Comes With Music: Reactions

Nokia's launch of the Comes With Music service, a package offering unlimited music downloads, has received a mixed reaction from the industry.

Nokia launches Comes With Music

It seems some analysts believe that Comes With Music might not actually be a profitable venture for Nokia, given the high percentage of the cost of a track that makes up royalty payments.

Jonathan Arber, senior analyst at IDC, said: "There is a suspicion that Nokia is launching Comes With Music as a loss-leader to drive device sales. That was denied today by Liz Schimel, Nokia’s Global Head of Music, who said that at £129.95 for the package, Nokia will be making a margin on the licence element of the price.

"In any case we believe that Comes With Music is more about Nokia pushing itself into the consumer market with a headline-grabbing service, and thus initiating a rapid spot of brand transformation," continued Arber.

Ben Drury, chief executive of 7digital.com, said that the use of DRM (digital rights management) technology would be a big stumbling block.

"Nokia’s new service is an interesting new model for digital music but at first glance seems fatally flawed. Songs downloaded through the Comes With Music service are not in MP3 format and are wrapped in DRM locks which means the downloads cannot be played across a multitude of music devices including iPods and all other MP3 players," he said.

Mark Mulligan of Jupiter Research warned that offering 'free' music could have knock-on effects on the way people perceive music purchases.

"The danger is that CWM teaches young music consumers that music should be free even from legitimate sources. It’s one thing for kids to download music for free illegally, it’s another to formalize that process," Mulligan said.

"So Nokia and the broader industry will need to develop some sophisticated consumer life cycle management over the coming years," he continued.

Are you tempted by Nokia's Comes With Music deal? Have your say in the Web User forums.

www.nokia.co.uk
www.idc.com
www.7digital.com
www.jupiterresearch.com