Itunes faces serious opponent
Product: Comes with Music
Supplier: Nokia
Web:
http://music.nokia.com
Price: with 5310 £129.95 prepaid or Free on £25 pm contract
with N95 8GB £40 pm contract
IGNORE WHAT Apple fanboys might say, Nokia's Comes with Music presents a serious challenge to Itunes. The only real glitch is the Windows DRM rights management system it supports.
In essence, buyers will pay for this service through the purchase of a 'Comes with Music' handset which are currently exclusive in the UK to the Carphone Warehouse. There's the Nokia 5310 which is available on prepaid or contract, or the Nokia N95 8GB Comes with Music edition which is only on contract.
Future Comes with Music handsets will inevitably form part of Nokia's Xpressmusic range. So initially this means the Nokia 5310. But for the price you pay for the handset you get as much music as you can download in a year. Which'll be more than adequate for most music lovers.
The major attraction here is the PC-side software which Nokia offers. Known simply as Nokia Music. It is massively more user-friendly for the typical Windows user than anything that Apple can offer.
Once you've finished installing Nokia Music, you're now ready to sign up with your Comes with Music subscription. The INQ went around in circles a bit before finally entering the necessary code.
It's relatively easy to set Nokia Music so that as soon as you attach your Comes with Music phone, all the recently downloaded tracks are copied over.
Incidentally, Nokia is like Apple in that it permits only one PC to be configured with one particular phone. It'll be interesting to see how easy the migration process is.
Those that don't have a Comes with Music handset can utilise Nokia Music as an easy way to access the Nokia Music Store (which is where Comes With Music tracks come from, obviously).
Nokia Music also provides a very simple way to 'rip' your CDs onto the PC for transferring to the handset. Significantly, if you try to copy a Comes with Music track to a different handset, the Windows DRM kicks in to prevent this.
That's because are downloaded in WMA format. However, you can mix and match between MP3 and WMA on the handset. Even MP3s ripped with Itunes will work.
The variety of music tracks available via Comes with Music/Nokia Store appears to be just above average. However, the INQ would challenge Nokia to make the search engine more intelligent.
If you search on two very common words ? in our case 'smooth' and 'Santana', then you're going to hit far too many possibilities. There should be some much better means of narrowing down the options.
Then again, the site's categorisation of music 'genres' also leaves something to be desired. The service describes one of Manu Chao's albums as 'rock'. If poor Manu turned up at a rock gig he'd probably be lynched. His work should be described as Latin or possibly 'world' instead.
An upgrade to Nokia Music (still officially in beta) made it possible to discover the differences between highlighted search matches by offering a 'view tracks' option.
What the INQ liked, however, is the way Nokia makes it simple for you to listen to a 30 second sample of the track you wish to download, just to ensure it is, in fact, the right one.
The recommendations which Comes with Music/ music Store offer are pretty reasonable. The INQ suspects the site learns the more tracks you download.
Overall, the INQ found Nokia Comes with Music to be relatively easy to get on with and exceptionally good value. That's because we'd opt for the N95 option because the 5310 isn't a smartphone. ?
The Good Accompanying software is very PC friendly
The Bad 'Genre' labelling is iffy
The Ugly Uses Windows DRM
Bartender's Verdict 8 out of 10
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I love these quotes:

"The only real glitch is the Windows DRM rights management system it supports." (But aside from that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln?)

"The INQ went around in circles a bit before finally entering the necessary code." (iTunes is so cumbersome!)

"Incidentally, Nokia is like Apple in that it permits only one PC to be configured with one particular phone. It'll be interesting to see how easy the migration process is" (Hint: There is no migration process. When your computer craps out, you lose your tracks.)

"Nokia Music also provides a very simple way to 'rip' your CDs onto the PC for transferring to the handset." (Too bad you can't even burn CDs or share tracks between multiple computers, like, ugh, iTunes.)

"What the INQ liked, however, is the way Nokia makes it simple for you to listen to a 30 second sample of the track you wish to download, just to ensure it is, in fact, the right one." (Boy, no one has ever thot of that before! WhooHoo!)

Yes, all in all, I'd say that, "It is massively more user-friendly for the typical Windows user than anything that Apple can offer."

I can't decide if you guys need to up the meds or cut down your meds.
...that Charlie wouldn't give it an 8 out of 10 rating! I bought my girlfriend a 5310 in June here in Thailand. Nice looking slim phone except it suffers from crappy menus, crappy camera and video, crappy battery life, and worst of all (that you've already mentioned), DRM infestation. Even the few freebie tunes and videos that came with the handset can't be copied or played on another device.[1] 

You have to really ask yourself if it's worth it to buy their phones just to have temporary use of free songs since you know sooner or later they'll pull the plug on the Comes With Music server. Bottom line is you can safely bet your sweet old granny's arse that I won't buy any more of their stinking phones. As much as I hate Apple, I don't think His Jobliness has anything to worry about from Nokia.

[1] Comes With Music "infestation" is only offered in Europe, I believe.
Otherwise people will just buy their albums from the Chinese guy in the car park, without DRM. And that helpful polite chap also sells the latest movies in the cinema's (but the ending might not be on it, ha ha).

Come on you fools at the top, make it simple, make it cheap. Easily available content on any device/pc. Login if you want new content.

Valve does it ok. They should follow that model as a starting point.
Let's get 1 thing straight, this is UNLIMITED music for 12 months to keep!

If you are a music lover thats potentially thousands of pounds of savings.

---------------

I bought my girlfriend a 5310 in June here in Thailand. Nice looking slim phone except it suffers from crappy menus, crappy camera and video, crappy battery life

Clue is in the name really Nokia 5310 express music or Comes with music - This is a MUSIC device hence the 'crappy camera and video' If you want that go buy a 5mp 30fps phone. as for the crappy battery life, is this the same battery that allows 24hr music playback? 

Incidentally, Nokia is like Apple in that it permits only one PC to be configured with one particular phone. It'll be interesting to see how easy the migration process is" (Hint: There is no migration process. When your computer craps out, you lose your tracks.) 


Correction - You do not lose you're tracks, they get stored in the music vault for you to simply click and re-download - thats right, 1 click!

Nokia Music also provides a very simple way to 'rip' your CDs onto the PC for transferring to the handset." (Too bad you can't even burn CDs or share tracks between multiple computers, like, ugh, iTunes.) 

It's simple - you want to burn to CD - Buy the music like you would with erm Itunes. but thats the thing why would you need to burn to CD? Get a decent speaker set for your PC or speaker for the handset or in the car simply buy an FM transmitter.

This is a simply incdredible offer from Nokia - £130 - simply 15cd's and you have already saved your outlay in cost. Or pay 79p a track at Itunes 
I know what I will be doing!