Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) won’t be outdone by Nokia (NYSE: NOK). The struggling handset maker is launching an all-you-can eat mobile music service in the next few weeks, in an attempt to boost flagging handset sales.

Sony Ericsson’s Play Now Plus service will only be available through mobile operators and will give subscribers access to millions of songs from the big four labels. At the end of a subscriber’s contract—typically from 6-18 months—they will be allowed to keep up to 300 songs. The service will launch first in Sweden, with carrier Telenor and roll out to Europe starting next year, with other parts of the world following in the middle of the year. Reuters reports that it will cost 99 Swedish crowns ($15) a month. SE is also rolling out a new handset for the service, the W902 Walkman phone.

The news follows on the heels of Nokia’s announcement that they would be launching their ambitious “Comes With Music” service in the UK on October 2. In comparison to SE’s Play Now Plus, which is powered by subscription music service provider Omnifone, the cost of “Comes With Music” will be bundled into the price of the handset. Unlike Play Now Plus, in which users will be able to keep up to 300 songs after songs after their operator contract expires, CWM will allow customers to keep all of the songs they’ve downloaded, which will continue to work on their computers or on their CWM handset.

More at our sister site moconews.net.

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