It's official: Sony Ericsson has confirmed the rumors by announcing an unlimited music download service called Play Now Plus, Engadget reports, in response to Nokia's Comes With Music service in the UK.

"The service, which will be available 'solely through telecoms operators,' will provide subscribers with access to millions of tunes, and customers can even keep up to 300 jams after their 6- to 18-month contract expires."

Lennard Hoornik, Sony Ericsson's marketing head, said in the report that Swedish carrier Telenor will get the serivce first in the next few weeks before spreading to Western Europe in Q1 2009 and the Asia-Pacific and other regions in Q2 2009. Early reports are that the service will cost US $15 per month, which puts it squarely in line with just about all of the other ones.