Nokia announced the all-the-music-you-can-eat deal at the company’s Nokia World conference going on this week in Amsterdam. “Nokia Comes With Music,”set for a mid 2008 launch, gives purchasers of Nokia devices one year’s access to unlimited music.

Probably the best part of the “Nokia Comes With Music” deal is that customers keep the music even if they stop using Nokia devices. Every song downloaded for a year is yours to keep, and will not disappear from the device even if you buy a competitor’s gadget or just ground that Nokia product under the heel of your shoe until it’s just so much plastic and silicon.

And where is all that free music coming from? Universal Music Group right now, though Nokia is trying to line up similar deals with other labels. With Nokia underwriting the cost, Universal gets its money up front, while the phone / device company has to make up for the expense through sales.

But the Universal deal is only one part of “Nokia Comes With Music.” In its efforts to take on Apple’s iTunes / iPod / iPhone dominance, the company is trying to position itself as the defacto mobile music source and has several plans to reach that goal.

For instance, Nokia recently signed an agreement to acquire Avvenu, a company specializing in giving mobile users wireless access to files. With Avvenu, you can view and download any file you keep on your computer, even if the computer is turned off.

Plus, the Avvenu Music program enables user to listen to their iTunes libraries while on the road, or download songs they’ve uploaded to their personal Avvenu accounts.

But while a year’s worth of free music sounds exciting, some details have yet to be announced.

For example, as Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg points out on his blog, Nokia’s announcement doesn’t exactly mention phones, only devices. Gartenberg also addresses other areas not covered in Nokia’s announcement, like how much the devices cost. And is DRM involved?

“This is a game changer,” Gartenberg writes. “In the long run, it’s going to take more than free to change the game and differentiate and that includes things like cool devices and the means to discover and enjoy new music in that catalog of millions of songs.”

However, while Gartenberg has his doubts, he also expresses optimism about “Nokia Comes With Music.”

“No doubt, Nokia has made an important and bold move here that’s going to shake things up in the industry. 2008 is shaping up to be an interesting year.”