5 things the Nokia Music Store has to do to get my money
By Stefan Constantinescu on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 11:14 AM PST In Ideas and rants, Nokia, Ovi
The Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Music Store is set to launch in a little under 24 hours and many journalists are going to cover it, bloggers are going to compare it to iTunes and after a week no one will remember it even exists. Chances are that if you read this blog you are a pirate. Don’t be afraid to admit it, I am one too.
I hardly remember the last time I purchased music and even though Oink got shut down I still have multiple sources that can give me practically any song I want in either uncompressed FLAC or 320 kbps MP3 files with no DRM. Now I know what you’re saying, if Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) can sell tracks to people then so can Nokia.
You are right about that, but if you can do simple division you will realize that the number of iTunes songs sold over the number of iPods sold = roughly 20 legal tracks on a music player that can hold thousands. Piracy is the norm, not legal distribution. There are a few things Nokia can do to get my money however:
1. Unlimited downloading via my device for a flat monthly fee. I will gladly pay up to 20 Euros per month for a service that lets me enjoy millions of tracks from the palm (NSDQ: PALM) of my hand from anywhere in the world. Why should I care about unlimited streaming to my computer at home? I thought my Nokia N95 is what computers have become?
2. Make the Music Store social. Know why people loved Napster and Audio Galaxy and Oink? If I found someone who had some of the same music I did then I could grab the tracks off their hard drive that I never heard of and maybe find an artist I would have never otherwise encountered.
3. Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) devices have a fantastic feature called TrackID. In a nutshell if you hear a song you like then you hold your phone up to the speaker, hit the TrackID button, your device records a 5 second sample and sends it to GraceNote who then tells you the artist and track. Copy that and add an option to “Download Now” and you will get that crisp 20 Euro note in my wallet.
4. Let me send music from my device to my friend’s devices if they have a Music Store account. If I’m in a café and my friend plays a new awesome song on her Nokia device then let her send it to me via Bluetooth. If I find a new song via TrackID that I think my friend would like, let me send them an SMS with a download link. Music is social, I know that is the second time I said this.
5. The Nokia N81 has fantastic audio quality and that should be the baseline for the rest of the Nseries phones to be released and something that ES and MP should strive to reach. Your best of breed service should be enjoyed on best of breed devices. Nokia’s have long been known for being resilient, having long battery life and easy to use; now make the Nokia brand synonymous with the best sound quality out of all the phone manufactures.
Feel free to add some of your thoughts. I know what I’m going to do when the music store launches, keep on pirating like I have been since the 20th century when the MP3 was invented.
so you’re a thief and proud of it – call it what you will – it’s beyond comprehension that it’s done with absoutely no conscience whatever – rationalize all you’d like, there is no justification for it – what I find apalling is that you brag about it – hey everybody. I’m a “pirate” – amazing!
For the social part of your recommendation I can suggest you MyStrands Social player.Take a look of it here:http://www.mystrands.com/
Better move house stefan, i hear the storm troopers approaching.
Excellent ideas, absolutely spot on and couldn’t have said it better. Fact of the matter is that all this is possible and if its too late to implement it into the software now, then do it soon in the next update. It will all make money for Nokia and its partners and also make the consumers very happy indeed.
I mean c’mon, no flat rate unlimited plan?? In this consume all day and age?? wtf?!
Such a shame you cant wander into the Nokia boardrooms and start a WAKE UP session on the people who can make these changes possible….(maybe too distracted by the cute secretary)
Top marks and with you all the way on that.
Screw mystrands Leonard (no offense to you personally)!!
We are talking of a first party Nokia solution integrated into their upcoming system.
There are many great third party software out there, but why cant we have such a great service out of the box? Unless Nokia acquire mystrands.
Stefan,
with all due respect your statement “Piracy is the norm, not legal distribution.” is dead wrong. Or at best, only true for some people. I would be willing to bet 20 Euro that MOST of the songs on iPods are ripped from CDs owned by the iPhone owner. Completely legal. That IS the norm. CDs still WAY outsell legally bought digital music, and probably even pirated music by a good margin. The reason it is such a crisis for music industry is not because they lost MOST of their CD sales. The lost ENOUGH/A LOT, and that bites into their and retailers margins.
Secondly, your ideas are all great. I am sure Nokia is already working on at least some of them. Especially 2 seems to be on the way already (OVI/MOSH). #4 may already be there in the form of being able to recommend, if not “give” a song to another Music Store customer (not sure which you meant). In #5, what are ES and MP?
However, it is too easy to blame Nokia only. There are technology limitations. There are limiations imposed by partners (music companies, carriers etc.). There may be copyright limitations. There are time to markets consideration etc. etc.
For number 1
The new Nokia Music Store will launch on 1 November.
Single tracks will be priced at 80p, while standard-length albums will cost £8, with longer albums costing £10 or £12. Each track will have three licences.
For £8 per month, users will have the option of accessing a jukebox facility that allows them unlimited access to streamed music.
£8 per month are 11.45 Euro or 16.49USD
Nokia’s 8GB N95 device and the N81, which both go on sale on 1 November, will be able to access the store, while other handsets will have to ’side-load’ the music from a PC. More Nokia Music Store enabled handsets are expected in 2008.
Purchased songs are transferred to the Nokia devices using Windows Media Player.
‘The Nokia Music Store offers great usability and ease of use along with a huge selection of music,’ said Richard Sandford, regional manager for Nokia Music UK & Ireland. ‘By having an integrated mobile and PC download service, the Nokia Music Store is a fantastic way to build a music collection that is truly mobile
I dont buy CDs as much as before(yes i download most of them illegally), BUT bands that i realy like i still do buy their CD and DVDs.
I would say that piracy is the other norm at least on my eyes and what i see.
Agree pretty much with all of your points cant see them all so important thought i find one and two especially important.
I think it would be a nice addition if nokia added cover art.
The best payment way would be to add the cost to my monthly operator invoice.
Viipottaja, I have to say, it’s easyer to DL a album from the net then rip it off a CD.
Markust,
that is true. But that does not mean that its done more than transferring CDs to the iPod.
Thomson, AFAIK, the streaming option is only for the PC, you cannot use it on your phone.
i agree 100% with your points – especially with the last one (audio quality). there’s nothing worse than buying a ultra-high priced top-notch device like the N95(-1) which even has a super-convenient 3.5mm jack, only to discover later that the audio-quality and S/N ratio is about equal to an old tape-recorder from the last century…(damn!!). i also agree with your piracy statement. to just bring a new online music store with some basic features may simply not be enough for most users to swap to the legal side – besides: to download even pirated music is perfectly legal in certain countries (like switzerland, for example)! we will see..
Nr 5 shud be number 6 The sexy N81
I dont know what kind of N81 you get but lott of reviews who start come up are much more positive and say N81 rock and plays games your brain away
http://www.smape.com/en/reviews/nokia/Nokia_N81.html
Stefan,
)
without sounding judgemental… sharing is illegal.
You might have a different opinion but you should not promote illegal activities (well, your illegal activities
If you really want to work for Nokia, you can start reading the code of conduct
“…Shaped by company values, the Nokia Way and recognized international laws and practices, Nokia’s code of conduct aims to influence the way each employee carries out his or her work….”
I might have to rethink my thoughts when walking around campus now, and wipe my hard drive a few times.
I like Stefan’s refreshing honesty and I think he is far from unique. Yes, I know how ironic it is to use the word ‘honesty’ in describing someone that admits to piracy!
I’m also for the all-you-can-eat approach. There’s way too much music out there for any average person to be able to afford all that they like. Our music tastes evolve as well, so it’s good to be able to try new things and not have to pay extra.
Have a subscription music service at a realistic price and with the flexibilty to use it on your mobile and PC and (I believe) people will pay for it – even some that previously pirated.