Imagine a world where you could download music for free – legally. And you could download an unlimited number of songs and whole albums from a whole range of artistes, both local and international, completely free for one year. Sounds too good to be true?
It’s not that far-fetched, actually. Nokia’s revolutionary Comes with Music service is aiming to change the way people listen to music forever.
With the purchase of a Nokia Comes with Music device, users can gain access to the Nokia Ovi Music Store and download as many tracks as they like and store them forever on Ovi, even when their one-year service period is over.
The official launch of Comes with Music in Malaysia took place in late January with a free concert featuring both local and international acts, making Malaysia the 16th country worldwide to offer such a service.
The launch also saw the introduction of the Nokia X6 32GB music device (right and below), the latest tool to bridge the digital divide between users and their favourite songs.
As a music-phone, it has impressive specs: 32GB of on-board memory to store and play up to 35 hours of music in most digital music formats.
It’s also a part of the growing trend of touchscreen phones, with a slick 3.2-inch touch interface. The X6 also has a decent five-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens.
Upon purchasing the X6, users will also find a card with an activation PIN inside, as well as a USB connection cable among other accessories.
Users will first have to install Nokia Ovi Player on their PC, either by visiting a website or using the CD/DVD included.
Once that is done, they will have to connect the X6 to the PC using the cable.
After that, they just need to register an account with Ovi, if they don’t already have one, and join the Comes with Music service.
When prompted, they have to key in their PIN and click ‘Continue’ to activate the service and be able to download their choice of songs.
Nokia’s music catalogue comprises artistes from four major labels – Sony Music, EMI Group, Warner Music Group, Universal as well as independent local and international record labels.
Users can browse through music from 16 genres and even listen to 30-second clips of songs they are interested in. Because downloading is free, it also gives users the opportunity to download music by other artistes or genres they normally would not listen to.
Users can also share songs, but only with other Comes with Music devices, to protect copyrights and prevent piracy. The receiving device will have to download the licence of the song or album being shared, when prompted, but otherwise, it’s a simple, fuss-free process.
There are a few downsides, however. The downloading process isn’t as clear-cut as Nokia would like you to think, and first-timers might get lost with the amount of jumps to download songs from the Music Store to the PC to the music device, but after a few tries, it should come naturally.
The X6 device itself is also not entirely perfect. It runs on the Symbian S60 operating system, which people either love or hate.
The music player interface is rather unoriginal, and the design of the phone is rather unattractive and cumbersome compared to the other sleek devices in the market.
However, the sound quality of the X6 is excellent, which is the most important thing. It also does not hurt that the phone also comes with a Nokia WH500 stereo headset, allowing users to listen to their songs and control their calls while on the go.
Hype aside, Nokia still leaves several questions unanswered.
For instance, how do record companies and artistes get paid for their music if it is being downloaded for free? And what happens after the free download period of one year is up?
At the moment, Nokia is in discussion with telco operators on a solution for users who want to renew their service. An announcement on this will be made in the near future
