Rafe's been trying out Nokia's newest Music service offering, Comes with Music - for real, with a full retail package. There may be some caveats with the system (PC/MSIE-only, DRM-heavy), but overall he comes away very impressed. How is the PC client to use and what's the overall experience like for a new music-loving phone user? Can you retro-fit CwM to an existing handset? What can you do and what can't you do with the downloaded music? Find out in Rafe's definitive Comes with Music review.
Read on in the full article.
So how will they sell a "Comes with Music" phone in the U.S. when they don't have a music store in the U.S. ?
The Musc Store is coming to the US in 2009. I imagine the USA will get CwM at the same time or shortly afterwards.
Yes I'm sure it is unlimited. The Guardian story is mistaken (note the story is from September 25th before the Nokia Remix event - e.g. the big UK Indies are included in Comes with Music).
I checked on this point with Nokia. There are no set limits (like 120). As noted in the article there is an abuse usage clause in the T&C's, but this is not set at a specific number of tracks.
So the comes with music phones actually comes without music until 50 of her maj's have been given to El Nokia?
Well yes in a sense. You buy a Comes with Music device so it is all included in one price when you buy the handset.... It is not an add-on that you can buy. This is what gives it the perception of being free.
I mentioned �50 because that's the extra you have to pay. �4 a month is quite a good deal in my book.
And having the newer Nokia's FM transmitter inbuilt, you can listen to the music with "low-fi" equipment. You dont even have to have bluetooth car stereo, just a normal car radio.
Sounds like an semi-offline unlimited music subscription for a couple of pounds/euros a month on a dedicated device. No expensive 3G contract needed. No hefty 3G battery use for streaming required. The real music lover would probabely see it as a cheap and practical solution to listen freely to anything he likes and only buy those that really stay popular in his ear.
There is lots of music I'd love to listen too while new, but won't buy because it wears down after a few listens. Thumbs up Nokia. How long until this is as standard as a GPS on their phones?
Snoyt - personally that's how I expect to use the service. I'll probably still buy the stuff I really like in a DRM free format, but Comes with Music gives me a chance to get easy access to all kinds of stuff.
Rafe, I gather this is obvious but seemed to be missing in your article: you can of course download directly on and into your phone as well, right?
Second, can you clarify a bit, as far as you can now say, what happens at the end of the year. Say, I have a 5310 with CWM, and then at the end of the year I buy a N95 8GB with CWM. I can presumably transfer and listen to all the tracks I bought the first year on the new N95? Or not?
How about if I only buy a new CWM device in say 3 years from now. Can I transfer from the original CWM I had?
'Unlimited' to me means no limits, which means 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That's clearly not what's on offer here.
Personally DRM is the deal breaker for me. Even free is too much to pay for that junk.
viipottaja wrote:Second, can you clarify a bit, as far as you can now say, what happens at the end of the year. Say, I have a 5310 with CWM, and then at the end of the year I buy a N95 8GB with CWM. I can presumably transfer and listen to all the tracks I bought the first year on the new N95? Or not?
Not at the moment, but apperently Nokia are working on a transfer system. Although I like the sound of CwM, theres no way Id have it until there is one in place.
I would also like to be able to add it to my phone (will be an N85). I dont want to have to buy a xpress music phone just to get this service.
Rafe, I gather this is obvious but seemed to be missing in your article: you can of course download directly on and into your phone as well, right? Second, can you clarify a bit, as far as you can now say, what happens at the end of the year. Say, I have a 5310 with CWM, and then at the end of the year I buy a N95 8GB with CWM. I can presumably transfer and listen to all the tracks I bought the first year on the new N95? Or not?
How about if I only buy a new CWM device in say 3 years from now. Can I transfer from the original CWM I had?
You can, as far I know (i.e. not personally tested), download music directly to the device where the Music Store can be accessed from the device. The 5310 does not support the store OTA. The N95 8GB does. Incidentally if you access the store from a second handset it knows it is not your Comes with Music device and redirects you to the 'pay' store.
At the end of the year you can transfer the collection a new PC or a new Comes with Music device once every three months. I'm not sure of the exact details (i.e. what is a Comes with Music device). I'm not sure of the exact mechanism, but yes you can listen to the tracks you previously downloaded. I'll try and find out more about how exactly this works (I suspect some kind of license re-sync might be necessary). And the same would apply three years from now. During this time they would keep working on the PC.
Cool, sounds good.
I am surprised by not being able to access the Store over the air with 5310. Does it not support internet browsing at all, is the Music Store only compatible with S60 phones or what is the reason? That to me seems like a serious drawback as the teenies in particular, I am sure, would love to listen to and dowload stuff when out and about being cool on the high street.. 😊
Yes I think its missing a trick. Bear in mind the 5310 is a fairly basic handset. The browser is probably not up to the job. The newer S40 ones probably are (not tried it though).
I'm sure the 5310 CwM will do well enough, but its the 5800 version that sees the best implementation IMHO.
I have an N95 8GB purchased in Feb 08 product code 0559497.
Are Nokia planning to let people who dont have a "Comes With Music" handset use this service. Im willing to say them a set amount to listen to music.
The only network who are going to support CWM is 3 and I dont want to have to get handset on their network
I like this service.
Can I subscribe to it? Is it 80 euros per year, or how much?
"The fact that Comes with Music downloads are tied to a particular device is the caveat that will give the biggest cause for concern. If you already own an iPod, other DAP, or music-capable phone then you will not be able to transfer music to it. A lot of people have made significant investments in both devices and music purchases, such that the switching cost makes Comes with Music unattractive. Moreover, Comes with Music will be limited to a certain set of devices which may not have universal appeal."
As far as I know, music purchased from the iTunes Store can only be played on iPods and on a few marginal non-Apple devices. That didn't stop people from *buying* songs on iTunes Store. So the fact that FREE songs are tied to a device, Nokia phone in this case, does not constitute a deterrent for people who consider buying the phone. Furthermore, nothing prevents you from copying the songs you already own to a memory card and load it on the phone.
The trend is towards a phone+DAP device, so the Comes with Music phones are a good value proposition.
Unregistered / architengi - Currently you can only get the service with a new handset.
Unregistered - I made the point about other DAPs / Music Stores because for some of them you can get DRM free music. iTunes does this partially for example. You can also burn things to CD and then re-rip them. Personally I agree with you. But some will have a big collection of music purchased via iTunes that is DRM locked and therefore will only want an iPod.
and yes agreed - phone + DAP makes sense for many, but not everyone. (e.g. I have iPod Touch, but only ever really use it on plane journeys, most of the time my phone does everything).
The only way that Nokia can take on the behemoth that is iTunes is to make CWM as simple as possible and it does seem that this is a good start.
However, they HAVE to find a way to allow users to download music directly on Wifi/3G enabled handsets otherwise they are lagging behind the iPhone and with the mindshare that device has they won't survive.
BTW is the music that's downloaded also licensed to play on the PC that downloads it ?
If so the fact that WMA DRM has been thoroughly broken on windows may make this a more attractive proposition for some people, albeit for completely the wrong reasons.
All in all it's a decent start for Nokia but it's missing important features IMHO and while I'll be tempted by a CMW 5800 when it's released I think I'll probably hold off until I'm not tied to a PC to get the music I want.
matchstick - you can download music on some phones (S60 ones certainly), but yes I would agree this should happen on all phones with CwM.
Sorry if its not clear - but yes you can play any music downloaded on the PC. (Indeed you might argue that �50 for a year of music for your PC is a fairly decent deal in its own right).
And yes any time there's DRM there's a good chance someone has broken it...!
Theres the whole breaking DRM thing, but if I can play it on my PC and phone, Im sorted.
And if I can transfer the licence to whatever new handset I get, thats me definatly sorted!
Im actually thinking it would be a brilliant present for my GF.
Except she has just got a 6210N and started a new 18 month contract.
Cmon Nokia, open up subscriptions for other phones. People want to buy your product!
Also, I want to know if its possible to transfer the computer its licensed to play on. She might well want to use mine at some point or she might replace her laptop.
bartmanekul - you have to keep the PC license on the same computer for year. After the year is up you can do a PC OR device transfer once every three months. At least that's what I was told - I doubt the process to do that is actually in place given it wont apply for a year.
The device transfer is a bit unclear right now - i.e. I imagine it needs to be CwM capabale, but does not have to be a CwM version - it needs to support the DRM required basically.
Seems ok.
Although I really dont know about the 6210N. It is an FP2 device, but they do cut out a lot on those 6xxx models...
The downfall to this type of DRM is that if Nokia decide to close the store then everybody loses their music licence (Witness the recent closure of Yahoo and Microsoft plays for sure), its just a subscription service where users rent the music but the hidden costs is added to the handset.
In many cases a full CD is cheaper than the 8.00 cost of full purchase and about 1411kbps rather than 128-192kps quality. Online music should be cheaper as the companies are saving on packing etc...
Rafe wrote:Unregistered - I made the point about other DAPs / Music Stores because for some of them you can get DRM free music. iTunes does this partially for example. You can also burn things to CD and then re-rip them. Personally I agree with you. But some will have a big collection of music purchased via iTunes that is DRM locked and therefore will only want an iPod.
DRM-free music subscription services are much more expensive (10$-20$/month) as you pointed out in the article. Also, they usually come with a maximum downloads limit. CwM is a comparatively cheap "all you can eat" service.
People with a big collection of DRM'd music from iTunes are virtually locked to iPods. Obviously, no other devices would appeal to them. So it's a moot point.
DRM-free music subscription services are much more expensive (10$-20$/month) as you pointed out in the article. Also, they usually come with a maximum downloads limit. CwM is a comparatively cheap "all you can eat" service.People with a big collection of DRM'd music from iTunes are virtually locked to iPods. Obviously, no other devices would appeal to them. So it's a moot point.
Exactly - for this reason its going to be harder for Nokia to address those people. It be interesting to know what percentage / number of people had bought DRM locked iTunes songs such that they felt lock to the iPod ecosystem (and thus are ruled out as being Nokia customers). New entrant vs incumbent issues.
CwM is not different to any others in a sense, but it is something people might want to consider. Personally what makes CwM stand out for me is the pricing, ease of use and the keep music at the end factor.
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The biggest drawback to most people will be the DRM restriction. But there has been available for a few years now a program called 'Tunebite', this allow's you to remove the DRM from the music in a perfectly legal way. The music can then be played on any device, & burnt to cd. Don't think this will effect Nokia as they have already done the deal with the record companies, in fact if more people knew about this program it would probably help the take-up of 'Comes with music'.