We’ve all got the deets, but I was able to spend nearly half an hour with one of the guys in charge of the project to really get an idea of what’s going on with this. It’s going to be incredible. In fact, when it was first being announced, Rafe Bladford from AllAboutSymbian leaned over and decided that if it launches like it looks, Apple’s going down, and quickly, and I agree 100%. Let’s explore why…..
The first thing is that this entire music store is focused on making it easy and convenient for the user to get their music. That’s it. I was able to confirm that tracks will cost the same no matter how you buy them – on the PC, OTA, doesn’t matter. That’s awesome.
If you haven’t read the full press release, the Nokia Music store will use Windows DRM for its tracks. Thus, they will not only be playable on Nokia’s N-series devices, but also on any device that is able to use Windows DRM! That includes PlaysForSure MP3 players such as the Creative Zens and whatever else. Also any mobiles (obviously Windows Mobile devices) that can play the format. I think that’s awesome.
The mobile version is fully-featured. You can preview a 30 second clip of the song, add it to your wishlist, view your wishlist, whatever you want to do. There’s several different payment options; you can buy the track straight out, you can purchase a lump amount of credits to use, and you can do gift certificates. So if I bought my dad an N95 for Christmas, I could toss a $30 Music Store card in there, as well. Killer.
You get unlimited transfers with it, so using your USB cable, you can put the tracks on whatever device you want as many times as you want (as far as I understood). You can redownload the tracks 5 times before you have to buy a new license, but you can redownload OTA on your mobile. It’s important to note that the music store is entirely web based, thus if you buy a track or put it on your wishlist on your mobile, it is instantaneously reflected on the PC version. Fantastic.
So how does that play out in real life? Let’s say I’ve bought 8GB worth of music for my library. Other than being completely broke, say I only have a 4GB card in my N95 and I’m in China, while my laptop is in the US. I can delete the songs on my phone (since I’m sick of listening to them from the flight over) and redownload the other 4GB of music that I’ve got in my library, sitting in a web cafe using WiFi. That’s free, but it uses up one of my 5 licenses.
Now let’s say I’m out and about and hear a song I really want. I can buy it on my mobile, and when I get home, plug in with the USB cable. The new Nokia Music Player app (which I’ll cover in a moment) realizes that I have new music, and that I probably want to add it to my library, so it syncs that over (which is just a USB transfer, and is thus free). Easy as pie.
So let’s look at this new desktop app. It’s redesigned from what exists now. It’s like iTunes, with the music store completely integrated. They only had a flash demo, so I couldn’t play, but I did get some great info from the demo man (who worked on the project). First off, the people designing it USE iTunes, so they were able to see the limitations of that and make sure they were addressed in the Nokia software. Great.
One thing is that you can rip a CD directly to your device. So rather than popping a CD in, ripping to your PC, and then going and finding those tracks and syncing them to your device, you can seriously drag the CD onto your device and it’s done in 1 step. REALLY easy. It’ll also rip to AACplus.
Also, playlists sync both ways. This is awesome. Say you’ve got a ton of music on your device (or you just bought a ton) and you build a playlist while riding the bus or train. When you plug into your computer, that playlist is synced over. No other desktop app does that.
You WILL be able to, just like iTunes, use non-DRM’d tracks in the Music Player app, and sync them to your device, blah blah blah. So really the only thing you can’t use in it is iTunes DRM’d tracks.
So what could kill it? What are the weaknesses? The first is how well the desktop Music Player runs. Nokia’s not exactly known for light-weight apps, and this is supposed to be something I have open on my computer all the time (after all, I’m listening to music, right?). If it slows my computer down, that’s a big negative.
Oh, and the rumors were true. It’s going to be a regional launch. Words cannot describe how ANNOYING THAT IS, NOKIA!! SERIOUSLY, COME ON. This is a freakin global world, you can’t launch regional services. However, the music player will be available to everyone, you just can’t use the Music Store till it hits your area. Shame.
What else did you want to know? Anything? Am I excited about it? YES. Will I be the first to get it? YES.
