Nokia "Comes With Music" - First Take

Michael Gartenberg | December 04, 2007, 08:12 AM

Last summer, I looked at Nokia's first mobile music offering and felt it left something to be desired. Today, Nokia has announced a bold new move that allows consumers who purchase a Nokia device (the press release does not say it's a phone) to also get "a year of unlimited access to millions of tracks from a range of great artists - past, present and future. Once the year is complete, customers can keep all their music without having to worry about it disappearing when their subscription is over."

Very interesting indeed. A few points and questions that need answering.

1. Initial music will come only from UMG (which continues to experiment with new models while still keeping DRM free music from Apple customers). Nokia will need to get more labels on board to make this really compelling but UMG is a pretty good start.

2. What's the device and what's the cost? These will certainly be crucial to success. Nokia was also somewhat coy and not discussing whether this would be a phone or some other device.

3. Is there DRM involved? It's not clear that the music is usable on other devices or platforms. Hard to imagine that we're talking about unlimited music that is totally open for a year. It is possible we are talking about license agreements that might prohibit use beyond the first year if you're not a paying customer but this is something we'll need to wait and see more from Nokia.

Bottom line? This is a game changer in terms of policy it raises some interesting questions as well. How much is Nokia paying for this type of license structure? Will consumers sign up after the first year is over? What's the costs associated with the device and what other features and functions will it have. In the long run, it's going to take more than free to change the game and differentiate and that includes things like cool devices and the means to discover and enjoy new music in that catalog of millions of songs.

No doubt, Nokia has made an important and bold move here that's going to shake things up in the industry. 2008 is shaping up to be an interesting year.

Mark Mulligan posts his thoughts here as well.