Nokia's "free," all-you-can-eat, music subscription service is set to world premier in the UK next month before hitting continental Europe and Asia in 2009. Nokia already has
Universal Music, Sony BMG and
Warner Music on board and plans to have EMI signed before launch -- in total, Nokia expects to offer some 2.1 million tracks at launch. While touted as free, the service costs will be
baked into the price of Nokia's pre-pay
5310 XpressMusic Comes With Music Edition handset (currently priced between £70-£80 for the pay-as-you-go, non-CwM handset) when purchased though the UK's Carphone Warehouse. You must then purchase another CwM-compatible device at the end of the year in order to continue downloading tracks. For those not wishing to re-up with Nokia, your 5310 CwM edition phone will continue to make / receive calls and text messages and, like your computer, continue to playback all those
DRM-wrapped WMA tracks -- they will
not play anywhere else. While the approach is interesting, the DRM-enabled time-bomb and device lock-in makes the entire model sound fatally flawed to us -- though we're sure that'll be
hacked away soon enough. Come on Amazon, now is the time to
take your MP3 store global and show these fools how it's done.
Update: Expect the service to launch at, or shortly after, a Nokia Comes With Music press event scheduled for October 2nd.
[Via
mocoNews]
Read -- FT
Read -- Guardian
Read -- Nokia press release
posted Sep 2nd 2008 2:15AM
Nokia is using Microsoft PlayReady DRM which only works on some Nokia phones and in computers having latest Windows Media Player. Not compatible with other devices, no iPod's and not even M$ Zune. Going to be a bumpy ride for Nokia.....
you failed to notice that this service comes with device you use to listen the music? it really doesn't matter whether it plays on the obviated ipod or not.
If it's hitting the UK, continental Europe and Asia, when is it going to be released in North America? Also, everyone is going to have a music store and an apps store soon enough; Apple may have been first but it's not exactly rocket science.
What was ever wrong wiht the third party developers doing their thing?
u feel bad for a company that makes millions off of normal people?
Free music for a year with a new phone is a pretty good incentive for the regular Joe Shmoe who doesn't really care whether the tunes on his phones are copy-protected or not. It makes it a great value add that many tech blogs will just brush aside as something meaningless, which is a real shame.
If Apple had done something like this for every new iPod from now on, everyone would be kissing Steve Jobs feet...
Note that there will be considerable price-tag for the 1yr downloads, low end phone
+ the 1yr service will propably be between 250-300€. You can buy 1yr download service
already from Ovi and no one is intrested.
There was news already in the summer that Jobs is looking also to start to bundle iPod's
with 'free downloads'. Anyway, you always top that to HW-price.
i assume you responded "no-one's interested", when engadget reported that apple was interested in copying the idea? and you really don't have any idea what the price will be before / after subsidies, so why make such claims?
@ This Is Apples Market Now
Tell that to Shawn Fanning....and thousands of record shops that came before him...Q
"Nokia's "free," all-you-can-eat, music subscription service"
So you're saying iTunes has a music subscription service? Oh really? And now Nokia is copying that? Funny, I don't remember Apple being as so generous to offer alternative forms of music purchasing.
You fail. Mr. Apple Drone. You're not by chance Super Sexy Eric or what's his name, that used to give the same idiotic comments, are you?
I mean really, this is just a new low. Claiming a company is copying something Apple hasn't even done. I'm just amazed. Why don't you fess up how much Apple copies other guys too?
I don't think these anti-DRM people realize that as long as you can output on a device the music can be listened to ANYWHERE!!!! And I do mean ANYWHERE!!!! Q.
Music store, good idea. Device lock in, bad idea.
I've always liked Nokia, but not Sony Ericsson looks more attractive with their DRM free shop.
Hmm... *great* assessment Engadget... of course the tracks won't play anywhere else - they want to shift phones! Just like Apple want to sell as many iPods/iPhones as they can off the back of iTunes... and before (Oh, I spoke too soon) someone tries to make the comparison, it's not as if the majority of Apple's music isn't wrapped in Fairplay DRM and plays on any player! Most of it will *only* play on Apples machines, no question. And Amazon MP3... paying for tracks and albums individually - sounds ridiculous when compared to this 'fatally flawed model'. Ricker's not the most objective reporter in the press room is he? Also an expert apparently. I'll take a 5310- even if I have to take it in pink and white...not my colours to be honest but I'm not that picky...I hope some more phones come out soon though - an N96 (here's hopin) on contract would only cost a bit more each month, surely?
@This Is Apples Market Now
"Apple, which released its iPhone handset last year, is also considering an “all you can eat” music service similar to Nokia’s" - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c2691dde-785d-11dd-acc3-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1 Who's copying who?
Jon Kepler's right - it's not rocket science : ) all the phone makers are doing this along with other services. It's not a question of copying - it's just the obvious thing to do.
Fair shout, that man.
Hint: next time you rant at the author you should read what the author wrote... or didn't write in this case. Not a single mention of iTunes.
DRM-free tracks are yours for life, not the lifetime of a device.
Thomas
I like Nokia phones.
What I don't like is paying the members of the RIAA automatically as a part of getting a Nokia phone so that I have unlimited access to their recordings.
*3rd attempt at posting this so apologies if this reaches you over and over but either (albeit innocently, you'd hope) the technology's not up to it or something is amiss...! heh : )
Thomas,
The iTunes remarks weren't aimed at you. As I said in the post, before 'someone' makes the comparison- i.e. the defensive Apple fans that have posted thus far. Otherwise I would have said "Hey Ricker/Engadget - what's with the iTunes mentions?" But I didn't. The remarks aimed at you were those DRM related and your comparison that Amazon MP3's traditional shopping basket model would somehow be a no question better alternative. No *hint* required, see?
I think technically the tracks from Nokia are yours for life even though they are DRM'ed. If your phone dies/is lost/ gets stolen you can still download your tunes again from your own personal Music Vault back to the phone or your computer. Presumably even if your computer dies you'll be able to download it all again. But if you were using an external hard drive the tracks would be yours for as long as you can keep that alive/backed up elsewhere. Just like all your non-DRM'ed music - it's got a shelf-life too unless you back it up elsewhere in case your hardware fails (which it will, eventually). Not ideal but maybe back-ups on an external HD could just be re-licensed...which seems to work with DRM music from elsewhere.
Ultimately though, DRM does *really really* suck - nobody appreciates the restriction. Even if you only intend to use one machine that is compatible with the DRM of your music shop of choice. There's 16000 tracks on my Ipod - of all the stuff I bought from iTunes, I burnt it and ripped it back to cut out the DRM. Even though I knew it would play the tunes anyway, maybe I'd want to put my music on my phone or another computer. Better to be 'free'.
If you look at the growing number music shops out there offering DRM-free music, it's obvious DRM's days in music are numbered regardless of where you go. It has to be to make legitimate digital music as good as/better than pirated music. I really hope it's a thing of the past sooner rather than later.
thanks!
http://tuanit.info
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