Archive for 2 November 2007
Quick Review of Nokia Music Store (in Beta)
2 November 2007 in Phones & Reviews | Comments (0)
So, Nokia opened their own music store in the UK today. I got some free credits to the store (and surprise access), so I went and took a look around. What I saw was nothing surprising in comparison to other online music stores, but it is a fine, easy-to-use, music store that probably integrate nicely with future Nokia phones in the very near future. The only Achilles heel in the store might just be the transferring bought music to the phone or “multimedia computer”.
Some Specs for the Geeks
The store sells Windows Media encoded music with digital rights management, aka. copy protection at bitrates of 128 or 196 kilobits/second. The store will not work with any other browser than Internet Explorer, so, sorry, no Opera and no Firefox browsers may enter. The IE and WMA requirement also means that if you want to download the songs using your PC, you will have to be running Windows. The store also requires the download of a Nokia Music Bar add-on for IE. This add-on enables previews, purchasing, download management, and playing the bought music directly in the browser. (And, yes, the installation of the add-on works in Windows Vista… probably as well in XP). If you do not use Windows, the only way of buying from the store is on a Nokia phone if it is a N-series phone that supports the store.
The Experience
Signing up for the store is simple and easy. There is a separate field for entering your own mobile phone (Americans: cellphone) number, probably for any purchases done using the phone.
When buying your first song, the store will have you download the add-on for IE. The installation procedure is quite refined, but the download button for the software is a bit obscure. Nevertheless, the installation procedure is simple and works flawlessly. The bonus is that you do not have to restart IE (or Windows) for the software to work. Nice! 
Next, when your first song has been purchased and downloaded and you try to listen to it, Windows Media will have to download some updates (probably to fix some security holes that enabled the copy protection to be removed from the music) and finally get the license for the music you just bought.
Above: The add-on bar required to be installed for IE.
The front page is a text book example taken from the other music stores secret books, and I’m thinking of iTunes and the Zune music store. It contains showcases on popular artists, new releases, the stuff. What is also a good feature, almost required now-a-days is a freebie of the week, and the NMS has that checked.
Above: The front page of Nokia Music Store
A feature in NMS that I haven’t seen before is a Music Wall, which basically is a browseble wall of album art.
Above: Albu… err, I mean, the Music Wall in action.
Clicking on any of the album covers will open a small window where you can check out the album and other details.
Above: Buying the album or the album cover? Either way, it’s easily done…
The front page also is the new house to the recommendations where a famous artist or artists will list their own recommended music.
Above: Def Jam CEO Jay-Z is in da house recommending music….
Searching for an artist or album or both, is as easy as entering the name(s) in the search boxes in the upper left corner and hitting search. Then you can browse the results by either albums or singles.
Above: Some search results browsed by singles.
When you’ve bought the album or singles you wanted and want more, then you can hit “Try These” for similar music from other artists.
Above: Similar artists to Dallas Superstars.
Show Me The Money?
The music industry is all about the money and the NMS has singles sold for 0.80 £ (that’s British pound, if you didn’t know) which is approximately 1.15 € or 1.66 US $. The album pricing is depending on the number of songs in the album, where albums with 10 or more songs cost 8 £ for the whole album. Albums with less than 10 songs are priced per song that the album contains. (This is at least what I’ve noticed, but you mileage may vary…)
Above: Daft Punk’s album prices varies according to the number of songs in the album in question.
Transferring Music to the Phone
Apparently, the transferring of the music to the phone has to be done via Windows Media Player, which doesn’t give the best experience to anyone. Luckily, this also means that the NMS should be compatible with PlayForSure devices, but you shouldn’t take my word for it. I would like to see a much simpler solution than forcing the user to use the WMP as for doing the transfer themselves.
I couldn’t test the music store on my current Nokia phone since, from what I’ve read, I should have a Nokia N-series device and preferably one of the recently released N81 or N95 8GB. I’ll maybe try that out sometime later when I’ve got time to upgrade my phone.
In Summary
The weakest link is Windows Media Player in this music store equation. I would seriously like a better way of transferring the music to the phone than WMP. But, looking at the overall look and function of the store itself, it is looking swell and working well for a beta product. Support for other browsers should be made possible since IE is so old and dated as a web browser.