U.S. Department of Justice has begun an inquiry into a new JV headed by Vivendi’s (EPA: VIV) Universal Music Group, along with three other labels…this is the “Total Music” project it has been working on. Universal and Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG, which have been the strongest proponents of it, have received letters of inquiry from DOJ, while EMI and WMG haven’t yet. The service is supposed to be a subscription service that would be free on certain devices…Nokia (NYSE: NOK) was the first one to sign on to it with Universal last year, where users get free 12-month access to music from Universal’s artists on Nokia’s musicphones. The idea, of course, is to create a strong competitor to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iTunes.

SEE ALSO: Universal In Talks With SonyBMG and WMG on Free Music Service On Certain Devices; Possibly Zune

The WSJ story says it isn’t clear which aspect of the Total Music product DOJ is looking into, though all label colluding to launch something would raise anti-trust eyebrows.

This is the second time DOJ may look into the digital music business: it first launched inquiries into the ill-fated Pressplay and MusicNet label JVs formed during the 2001-2002, but nothing came out of those .

Updated: UK music newsletter MusicAlly broke the story first this morning (though behind subscription wall). Some more details on this Register story.