Cell phone giant Nokia has teamed up with top record label Universal Music Group to offer its customers free unlimited music downloads. This new music model flies in the face of current pay-per-track models offered by other current competitors.

The free unlimited music downloads that Nokia and Universal are offering are an attempt to thwart the efforts of illegal websites. Mariah Carey, 50-Cent and Sting are just a few of the artists offered in Universal’s (unit of Vivendi) massive library.

The idea behind offering free music downloads is also to give a boost to sagging CD sales. By buying a particular brand of Nokia phone, customers are allowed an unlimited number of free downloads from millions of tracks available for one year.

There is no word yet as to the cost of the tracks once the one-year deal expires. The advantage of this deal to consumers is besides getting a cell phone, they may download as much music as they want and keep it on their PC. Offers from competitors do not allow users to keep the music, so the Nokia Universal deal is ideal for those wanting a year in order to build their own massive music libraries.

The word on the street is that the competition is very nervous over this free music download proposition. And why wouldn’t they be? The word “free” is like honey to the busy music bees buzzing all over the Internet. Look for many to create their own hive of music starting next year.

Filed under: Industry