Nokia opens second online music store in APACSINGAPORE--Nokia today officially announced its second Music Store in Asia Pacific with over 2 million songs available for download. Australia launched its store earlier this month.
Nokia Music Store The songs will be with Windows Media DRM and this isn't a surprise to Claudio Checchia, research manger for Consumer Markets at IDC Asia Pacific. Checchia told CNET Asia in an email interview: "Although music labels have started to warm up to the idea of testing the waters selling DRM-free music, at least on a limited basis in many US- or European-based online music stores, DRM is still deemed a necessary evil in APEJ. "Bottom line, there was no way the record labels would have agreed to the launch of Nokia's music store without DRM." Each track will cost S$2 and users can sync the songs via Windows Media Player 11 from their desktop to their mobile device for an unlimited number of times. Burning songs to CD, however, is restricted to 10 copies, depending on the agreement regarding fair use policies with the labels involved. Nokia is also offering a subscription-based model where users can stream all the music they want online on their PC for a flat fee of S$16 per month. The catch is this service works only with the Internet Explorer browser. The streaming service is not strictly the first of its kind. Last month, Mobile One--one of the three telco operators in Singapore--announced that its subscribers can have unlimited streaming of music via the M1 Jukebox on their mobiles for a flat fee of S$5.35. The service was a joint development by M1 and Soundbuzz--a music provider headquartered in Singapore. At the time of launch, about 10,000 titles from different genres were available. Payment modes for the Nokia Music Store are currently limited to Singapore-issued Mastercard, Visa/Electon, Amex and Diners credit cards and also via AXS machines. The company is also looking at different forms of payment modes which could be available in the near future. According to IDC, 1.6 million mobiles with music playback capabilities were shipped in Singapore in 2007. However, this number does not represent whether consumers are using their phones for listening to music. The first Nokia Music Store opened in the UK on November 1 last year.
|
- Talkback
-
There are currently no comments for this story.
To post comments, you need to become a member. It's FREE.
