COMMENT: Nokia Comes With Music is not "fatally flawed" Could see music lovers saving £1000 a year

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Comment: Nokia Comes With Music

3 October 2008 15:18 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Nokia's just-launched "Comes With Music" service has been slammed as "fatally flawed" by 7digital's CEO Ben Drury, but I think he - and others who have criticised the service - have got it wrong.

The service gives owners of certain handsets unlimited access to millions of tracks from the big four record labels, as well as a fair few independents, and lets users keep all downloaded tracks after a year.

I think it's frankly a bargain ... if you see the service for what it is, rather than what it isn't. Although angled by the media as Nokia's big competitor to iTunes, I don't believe this is the case.

Nokia is certainly treading on Apple's toes, but their offering is very limited - at the moment just a fantastic add-on feature to three mobile phones aimed at music lovers.

The songs you download to your PC via Comes With Music, and then sideload onto your Nokia handset, are yours for the life of those devices.

7digital's Drury argues that the average life for such a device is 2 years, which sounds about right for a phone, although I would imagine it's a little longer for a PC.

As Drury points out, the tracks can't be transferred to, or played on, any other devices because of their WMA format and the built-in DRM, but then you're not paying between 79 and 99 pence per track - you're paying £130 for a year's worth of downloads (potentially tens of thousands), that you can keep - and that price includes the hardware too.

A recent survey by market researcher TNS Technology revealed that people aged 16 to 64, when asked how many tracks they would download a month, said 64, with 16-24-year-olds wanting almost twice that number.

If you take that 64 track average and times it by 79p - the current price of the average download on iTunes - it works out at £50.56. Times that by 12 - for the year's service - and you get a staggering £606.72.

To me, this demonstrates that Nokia's new service - at £130 for the 5310 XpressMusic - is good value for money for those who are interested in regularly downloading music, more so for that 16-24-year-old age group who could "save" over £1000 per year.

Drury's comment, although no doubt heartfelt, likely takes into account one of the survey's other findings - that 47% would buy fewer digital downloads from online stores.

Interestingly for an industry that claims to be near-crippled by piracy, 38% said a service like Comes With Music would reduce their use of illegal file-sharing sites.

I feel that the Comes With Music service is an interesting offering and priced correctly for what it is, a viable unlimited music download feature as a real bonus add-on for Nokia handsets, not a standalone music service.

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Comments

  • Thank you, for a balanced response to an unbalanced statement.

    Moreso, I think the key that everyone misses with Comes with Music is that it's also an educational tool. For several years, Nokia has been the world leader in MP3 players on the market. The problem, though, is that those MP3 players are hidden inside cell phones, which most people don't think to use as a portable MP3 player.

    By bundling phones with music, Nokia is working to educate consumers that their phone is a viable option for a portable MP3 player, and that it's easy to get music onto that music player. It's pretty brilliant.

    Is it going to convert people who already pirate music? Not likely. Does Nokia really care about that? Not likely, as those people are also likely either already using their phone as an MP3 player, or have already explored and dismissed the possibility, for whatever reason.
    Posted by Ricky Cadden, United States
  • I disagree: it's the usual DRM-infested rubbish, as is Sony's competing service. Labels have pushed the subscription idea and consumers have consistently rejected it for ten years now - it's not clear how wishful thinking will make it work this time around. My blog rant: http://tinyurl.com/4m2tjt Posted by David Gerard, UK
  • This feels very similar to what Napster has been offering at a very reasonable rate for quite some time - but they were marred by inability to easily transfer music to portable devices and record labels pulling out, leaving you with songs that would no longer play.

    I certainly don't see this as the *ultimate* way of accessing music, but it's better than a kick in the teeth - you can access plenty of albums for a try before you buy, and then if you really want to listen it elsewhere, you can walk into HMV, buy a CD and rip a DRM free version at home :) Most casual listeners won't be that bothered and will happily plug a set of speakers into their phone.

    It's easy to argue against this, but next you'll be arguing that Last.FM or Pandora are crap because you can't download the tracks and play them again? Certainly doesn't feel like a step backwards - we'll get there eventually.

    I'm personally quite a fan of the subscription model - assuming you can access from any machine (including Linux) which with WMA just isn't possible. A cloud based player would be nice thank you Nokia.
    Posted by Spode, United Kingdom
  • David: "DRM-infested rubbish", remind me, exactly which service are you ranting about, Nokia Music or ITunes?

    I baulk at paying for music per track, but might well be interested in a product that gives me 'all I can eat' for a set price.
    Posted by John B., UK
  • I think it is a great deal, the issue is trying to convince people there's no catch.

    For the typical teenager who wants both an iPod and mobile phone you either have to fork out £130 for an iPod, pay for individual tracks and then shell out another £100 for a mobile or buy a Comes With Music phone for £130 and get all the songs free, plus phone and a music player. Plus, with certain handsets, you can download tracks over the air, something the iPod is lacking...





    or What parent is not going to consider

    Aimed at the 16-24 market wh


    David is an idiot...The problem as I see it is convincing
    Posted by redowl, UK

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