handset or PC for a fee that will be included in your monthly bill.

PlayNow Plus will be in direct competition with Nokia's Comes With Music offering, which is due to launch in the UK next month.

PlayNow Plus is due to hit Sweden first, sometime in the final quarter of 2008, followed by the UK in early 2009. All four major record labels will be providing content for the service.

A special edition of the Sony Ericsson W902 Walkman phone will be the first product released with an integrated PlayNow Plus service.

There will be tracks pre-installed on the device and you will have the choice of a 6-, 12- or 18-month contract.

However, DRM (digital rights managment) technology is a stumbling block. Though customers will be able to keep a number of tracks that they have downloaded free of the controversial anti-piracy technology, this is subject to some restrictions.

Digital music analyst Mark Mulligan of Jupiter Research said that despite the complexity of the deal, it offered good value.

"[It is] a somewhat nuanced/complex proposition that will be difficult to communicate elegantly but is actually, once you get your head round it, a decent value proposition," he said.

Sony Ericsson has partnered with Omnifone, a company that specialises in providing digital music content for mobile devices and networks, for the PlayNow Plus service.

Omnifone also operates Vodafone's MusicStation service.

www.sonyericsson.com
www.omnifone.com
www.jupiterresearch.com

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