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Nokia 'comes with music' deal: is it worth it?
Former_MSE_Lawrence
Posts: 975 Forumite
What's the deal?
On 16 Oct Nokia's launching its first Pay As You Go (PAYG) 'comes with music' mobile package via Carphone Warehouse.
For £139.95 (inc. top-up, see below) you can get a mobile on a choice of networks, and a unlimited downloads for a year, from the Nokia Music Store (which has most mainstream tracks) plus once downloaded they're yours for life.
While you can get this package with a contract elsewhere this is the first time with a PAYG. It sounds great BUT there are a number of serious catches.
Unlimited music but limited playability
For some music-lovers it'll be the perfect way to keep up on the latest releases; there's nothing else out there which offers unlimited music downloads to keep for a one-off fee.
Yet many will rightly be put off by the service's reliance on restrictive DRM (digital rights management) encryption technology which prevents them making the most of downloaded content.
This effectively means you'll only be able to play the music from your registered nokia mobile and your registered windows Pc (ie not Mac OSX and Linux users) you can't transfer it to a MP3 player or burn it onto a CD.
You can switch registered devices up to once every three months, but not both at the same time, and while the music is 'yours to keep' after the 12 months end, you can still only (legitimately) keep it on the two registered devices.
Furthermore, after two years you can't change which devices are registered, so your collection may be doomed to die with your PC when you replace it.
The cost
It costs £129.95, but you must top-up a minimum of £10 when you purchase it with a debit card, or £20 if you pay cash, so the actual cost is at least £139.95. See the Carphone Warehouse site for more details.
The Phone: Nokia 5310
The first handset available is a special edition of Nokia's well-rated 5310 music phone. It's a slim handset with a built-in FM Radio, 2MP camera, bluetooth and all the SMS, MMS, mobile web, that you expect of a modern mobile.
Most importantly, you get an extra 2GB memory card to supplement the fairly meagre 30MB onboard memory. With this you should be able to store 'up to 3,000' tracks on it at once. Product Website
The 5310 isn't the only 'comes with music' handset, but it is the cheapest. As willjt has pointed out below, go direct to Nokia and you can order the 8GB N95 for £353, and soon it'll release the swanky-looking 5800 with service.
Extra charges for downloading tracks directly to the phone
While you won't pay for the tracks you download, you'll have to pay for mobile data if you download them directly to your handset. On Pay As You Go, data generally costs a fair whack (£1-2/MB), and since tracks are likely to be at least 3MB each it could get very expensive very quickly.
Thus if you do choose to use this offer it's best to sidestep direct downloads, and instead grab the content you want using your PC, then transfer it to the handset.
What music's on Nokia Music Store?
Having done deals with all the major record labels (Sony BMG, Warner, Universal, EMI), and 'a variety of independent labels', the music store promises access to millions of tracks.
If your taste's more esoteric than mainstream though, and even if not, it makes sense to check what the Music Store has to offer if you're thinking of taking the plunge.
What happens when the 12 months are up?
When the unlimited download period ends, you need to buy another 'comes with music handset' outright to continue using the service. There's no way to simply extend your contract and it's unlikely there will be. As noted above, all the music downloaded thus far is yours to keep, with restrictions.
Is there anything else like this out there?
Currently, no. Yet Nokia's simply the first to offer this sort of unlimited music download product. Both Sony-Ericsson and LG have similar services in the pipeline, and while release dates aren't set, it may be worth hanging around to see how good they are before snapping up the Nokia.
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On 16 Oct Nokia's launching its first Pay As You Go (PAYG) 'comes with music' mobile package via Carphone Warehouse.
For £139.95 (inc. top-up, see below) you can get a mobile on a choice of networks, and a unlimited downloads for a year, from the Nokia Music Store (which has most mainstream tracks) plus once downloaded they're yours for life.
While you can get this package with a contract elsewhere this is the first time with a PAYG. It sounds great BUT there are a number of serious catches.
Unlimited music but limited playability
For some music-lovers it'll be the perfect way to keep up on the latest releases; there's nothing else out there which offers unlimited music downloads to keep for a one-off fee.
Yet many will rightly be put off by the service's reliance on restrictive DRM (digital rights management) encryption technology which prevents them making the most of downloaded content.
This effectively means you'll only be able to play the music from your registered nokia mobile and your registered windows Pc (ie not Mac OSX and Linux users) you can't transfer it to a MP3 player or burn it onto a CD.
You can switch registered devices up to once every three months, but not both at the same time, and while the music is 'yours to keep' after the 12 months end, you can still only (legitimately) keep it on the two registered devices.
Furthermore, after two years you can't change which devices are registered, so your collection may be doomed to die with your PC when you replace it.
The cost
It costs £129.95, but you must top-up a minimum of £10 when you purchase it with a debit card, or £20 if you pay cash, so the actual cost is at least £139.95. See the Carphone Warehouse site for more details.
The Phone: Nokia 5310
The first handset available is a special edition of Nokia's well-rated 5310 music phone. It's a slim handset with a built-in FM Radio, 2MP camera, bluetooth and all the SMS, MMS, mobile web, that you expect of a modern mobile.
Most importantly, you get an extra 2GB memory card to supplement the fairly meagre 30MB onboard memory. With this you should be able to store 'up to 3,000' tracks on it at once. Product Website
The 5310 isn't the only 'comes with music' handset, but it is the cheapest. As willjt has pointed out below, go direct to Nokia and you can order the 8GB N95 for £353, and soon it'll release the swanky-looking 5800 with service.
Extra charges for downloading tracks directly to the phone
While you won't pay for the tracks you download, you'll have to pay for mobile data if you download them directly to your handset. On Pay As You Go, data generally costs a fair whack (£1-2/MB), and since tracks are likely to be at least 3MB each it could get very expensive very quickly.
Thus if you do choose to use this offer it's best to sidestep direct downloads, and instead grab the content you want using your PC, then transfer it to the handset.
What music's on Nokia Music Store?
Having done deals with all the major record labels (Sony BMG, Warner, Universal, EMI), and 'a variety of independent labels', the music store promises access to millions of tracks.
If your taste's more esoteric than mainstream though, and even if not, it makes sense to check what the Music Store has to offer if you're thinking of taking the plunge.
What happens when the 12 months are up?
When the unlimited download period ends, you need to buy another 'comes with music handset' outright to continue using the service. There's no way to simply extend your contract and it's unlikely there will be. As noted above, all the music downloaded thus far is yours to keep, with restrictions.
Is there anything else like this out there?
Currently, no. Yet Nokia's simply the first to offer this sort of unlimited music download product. Both Sony-Ericsson and LG have similar services in the pipeline, and while release dates aren't set, it may be worth hanging around to see how good they are before snapping up the Nokia.
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Comments
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Does anyone know at what quality/bitrate the tracks are encoded?0
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Hmm personally I'd stick with a Napster subscription which is £9 a month and you can burn/transfer as much as you want. Or emusic/7 digital also have subscription-based offerings.
The Sony-Ericsson offering professes to be DRM-free but at the end of the term you only get to keep your 300 most-played tracks with all the rest disappearing - surely that means there is drm technology?!0 -
Be careful with this. I read somewhere that Nokia hadn't fully worked out a deal with the labels, and you won't have unlimited downloads, but 120 a year or something. I'll see if I can find a link.
Edit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2008/sep/25/nokia.comes.with.music0 -
Nokia 'comes with music is also available on the Nokia N95 8GB. It’s available in two colours: 'Black' (£353.00 inc. VAT, in stock) or 'Warm Black' (£399.00 inc. VAT, pre-order).
This can be purchased via Nokia's Online Shop.0 -
RhYnoECfnW wrote: »Be careful with this. I read somewhere that Nokia hadn't fully worked out a deal with the labels, and you won't have unlimited downloads, but 120 a year or something. I'll see if I can find a link.
Edit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2008/sep/25/nokia.comes.with.music
I believe this Guardian blog is now outdated; the Nokia press office has confirmed that:
"Comes With Music offers one year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalogue and customers can keep all the music that they have downloaded at the end of the year to continue enjoying their music collection"
Here are the terms and conditions.
Nonetheless, while the music's unlimited (within reason) in quantity, it's very much limited in application, and that's where 'comes with music' falters for me.0 -
"For £139.95 (inc. top-up, see below) you can get a mobile on a choice of networks, and a unlimited downloads for a year, from the Nokia Music Store (which has most mainstream tracks) plus once downloaded they're yours for life. "
this sounded great until i went to pick one up - they are currently only availble on t-mobile and orange. :mad: vodafone and virgin aren't planning on joining the scheme since they have their own music download service - not sure yet about o2.0 -
You can download the music for the first year and swap machine/device for 2years.
BUT
You have something called the "vault" which holds your music for 3years and can be re downloaded if your machine dies.
The deals with all the big lables have now been closed and it looks to be a massive collection of music.
When i was introduced to this concept it looked really good but thats only if you use your phone as a mp3 player, the phones arnt to bad and the cheaper one you can upgrage to 16gb for not too much money (mini SDHC)
The n95 is great in the fact you can use its wifi to download tracks too which will by-pass any charges with your mobile network.0 -
I have just bought one of these handsets from CPW and think it's great!
The music store is easy to load up and you just input your details and all the prices disappear off the store! I'm already up to about 2GB of music! It becomes very addictive to be able to download what ever you like and the transfer to the phone is a simple drag and drop system.
The phone itself is very smart in the all black colour and because it has a 3.5m headphone connection I can plug it into my home stereo and even use my old ipod headphones.
Overall I'm really impressed with the service and I've read on the internet that you can swap music with other people who have the service without having to download the tracks.Keep the right company because life's a limited business.0 -
If you spend a lot of time listening to music on your phone, will the radiowaves eventually fry your brain?
That may sound like a silly question, but it is actually quite sensible. There is still the risk of the radio waves causing brain tumours, and though you are not listening directly to the phone, some research did say that the wires carried the radio waves to your brain.
I know that this might help to solve the pension crisis, but it does worry me.0 -
Am i missing something?
Pretty sure Phones 4 u online are selling this phone for £59.99 (+£10 top up) and if you go through quidco you get £15 back!
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