What good is an all-you-can-eat music plan if you can only listen to the tracks on your phone and main PC? Not much, is the inevitable answer to that question, one which Nokia seems only now to be addressing – but only in China.
Nokia’s Comes with Music (CWM) service sounds good in theory, but bogged down with dreary DRM ‘protection,’ users find their music tethered to their mobile devices, with no hope of emancipation without using an illegal DRM stripping program.
Not ideal. After all, why should music lovers paying for a music service be penalized for wanting to listen to their legally purchased tracks on their iPods or other MP3 players? They shouldn’t. It’s nonsensical.
But that is exactly what Nokia has been doing to CWM customers since the service struck its first notes back in December 2007. Now, however, it would appear Nokia is beginning to take note of some of its critics and has announced the Chinese launch of CWM, without DRM. Talk about striking the right cord.
Nokia is offering CWM on eight different handsets in the Chinese market – the X6 32GB and X6 16GB, 5230, 5330, 5800w, 6700s, E52 and E72i – and a yearly subscription to the music style smorgasbord service costs around $190, or about $16 a month for those who can’t be bothered to do the math.
Not a bad deal considering most tracks on iTunes cost between $1-$2 each, and CWM offers unlimited downloads. That’s what you might call ‘going for a song.’
There’s apparently a sizeable collection of tunes too. Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music are all onboard, as well as some smaller local Chinese labels, according to Nokia.
“China is a massive opportunity and a challenging market to address,” noted Rob Wells, senior vice president of Digital, universal music group international.
He added that “Nokia is the undisputed dominant mobile player within China,” and that “there is no better partner with whom to develop the market in new, imaginative ways and make the most of its potential.”
Nokia also has India firmly in its sights as the next market to launch its DRM free CWM goodness. Bollywood rejoice.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the US or Europe is in for any DRM freedom from Nokia anytime soon, but with the volume of complaints increasing, it may be only a matter of time before the Finnish firm changes its tune.
