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Nokia's all you can download Comes with Music service is finally DRM free... in China (updated)
We've been browbeating Nokia for using DRM to "protect" its Comes with Music offering ever since the service launched back in December of 2007 -- a time when the industry was just beginning to shed its DRM shackles. Now get this, the idle talk is over, Nokia just launched its all-you-can-eat (for 12, 18, or 24 months, typically) Comes with Music service in China without any DRM at all. India is on deck as Nokia looks to hook more emerging markets on the (kind of) free music drug. That means you no longer have to strip the DRM illegally to play your downloaded content on devices other than your main PC and Nokia Comes with Music handset. And yes, you can keep the tracks for life after your CWM subscription expires. At launch, Chinese consumers will have a choice of eight (ok, seven really) CWM handsets (X6 32GB and X6 16GB, 5230, 5330, 5800w, 6700s, E52 and E72i) with prices starting at a local equivalent of €140 (the CWM service fee is baked in to the cost, mind you) excluding taxes and subsidies. Suspiciously, Nokia's not making the usual boast about the millions of tracks available in the CWM catalog. It is, however, reassuringly supported by all the Big 4 music labels in addition to some Chinese indies, as you'd expect. Sorry, no word on when they'll strip the DRM from its European CWM stores and we're still not clear when CWM will finally see a US launch. Hopefully soon as a service like this could go over very, very well Stateside -- a market that Nokia is desperate to crack. Get on to the other side of the break for the full press release. Update: We met with Jyrki Rosenberg, Director of Music at Nokia, who shed a bit more light on the offering. Unfortunately, while DRM-free music aligns with Nokia's global vision, he had nothing to announce for the US or Europe today. And as you might expect, the onus to go DRM-free in China was in part driven by rampant, local piracy concerns -- recovery of any revenue was better than nothing at all in the eyes of the Big Four. Jyrki also told us that Chinese CWM subscriptions will be 1 year in length but the terms of renewal are still being hammered out. We also know that the music catalog numbers in the "hundreds of thousands" at launch (comparable to competing services in the region, according to Jyrki) and is growing every day. Privacy advocates will be happy to hear that the 256kbps MP3 files are "clean" -- in other words, no user data is embedded in the files unlike the practices of Apple and Walmart, among others.
Ovi Music Unlimited replacing Nokia Comes with Music branding
We can't say that we'll miss the awkwardly named Comes with Music service branding from Nokia. Of course, we're making the assumption that India's recently christened Ovi Music Unlimited store will be making its way global as Nokia continues to tighten up its service offerings in the race to compete in the era of modern smartphones. It's certainly consistent with the new Ovi Music naming convention so why not. Otherwise, it looks like nothing else about the all you can eat (for a year) music offering has changed -- particularly the DRM that locks "your" music to your PC or CWM OMU handsets for life-ish.
Nokia Comes with Music US launch smartly pushed back to 2010
Not that most Americans could care, but Nokia is pushing back the US launch of its DRM-laden Comes with Music service into 2010. CWM, you'll recall, is Nokia's "free" all-you-can-eat music service that bundles the 12-18 month music subscription cost into the inflated handset price -- although like any DRM music scheme, solutions already exist to break the CWM shackles. The delay is probably a wise move considering the weak state of Nokia's US partnerships required to offset consumer costs, lukewarm response to its latest handsets, and the fact that most US consumers share a broad distaste for DRM music. We'd rather see Nokia launch late but with a compelling proposition than launch now in blind adherence to a timeline.
Nokia: Comes with Music tracks are WMA 192kbps and 128kbps
Slowly, ever so slowly, a picture is beginning to form of Nokia's all-you-can eat, free-for-1-year, keep-your-songs-for-life, Comes with Music (CWM) service. We know what it's not -- Universal's Total Music (the similarities are just a coincidence) -- and now we know more about what it is. The following details were just confirmed to us directly by Nokia: Audio is wrapped in an old-school, WMA DRM wrapper Songs can be burned to CD only after purchasing an upgrade of undisclosed cost Nokia has not announced any CWM devices, yet You can download music directly to your CWM device or computer using a unique PIN Songs will play only on your CWM device and the computer you registered with your CWM account Oh, and tracks will "typically" be delivered in 192kbps, while "older tracks may be delivered at 128kbps" There's no mention of registering the music to new devices after the phone or PC gives up the ghost. Understandably, Nokia was not willing to discuss the financial arrangement they are offering the labels. But come on Nokia, surely you can convince 'em to drop the DRM by mid-2008, right? There are plenty of places to hide any added costs.
