Nokia seeks to impress with Music Store demos
Rating: Download Senegal’s finest performer to your handset
by Tony Dennis
It didn’t seem remotely odd to be mingling
with major figures from the UK’s music industry at an event held tonight in –
presumably – a fashionable little night club close to London’s Oxford Circus.
It was reminiscent, for example, of a party
held by O2 at 3GSM Barcelona in 2006 where the company’s sponsored band, The Upper Room, was playing.
So why should anyone raise an eyebrow just because the event was promoting an
online music site and sponsored by a handset manufacturer, Nokia, rather than a
mobile network operator?
Why should online music portals be the sole
regime of operators? It isn’t as if operators haven’t sponsored handsets in
their time. Take Virgin Mobile, for example, with the Lobster and even more
infamously, Cellnet/O2 with the original XDA.
Nokia’s main aim was to show how its Music
Store – in conjunction with the N81 and N95 8GB handsets – makes it extremely easy for regular
folk to download their favourite tracks to their handsets.
It really was genuinely quite simple. And, for once, I actually managed to download
a track that wasn’t from one of this country’s top selling bands. I’m very
proud to downloaded a song by Senegal’s top performer, Youssou N’Dour. You can’t get much more obscure than that.
What was worrying was how Nokia appeared to be dodging the DRM question. Because
it was blatantly obvious that you wouldn’t be able to pirate any music obtained
from its service. The company pointed out that you could store tracks
downloaded directly to the phone – in my case via Wi-Fi – on your PC for safe
keeping. Conversely you could download a track to your PC and side-load it onto
one of these two handsets.
But what happens in 12-18 months time? Not
only will you need to stick with a Nokia, it will have to be one that boasts
Nokia’s associated Music Store software, too.
So while Nokia’s music content is admirably eclectic and
its software easy to use, will consumers really be prepared to tie
themselves up to one supplier just because Apple has done so the the iPod?
Answers on a postcard, please.
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