psl
10-08-08, 09:31 PM
Oo Gin Lee -- The Straits Times (Singapore) , October 8, 2008 Wednesday
THERE'S a music revolution in the air and Singaporeans will be among the first to experience it.
Last week, Nokia announced it will launch its unlimited music download service for mobile phones called Comes With Music - first in Britain next week, followed by Australia and Singapore early next year.
Where online buying of digital music is concerned, Singapore has been trailing other countries. Apple's iTunes Music Store, for instance, is yet to be available here five years after its launch.
Thanks to the fact that Singapore is one of 11 Nokia Music Stores in the world, we are now in the game.
Comes With Music raises the bar as it offers unlimited access to millions of songs from all four major international record labels - Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner - during the one-year subscription period. It comes bundled with selected Nokia phone purchases.
You can pull in the songs over-the-air directly to your phone or get them on your PC first and then transfer them to your handset. All downloaded tunes remain playable on your Nokia phone and on that PC even after the subscription ends.
The music industry has been losing big dollars to piracy and CD sales have plummeted. Many users now flock to legitimate online stores like Napster and iTunes but the incremental revenue from digital downloads still lag far behind that of the traditional CD business.
Change is in the air, however, as record labels now realise that a more aggressive business model is needed before all is lost.
Instead of selling singles piecemeal, the new way is to sell unlimited downloads for a monthly or yearly fee.
Think of the boost to the uptake of mobile broadband usage for telcos.
A British start-up called Omnifone has been making headlines by partnering with the four major record labels.
It then offers the infrastructure and technology (powered by its Musicstation tech) to telcos such as Vodafone and Hong Kong's Hutchinson to roll out their own unlimited music downloads service.
Handset makers like LG and Sony Ericsson, clearly unwilling to sit idly by while rival Nokia makes use of music to sell more phones, have jumped on the Omnifone bandwagon.
Last month, Vodafone Australia announced its Musicstation service. For $2A.75 (S $3) per week, Vodafone customers get unlimited music downloads to their phones.
What is unique is that the price includes the 3G access costs, so you can download non-stop without worrying about high data charges.
With the music industry looking for new ways to boost revenues, phone-makers and telcos are taking advantage of music to boost their own products and services.
In Britain, Nokia is launching its Comes With Music phones through retailer Carphone Warehouse. Ominously missing from the Nokia deal are the major telcos from Britain - in particular, Vodafone, which launched its Musicstation UK service last year.
Without the buy-in from the telcos, Nokia's biggest challenge to mass adoption will be the high data access charges when customers download the songs.
Whichever way it is played out, though, the music revolution - served buffet-style - has begun.
THERE'S a music revolution in the air and Singaporeans will be among the first to experience it.
Last week, Nokia announced it will launch its unlimited music download service for mobile phones called Comes With Music - first in Britain next week, followed by Australia and Singapore early next year.
Where online buying of digital music is concerned, Singapore has been trailing other countries. Apple's iTunes Music Store, for instance, is yet to be available here five years after its launch.
Thanks to the fact that Singapore is one of 11 Nokia Music Stores in the world, we are now in the game.
Comes With Music raises the bar as it offers unlimited access to millions of songs from all four major international record labels - Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner - during the one-year subscription period. It comes bundled with selected Nokia phone purchases.
You can pull in the songs over-the-air directly to your phone or get them on your PC first and then transfer them to your handset. All downloaded tunes remain playable on your Nokia phone and on that PC even after the subscription ends.
The music industry has been losing big dollars to piracy and CD sales have plummeted. Many users now flock to legitimate online stores like Napster and iTunes but the incremental revenue from digital downloads still lag far behind that of the traditional CD business.
Change is in the air, however, as record labels now realise that a more aggressive business model is needed before all is lost.
Instead of selling singles piecemeal, the new way is to sell unlimited downloads for a monthly or yearly fee.
Think of the boost to the uptake of mobile broadband usage for telcos.
A British start-up called Omnifone has been making headlines by partnering with the four major record labels.
It then offers the infrastructure and technology (powered by its Musicstation tech) to telcos such as Vodafone and Hong Kong's Hutchinson to roll out their own unlimited music downloads service.
Handset makers like LG and Sony Ericsson, clearly unwilling to sit idly by while rival Nokia makes use of music to sell more phones, have jumped on the Omnifone bandwagon.
Last month, Vodafone Australia announced its Musicstation service. For $2A.75 (S $3) per week, Vodafone customers get unlimited music downloads to their phones.
What is unique is that the price includes the 3G access costs, so you can download non-stop without worrying about high data charges.
With the music industry looking for new ways to boost revenues, phone-makers and telcos are taking advantage of music to boost their own products and services.
In Britain, Nokia is launching its Comes With Music phones through retailer Carphone Warehouse. Ominously missing from the Nokia deal are the major telcos from Britain - in particular, Vodafone, which launched its Musicstation UK service last year.
Without the buy-in from the telcos, Nokia's biggest challenge to mass adoption will be the high data access charges when customers download the songs.
Whichever way it is played out, though, the music revolution - served buffet-style - has begun.