I spent the better part of yesterday fighting with .NET Framework installations, trying to get this Nokia Music PC Client to work. Others haven’t reported the issues that I had, so I’m sure it was my computer being annoying, though I reformatted a few weeks ago and reinstalled Windows XP, so I’m not sure what the deal was. In any case, after sending over some log files to the Music team, I’ve gotten everything worked out and have spent a few hours playing with the new app, and have put together my thoughts on it.
As you know, I’ve been waiting anxiously for this app since I saw it at the Nokia Go Play event last year, and I’m even more excited that I finally have it and can see how well it’s going to work. First, there are a few things that I want to point out that the team has done right thus far. There are also quite a few missing features that will need to be added before the app can go head to head with iTunes (which, for the record, is exactly what it’s up against).
First, the good:
1. Watch Folders – BRAVO, Nokia, Bravo. Watch Folders is a feature that allows you to tell the app where you keep your music, and it will periodically check that folder to see if you added anything, or changed any of the files (renaming, moved to a subfolder, etc). This is CRUCIAL if the user likes to organize his own music, as it avoids broken links.
2. Mini-Mode – Not only does the whole player shrink, but there are two levels of ‘shrinkage’, with and without the album art. Great job on this, and there’s also a setting to keep it on top of other windows, should you want that. The mini-mode also still allows full interaction, showing the track title, full playback controls, progress bar, and volume control. Love it.
3. Tag Editing – Nokia Music PC Client allows me to edit the details of an individual track, as well as mass-editing for groups of tracks, at the same time. I can do the same for Album Artwork, though a future update to the client will apparently offer to fetch updated Album Art.
4. Sync - Syncing with my Nokia N82 was a pleasant experience. The software found all of the music currently on my phone, and even offers to add it to my library, which is a big plus if you’re a Symella user (like me). You can setup individual sync properties for each device, and it works with non-S60 devices, if you can put them in Mass Storage mode.
So, if all this is great, what would I change? How can the Nokia Music PC Client improve?
1. Auto Playlists – the app comes with several auto playlists setup, but I want to create my own. With 54GB of music, I’m not going to be able to put all my music on my phone. I’m also normally not going to be able to listen to it all on a regular basis. I want to be able to tell the Nokia Music PC Client that I want to listen to all of the tracks in the Country genre that I haven’t listened to in the past 2 weeks. It needs to be totally customisable, with data caps, too. I.e. this playlist is 100 random tracks that I’ve not listened to in the past 2 weeks, or 6GB of music that I’ve only listened to one time.
2. Podcasts – I have the Nokia Podcasting application on my phone, downloading new podcasts all the time. Why not sync those to my PC, or download them with my PC’s internet connection and then copy to my device only the new ones? The Nokia Music PC Client offers a great potential to better manage the space occupied by podcasts, I hope they use that.
3. Internet Radio – Again, we’ve got the Nokia Internet Radio app, why not bring that as a tab across the top of the Nokia Music PC Client?
4. Syncing – It works, and good, but it needs to be MUCH more robust. In the auto settings, I want to be able to determine how much free space should be left on my memory card. Heaven forbid I sync with the Music Client and then don’t have room for video or pictures on my road trip. User specified data limits should be in place.
5. Pane view – I don’t want to have to choose whether to sort by artist, album, genre, etc. Give me three panes in the top half of my library view, with the lists below. I hate to say, but kinda like iTunes (and Winamp). That way in three clicks I can see all my Country tracks on Alan Jackson’s 3rd album.
6. Go deeper – When I right-click on a track, I want to see 3 more options – Play more from this artist (in my library), Play this album, and Play more from this genre.
Overall, the whole thing should come with defaults, but allow more granular control. How recently added are the tracks in my recently added list? 2 days? A week? last month? The software itself, once installed (heh), runs great, and does exactly what it sets out to do – FINALLY provide the missing link for PC users looking to merge their desktop and mobile music experiences. Take that and run with it, Nokia.
However, be *very* careful as you begin adding features. Remember that most people using this application are going to leave it running in the background, while they do other things on their computer. RAM and processing power is a precious commodity on a PC, and should be regarded as such. When in doubt, choose whatever option results in less overhead resources being used.
Despite these limitations, I can say that the Nokia Music PC Client has pretty much just trumped Winamp on this blogger’s computer, simply for the fact that syncing with my phone is now possible. Winamp is capable of syncing, but the experience is anything but smooth.
Great job, Nokia Music Team, but we’re keeping a close eye, now. Let’s see some new stuff soon! And for goodness’ sake, some support for those on OSX and Linux!
