A music revolution has started-The Nokia Music Store has been launched
The Nokia Music Store launched yesterday, amidst much hype and to a somewhat critical audience (if the response on Twitter was anything to go by).
“South Africans have waited a long time for a local store offering both international hits and local favourites,” said Jake Larsen, Nokia’s Head of Music for Middle East and Africa. “The Nokia Music Store caters for a variety of tastes and with just one account music lovers can access the store via any desktop computer or directly from optimised Nokia devices.” South Africa is the 16th country to see a launch of a local store.
Jake Larsen, also says the store will change the way music is discovered and consumed in South Africa, and how right he is as the store boasts over 4.5 million tracks available for download, which makes the Store the closest thing to iTunes we have available in South Africa as well as being far ahead of the local sites with regards to the number of tracks being available to download.
The best part of the deal is the fact that “You pay only R10 per track and R100 per album [no matter how many tracks are on the album] – and all music downloaded is yours to keep,” says Larsen.
There were a few concerns and debates raised as the store isn’t compatible with Firefox or Mac browsers. The music is also DRM protected which means the files are protected so that you can’t share them and the downside is you are limited to how many devices you can play them on. The above mentioned issues will be sorted out and worked through as soon as possible,promises the representitives of Nokia Store as they say “We are truly committed to going DRM-free in our stores and the development of other platforms is underway i.e. Mac or Firefox”.
So what’s it like? well, the store’s user friendly interface makes downloading full-length tracks easy and there are also options that make it possible for you to create customised playlists and to add tracks on a wishlist that you can decide to buy later.
Nokia has ensured they will stay on top of all what is new in the music world globally and locally by joining with major record labels such as Sony Music, Universal, EMI, Warner and local independents including African Cream, Coolspot, Sheer and Next Music.
I tested out the store and was impressed by it,the layout and overall presentation of the store and it’s features.
Vincent from MoralFibre was at the launch and wrote an in depth and interesting article on his thoughts with regards to the store. Read about it here.
If you’re on Twitter you can follow the music store to recive updates and get your all questions answered at: http://twitter.com/NMS_ZA
All in all I think the Nokia Music store is the long awaited and needed platform for music downloads, and when it’s compatible with Mac as well as Firefox browsers, it’s going to be an even bigger hit.
The best music is just a click away. http://music.nokia.co.za
xx
yours in musical madness
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