Comes With Music... But No One Cares
from the thank-you-drm dept
Nokia got a lot of attention when it launched its "Comes With Music" concept -- where you buy a phone that comes with "free" all-you-can-eat music downloads for one year. Of course, the music comes wrapped in annoying DRM, though the music will keep playing (thankfully), after the year is up. Still, it seems like people aren't buying for the most part. A recent report shows only 107,000 users worldwide. This must be a blow to the major record labels who always seem to insist that "free music" drives pretty much every other business model. For example, BPI continues to insist that ISPs are basing their own business model on people sharing "free music." And you have record labels who are pissed off because they think that video games Rock Band and Guitar Hero aren't paying enough for all the benefit they get from the music. And, of course, there are all those collection societies claiming that every business that plays any kind of music needs to pay more, because it must be all that music that brings in the business. Well, it looks like Nokia is proving them all wrong. The music, by itself, doesn't seem to attract all that much business at all. Perhaps everyone should be asking for a refund.
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Filed Under: comes with music, music, value
Companies: nokia
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well
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Not the music itself
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Not the music itself
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Re: Not the music itself
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It's not "free" music!
I took one look at the deal, and just threw it out. Even with the data plans aside, I expected (I haven't bothered to look) that it would be DRM-hell. I'm surprised to read that the music keeps going after the year is up too, but not enough to bother with it.
Finally, their application and games store offerings are not particularly pleasant to browse through. I expect a Nokia music store to be just as unpleasant.
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Re: It's not "free" music!
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Really how much music are you going to get...
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Unmatched Catalog
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Massive over generalization, a total fabrication and lie, outright.
The music, say in a restaurant, is one of many pieces of a puzzle of what works and what doesn't. Nobody in the PSA has claimed that music is the only reason.
The rest of this post is pretty much another massive Techdirt reach, attempting to come to a slam dunk conclusion based on almost unrelated "factoids".
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No, actually quite accurate. I've spent a lot of time with those folks, and it's pretty much what they say.
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AC filter anyone?
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We are losing profits from this, see here on this line my four year old drew on some graph paper? Yeah the line under the red thing that looks like a house? No, ignore the yellow thing that looks like a sun and the brown thing that looks like a horse. Those are highlights. Its the green thing that looks like a hill we are worried about.
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I think they have to accept the future is finding a way to charge the websites for hosting the free stuff as they can't find a way of stopping it whilst making it accessible.
In the UK many of the bigger more established groups have launched CD's by them being given away in newspapers (presumably for a healthy sum).
This way the royalties are paid upfront and the record companies make the profit in one hit!
Maybe they can work out a way for this model to work online who knows?
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They've lost the monopoly on distribution. So they've started to lean on the only monopoly they've got left, and that's copyright.
It's not that they want it both ways, they aren't thinking in terms of fair. They just want more money. And that's why they can't agree to any online distribution. It costs a fraction of what CD distribution costs.
As soon as a major record label moves to a free model, it's over. No customer is going to understand paying for it ever again. Lots of industry people who were needed when CDs were generating money will not be needed any longer.
The industry will be streamlined, and that's what they are fighting.
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actually, let me correct that, HAD an iphone, i gave that 3gs piece of junk away and am very happy with my 5800. I still use the plan from the 3gs to tether my laptop via my 5800 so not a real loss.
In Sweden "comes with music" is not unlimited with the 5800.. i got a voucher for a bunch of songs but never used it because of DRM etc (same old reasons, not worth mentioning here). Anyone want that voucher please message me on ezee.se, its yours, free, no strings attached, no promotion, because frankly its a piece of junk and not worth the paper the passcode is printed on.
I pretty much immd got on p2p and downloaded all the songs i wanted, then spotify came along and now i rip the songs i want with wiretap pro (mac) or Replay music (windows).
I use only 4 of my fingers to play music on my phone or to rip music from spotify or to download my music... the middle finger i save for the music industry.
:))
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