Nokia Music+ downloads playlists to your Lumia, for a fee

Nokia has a new music streaming service aimed at giving Lumia owners happier ears, while fighting services like Spotify or Last.fm.

The Nokia Music+ app is an extension of Nokia's Mix Radio app, which streams a list of tunes hand-chosen by Nokia, depending on which playlist you choose.

Mix Radio is free, but is rather limited in what it offers. Coughing up an extra €3.99 per month however gets you Music+, which brings treats like the ability to skip tracks as many times as you like, as well as downloading entire playlists for offline listening.

You can't hoard as much music as you want -- Nokia explains on its blog that you're limited to four "mixes", each of which contains a tonne of tracks. Signing up to the service also nabs you downloads at "eight times" the quality, as well as scrolling lyrics for impromptu blasts of karaoke and desktop mode, which lets you stream music through a Web app or smart TV.

The service is due in a few weeks. There's no confirmed UK pricing, but £4 is a good bet. Those in the US will be forking over one cent shy of $4.

Downloading and unlimited skips are tempting features, but I'd wager many smart phone owners considering paying for a music service would rather have the opportunity to search for songs and craft their own playlists, rather than jigging about to whatever Nokia prescribes.

Incredibly, despite being present on Windows Phone 7, Spotify is still to bring its own streaming service to Windows Phone 8. If you're desperate for streaming music and are sick of waiting for Spotify (which costs £10 per month) to gets its rear in gear, Nokia's new service could tide you over.

Are you a fan of Nokia's music apps, or would you rather install Spotify on your Windows Phone? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.