Between them, Nokia and Universal seem to be determined to do whatever they think it will take to knock off iTunes.

Nokia Comes With Music is a new program that will get you a year of free “unlimited access to millions of tracks from a range of great artists - past, present and future” when you buy a new Nokia device. Yes. Free. Gratis. Apparently the stuff-your-ears-until-you-explode service is subscription-based and the first year is free with the phone but, unlike other similar offers, you keep the music after the subscription is over. Could this really be free beer?

There are no details about the program yet. Anssi Vanjoki, Executive VP, General Manager of Multimedia for the company and the man who once said he wanted Nokia to take over the world, said that this program “fulfils our dream to give consumers all the music they want, wherever they want it, while rewarding the artists who create it.” In addition to this, the CEO of Universal Music Group dropped your usual marketdronespeak quote: “Comes With Music allows our artists to reach new audiences in a very easy and affordable way.”

Gizmodo link

So now the music industry is determined to totally strip the perceived value of its product to zero. Free music, forever, or at least apparently so, if you buy a Nokia “Comes with Music” phone. Or rather all the music you have on your phone after the first year stays on your phone forever, but then you have to start paying a subscription fee for new music?

Or what?

More news at some point, some time.

Re: Nokia to Offer Unlimited, Free Music with Universal

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”]Between them, Nokia and Universal seem to be determined to do whatever they think it will take to knock off iTunes.

Nokia Comes With Music is a new program that will get you a year of free “unlimited access to millions of tracks from a range of great artists - past, present and future” when you buy a new Nokia device. Yes. Free. Gratis. Apparently the stuff-your-ears-until-you-explode service is subscription-based and the first year is free with the phone but, unlike other similar offers, you keep the music after the subscription is over. Could this really be free beer?

There are no details about the program yet. Anssi Vanjoki, Executive VP, General Manager of Multimedia for the company and the man who once said he wanted Nokia to take over the world, said that this program “fulfils our dream to give consumers all the music they want, wherever they want it, while rewarding the artists who create it.” In addition to this, the CEO of Universal Music Group dropped your usual marketdronespeak quote: “Comes With Music allows our artists to reach new audiences in a very easy and affordable way.”

Gizmodo link

So now the music industry is determined to totally strip the perceived value of its product to zero. Free music, forever, or at least apparently so, if you buy a Nokia “Comes with Music” phone. Or rather all the music you have on your phone after the first year stays on your phone forever, but then you have to start paying a subscription fee for new music?

Or what?

More news at some point, some time.

I suspect that there is a limit to the number of songs that can be stored on your phone…maybe 100. Thus, you can “keep” those 100 songs forever after the 1 yr. pre-paid subscription ends. But you start paying to put new/other songs on. Probably cannot sync with your computer either.

I think we can pretty much guarantee this “deal” will be tied up full of knots and overcomplicated caveats, and will attract nobody but the few usual suspects who already like the subscription model.

Universal probably love it because it gets them the tithe-per-handset they’re after and have been so vocal about, and Nokia think its going to give them an edge over Apple, somehow.

Good luck boys - knock yourselves out.

The Times has more on this in an article today.

Looks like Nokia are announcing this about a year before it goes live, in what looks like a desperate attempt to attract some attention. Why on earth would you pre-announce a service like this a year before it goes live? What’s the point?

They don’t even know exactly how the deal is going to be structured yet nor how it will work. 

Stupid and arrogant - Nokia’s hallmark these days.

The basic premise: buy a Nokia Music Store-compatible handset and you’ll be rewarded with access to an online library of tracks and allowed to download freely for 12 months. Currently, the only record label signed up is Universal, but Nokia claimed more will follow suit.

Users will be able to download the tracks either via their handset or a PC, and syncing songs from one device to the other will be possible too. Tracks will be in encoded WMA DRM format.

A Nokia spokesman told Register Hardware that the Finnish phone giant expects Comes With Music to go live in the second half of 2008. It has yet to decide which handsets will be branded ‘Comes With Music’, how it’ll be run and maintained, what will happen after your 12 months is up, and whether existing customers will be able to opt into the service.

However, he was very definite on the fact that new Nokia owners will be given full, free and unlimited access to the download service.

Re: Nokia to Offer Unlimited, Free Music with Universal

[quote author=“Play Ultimate”]
I suspect that there is a limit to the number of songs that can be stored on your phone…maybe 100. Thus, you can “keep” those 100 songs forever after the 1 yr. pre-paid subscription ends. But you start paying to put new/other songs on. Probably cannot sync with your computer either.

Is there a way to get the music files from the phone onto a computer / storage?

Re: Nokia to Offer Unlimited, Free Music with Universal

[quote author=“dmcnair”][quote author=“Play Ultimate”]
I suspect that there is a limit to the number of songs that can be stored on your phone…maybe 100. Thus, you can “keep” those 100 songs forever after the 1 yr. pre-paid subscription ends. But you start paying to put new/other songs on. Probably cannot sync with your computer either.

Is there a way to get the music files from the phone onto a computer / storage?

No way of knowing. Nokia haven’t said. They don’t seem to even have very much they can say for sure about it yet. Really lame and lucklustre PR effort.

Nokia is increasingly turning into the rich fat ugly kid in the playground throwing sweets at everyone saying “please please play with me.. look at me look at me!”

Tracks will be in encoded WMA DRM format.

Totally awesome!

Re: Nokia to Offer Unlimited, Free Music with Universal

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”][quote author=“dmcnair”][quote author=“Play Ultimate”]
I suspect that there is a limit to the number of songs that can be stored on your phone…maybe 100. Thus, you can “keep” those 100 songs forever after the 1 yr. pre-paid subscription ends. But you start paying to put new/other songs on. Probably cannot sync with your computer either.

Is there a way to get the music files from the phone onto a computer / storage?

No way of knowing. Nokia haven’t said. They don’t seem to even have very much they can say for sure about it yet. Really lame and lucklustre PR effort.

Nokia is increasingly turning into the rich fat ugly kid in the playground throwing sweets at everyone saying “please please play with me.. look at me look at me!”

And will you be using call minutes to download songs?  At what price?  What sound quality?  How many songs will fit on the phone?  Are they transferrable to another device?  I suspect the answer to every one of these questions will be unpleasant for the subscriber.

Yeah, have to say that this is one of the most desperate attempts at unnerving SJ that I’ve ever seen.  And God, must he be laughing right now.  This makes both UMG and Nokia seem like absolute, bumbling idiots in search of some attention.  Maybe if Nokia made better products (won’t happen) or UMG made better music (won’t happen), they wouldn’t find themselves in such a no-man’s land.  Steve, eat your heart out!  Seriously, this is one for the record books.

Re: Nokia to Offer Unlimited, Free Music with Universal

[quote author=“Zeke”]And will you be using call minutes to download songs?  At what price?  What sound quality?  How many songs will fit on the phone?  Are they transferrable to another device?  I suspect the answer to every one of these questions will be unpleasant for the subscriber.

I suspect the answer will be what Nokia have tried to call “side loading” - ie. PC downloads transferred to the phone.
Either that, or on participating carriers you’ll be able to use you inclusive “unlimited” data plan to download whatever you like.

Yes, Universal are proclaiming that their product isn’t worth paying for. No, it doesn’t make any difference. Apart from half a dozen collectibles I sold on ebay, I simply discarded a large LP collection, not because I didn’t like it, or it sounded worse than CD (it didn’t), but because life’s too short to mess about with bits of the collection on LP, bits on CD, bits on computer, bits on your phone, bits on your Zune etc. LP’s and cassettes can be picked up for almost nothing. So called free music on one cellphone, that presumably dies with the phone, will simply be a burden on Nokia’s gross margins, without delivering corresponding consumer value.

The starting point for anyone wanting to compete with Apple is to do a better job than iTunes of collecting up all your music and letting you use it on all your devices, then add a better way of adding downloads to your collection. And if DRM with multiple types of usage rights are involved, a way to manage and upgrade those rights. There are no short cuts. Apple/SJ figured this out 5 years ago - the competition doesn’t seem to have it figured out even now.

All this is going to do for Nokia is level the playing field on handset gross margin (because Nokia will for sure be paying Universal the up front, per device fee they crave).

Re: Nokia to Offer Unlimited, Free Music with Universal

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”][quote author=“Zeke”]And will you be using call minutes to download songs?  At what price?  What sound quality?  How many songs will fit on the phone?  Are they transferrable to another device?  I suspect the answer to every one of these questions will be unpleasant for the subscriber.

I suspect the answer will be what Nokia have tried to call “side loading” - ie. PC downloads transferred to the phone.
Either that, or on participating carriers you’ll be able to use you inclusive “unlimited” data plan to download whatever you like.

My head is starting to spin—just wait until they hash out ALL of the details, exceptions, fine print, etc.

Re: Nokia to Offer Unlimited, Free Music with Universal

[quote author=“lumi”]My head is starting to spin—just wait until they hash out ALL of the details, exceptions, fine print, etc.

Yep! And we’ll be waiting about a year to find out. As I said, pre-announcing this was a stupid, desperate, attention-seeking ploy. Nokia is the new Microsoft. Or rather, the old Microsoft. Vapourware rules.

[quote author=“lumi”]

Tracks will be in encoded WMA DRM format.

Totally awesome!

That was pretty much my reaction.  Someone in Redmond is probably celebrating the new Plays Fer Sure customer even as I type…

I guess we’ll see in a year or so when this could reach the market.

The Times reports that these tracks….:

will be protected by digital rights management (DRM) software, and will not be playable on any other device.

*yawn* .. great.. just what consumers want: useless content they can only play on a single handset.

Who do they expect to be interested in this $hit?!  :o Seriously, I’m amazed anyone could even think such a scheme will be remotely popular with anyone. Staggering!

Actually, “desperate” is more accurate.