Comes With Music Was Announced Far Too Early
This is something I said when it was announced, and I’ll stick by it, especially because I’ve recently figured out the real issue (at least in my mind). I’m sure you’ve read recently where Apple is now prodding the record labels for the ability to sell all-you-can-eat subscriptions to the iTunes store in the form of a premium on the price of certain iPod devices. Basically, the same thing that Nokia announced it would be doing late last year at the Nokia World 2007 event in Amsterdam.
Nokia’s offer is planned to be rolled out this summer, according to the announcement, and will basically offer a one-year full license to everything in the Nokia Music Store. After questioning them directly, I found out the details - basically, it’s tied to your Nokia Music Store account, and each song is allowed to transfer between a set number of handsets and computers. It’s not a subscription service, so to speak, it merely doesn’t charge you for anything in the Nokia Music Store for a year. At the end of the year, you’re still able to listen to any of the music you chose, though it is bound by the DRM, of course. You’re still able to get new music, you’ll just pay the per-track price that everyone else does.
It’s pretty simple, really, and completely brilliant, as a year is plenty of time to build the habit of ordering songs directly from your handset. So why was it foolish of Nokia to announce it back in December? Because that’s a 9-month lead time for the competition to copycat.
Comes With Music, when announced, was supposed to be this big radical new approach to mobile music downloads and mobile phones with MP3 playing capabilities. It was supposed to rattle the industry, and it obviously has. Which is bad for Nokia, who has yet to announce a Comes With Music device, and also has yet to even launch the Nokia Music Store in any country other than the U.K, Germany, and Finland. Not really impressive, in my opinion.
I think that Nokia’s PR is going to have a learning curve when it comes to the company’s recent focus on web services as opposed to mainly hardware devices. It’s ok, somewhat, to announce a device with a 9-month lead time. That’s hardly enough time for a competitor to copy the device and get it on the market before you.
However, with web services, things move alot more quickly, and it’s really easy to get left in your own dust by announcing things too far in advance. Given that Nokia, to date, has announced several of these new web services and has yet to *actually* launch any, aside from the Nokia Music Store, and even that is only in 3 countries, they’ve got some quick moving to do, in my opinion.
What do you think?
Brilliant post! My thoughts exactly. Apple will score the hype win on this one too, and it really is too bad.
negative, apple didn’t copy nokia, universal is trying to reinvent their business model and want to partner with as many people as possible: http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9900250-7.html
Thanks for the link, Stefan, that was a side I hadn’t read about before posting this. However, I still stand by my opinion that these web services can’t be marketed and launched the same as a handset, with so much lead time, without risking the competitive advantage.
I’ve always been bothered by Nokia’s announcement timing, though.
I agree to your point of view absolutely. Why don’t they make the service ready and then launch, or announce in its beta phase? Nokia should thank the Almighty that N-Gage has not yet been copied. They have made the customers wait for eternity, and if in any way, SE puts up a PS phone, N-Gage will bite the dust even before its ‘launch’.
Honestly I was never a huge fan of Nokia’s announcement for one primary reason: DRM only .wma music files…
If Apple manages to pull something similar off (it’s still a big rumor) I think they’ll be able to pull something more impressive off from the get go for three reasons: connections in the music industry, software development skills, and a proven track record with offering digital music platforms.
Don’t agree about the timing of the announcement — just about every article about Apple’s new announcement has compared them to Nokia. Since Apple’s the king of buzz these days, if all their buzz is co-opted a bit by Nokia, Nokia wins.
But do agree about the delays in Nokia roll-outs — just about everything they’ve announced has rolled out half-baked and late. Looks like software business units is a bit harder than just a reorganization.
The reason that everything at Nokia Music is taking so long is that negotiations take forever. The roll-out country by country has been slow due to the need for publisher agreements and in terms of ‘Comes With Music’ the major labels have been very hard to agree terms with. Universal are obviously signed up and Sony BMG. EMI will follow soon and then Warner. The indie labels will sign up quickly with the big 4 on board. I can’t see that Apple won’t find the same problems we have had and will be at least next year before they launch something similar.
Mar 28th, 2008 at 9:01 am
[…] service, but as the time passed, we have all grown to think that it was announced way too early, as Ricky explained it a few days […]
Aug 25th, 2008 at 5:00 am
[…] which limits the number of difference devices you can use a single track on. Nokia also has its forthcoming Comes With Music initiative, which will offer 1 year of free music bundled with specific handsets (details on which handsets […]