It appears that Nokia’s grand Comes With Music plan is likely to be dead in the water before we know it, so another English download service has popped up in time for some holiday-season marketing. This one doesn’t require a specific cell phone, but it’s still far from the ideal the marketplace seems to be waiting for.

£99.99 for a year’s worth of unlimited access to DRM-free files that can be downloaded to any Windows computer (as long as you have a USB key that is incessantly referred to as a “dongle,” much to my emotionally stunted amusement)? DATZ sounds like a decent deal, until you see that the catalog consists of only music from EMI, Warner, and a few indies, and will feature restricted access to new releases. So lots of catalog (good) but possibly trouble getting that new song you heard on the radio this morning (bad). And perhaps unsurprisingly, DATZ has the right to kick you off the service for excessive use of your “unlimited” downloads.

The service also has a fair usage policy, where membership will be suspended if a user downloads more music than can “reasonably be listened to in a lifetime”. It is understood that more record labels will join the venture over the next few weeks.

In the end, however, it’s nice that the major labels are trying, but being able to download new releases is going to be part of the appeal of any download service, especially when only two of the majors are on board with their catalog. Also, paying upfront for any Internet-based service seems like a dodgy proposition when after a month or two, you could be left with your dongle and what you managed to download during the service’s limited lifespan. Back to the drawing board, music biz. This one’s not going to save your asses either.

Record labels take on Nokia music download service [Marketing Week]