IT IS touted as Singapore's first-ever unlimited songs download service, bundled into the price of a phone.
However, the music might just end prematurely when you are enjoying the swing of things.
Nokia launched its all-songs-you-can-download service, Comes With Music, last Friday with a bang. The All-American-Rejects performed through the launch night at Zouk while all three telcos offered alluring Nokia Comes With Music phones promotions.
Here is the snag: the telcos offer the phone deals with the typical two-year contracts. Nokia's unlimited music downloads service, however, lasts only for one year (see box on how it works).
You get to keep all the songs you have already downloaded, while new tracks are off-limits after the one year has expired. Also, you cannot choose to pay to renew the service for another year. The only way out: buy a new Nokia CWM phone.
Sandy Monteiro, senior vice-president at Universal Music Group for South-east Asia, said that the recording companies are now opening up and willing to try new business models, including 'rental' services which allow users to pay a fixed weekly or monthly sum to listen to all the music they want but not keep any music after that.
Newer sales tactics also include ad-supported music services like placing music videos on YouTube.
Already, My Space Music offers listeners in the United States unlimited music streams from hundreds of thousands of tracks. Users can post up to 10 songs on their My Space profile page for others to listen to as well.
'The idea is to offer choice to the consumers,' Sandy added.
CWM is a different deal for music lovers in Singapore as online music stores here like Soundbuzz have been offering only a-la-carte tracks and albums for sale.
The labels are now opening up, but not because they have a choice.
According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers last year, worldwide sales of physical music formats like CDs plunged from US$35.8billion (S$55.6 billion) in 2003 to US$26.1 billion in 2007 and are expected to halve in five years to US$13.6 billion by 2012 (see chart).
One local retail music veteran, who has been in the business for over 10 years and who did not want to be named, estimates that total music CD sales here peaked at about $100 million a decade ago and is only worth a fifth of that today.
Even traditional music retail giant HMV now has hived off one of its three music floors at The Heeren to sell movies and video games.
The labels are banking on digital music to make up the numbers but the new revenue from digital music has not yet covered the shortfall from physical formats.
Likening the music industry to a sleeping giant, Sandy said that it has finally 'awoken'.
'We had been too entrenched in selling physical media like tapes and CDs for decades,' he said.
'We thought our job was to sell CDs. The truth is they were just containers for our real business - selling music,' he added.
Interestingly, Sandy sees Nokia's CWM service as closer to the ad-driven business where 'consumers don't feel like they are paying for the music'.
Which is why Nokia declines to give a price tag to its CWM service. However, a check with a retailer here that sells only phones without line contracts showed the premium averages between $100 and $200.
For instance, the N85 costs $828 but N85 CWM costs $958.
Meanwhile, the N96 goes for $1,068 and the N96 CWM for $1,268.
'Comes With Music is just the beginning. There will be more. We, too, are looking at launching something special in Singapore,' added Sandy.
ginlee@sph.com.sg
Comes With Music: How it works
Buy one of the six selected Nokia phones - N96, N85, N79, 5320, 5220 and the new touchscreen 5800, which has the Comes With Music (CWM) service bundled in. Note that the first five models have versions that come with or without CWM. Only the 5800 is CWM-specific.
The CWM phone lets you download the songs to your PC and synchronise it with a Nokia phone, or to download the songs over 3G or Wi-Fi direct to the phone.
Download all the songs you want for one year from the time you register your phone for the CWM service.
However, registration must be done within two months from the date of purchase.
You get to keep all the songs you have downloaded within the one-year period. After that, any new downloads call for the purchase of a new Nokia CWM phone. You cannot renew the service alone.
The tracks have DRM or digital rights management, so you can listen to them only on the specific Nokia phone that has CWM and on one PC at any one time.
Nokia will not give a number to the additional cost of CWM but the difference between the retail price of a standalone Nokia phone and its CWM counterpart shows a difference of between $100 and $200.
This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.
