Nokia has announced Music+, a new subscription-based upgrade to its popular Mix Radio free-to-stream mobile music service that is available to Lumia users.

According to the Finnish phone giant, Music+ will offer a range of additional features at a minimal fee of around R50 per month. This new service will be rolling out as an optional update to the existing service during Q1 2013, with the existing Nokia Music service continuing to be available free of charge, with no advertisements, registration or subscription for Lumia smartphones.

Nokia Music users are able to create their own mixes or stream playlisted tracks that have been curated by a team of musicologists and international artists. Mixes can also be saved on their device for offline playback.

The additional functionality that Nokia Music+ offers over and above the free Mix Radio service are:

• The ability to download unlimited mixes for offline playback.

• An unlimited amount of track skips, as opposed to Mix Radio where you can only skip six tracks during every hour.   

• The option to select higher quality audio when connecting via Wi-Fi.

• Lyric streaming for many of the songs.

• The ability to listen to Nokia Music without your smartphone, by using an internet-enabled devices such as a home PC, Smart TV or tablet via a web-app.