Moving towards ‘feels free’ while further devaluing music.
A press release arrived within the email pile today and it trumpeted this – Nokia launches pioneering ‘Comes With Music‘ digital entertainment service. New service offers customers unprecedented freedom and value. EMI Music, independents and music publishers join offering.
Let me take a deep breath here……ok. There’s nothing but hyperbolic exclamations here. I have to ask, why does the music industry continue to shoot itself in the foot? And why, via their mouthpiece the henchmen of the RIAA, do they continue to whine over falling music sales when they happily embrace giving away music? Perhaps the labels and publishers were happy to receive bucket-loads of cash to license their music in return for allowing Nokia to train young folks in the art of always getting music for free!!?
Nokia announced the debut of its pioneering Comes with Music digital entertainment service, which offers consumers a new way to discover and enjoy music. Customers who buy a Comes With Music device will be able to explore and enjoy a diverse catalog of music of international and local artists with unlimited access to millions of tracks for a year, keeping the music once the year is over and revolutionizing their digital music experience.
Dear Nokia, consumers have been discovering and enjoying music for years, for free, via the internets. That’s why music sales are down. It’s nice to see that you are helping to make more free music available to these consumers though.
“Comes With Music sets a precedent for consumer value and convenience that the rest of the digital entertainment industry is already copying,” said Tero Ojanperä, executive vice president and head of the Nokia entertainment and communities business.”
Consumer value and convenience = internet. Otherwise that’s just marketing double-speak.
“Trying out a music recommendation is spontaneous as customers can download without worrying about the cost of an album or a track – the freedom and simplicity of the service is unparalleled.”
See above.
Comes With Music gives you unlimited access to the millions of tracks in the Nokia Music Store and the music is all yours to keep – because it’s not a revolution unless you get to keep your music.
WOW!
“With the launch of Nokia’s Comes With Music, fans now have a new avenue to find and enjoy music from EMI’s catalogue, and our artists have a powerful new way to reach their fans,” said Douglas Merrill, president, digital business, for EMI Music. “By encouraging music discovery in an innovative and consumer-friendly environment, Comes With Music will continue to push experimentation in the digital music industry.”
Experimentation in the digital music industry – fancy that? Only 10 years too late…
The winners here are Nokia [enhanced phone sales] and music lovers [more free music]. The losers are musicians and songwriters [believe me, my royalties on digital sales are miniscule] and the record labels [training kids to get music for free is so 1998...]
what does “consumer-friendly environment” mean?
…and even if they have figured out how to make money, how do you explain to your artists that their work is being given away. how do you get a royalty on free?
“i see that your track was downloaded 45 million times. think of the exposure! sorry though. no money for you.”
confusing move. interested to see how it plays out…..
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:09 pmI believe a quote from Mr. John Lydon is in order here:
“Hallo EMI! GOOOOOD…BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”
What’s that sound? Why, I believe it’s the bellows of the music industry dinosaurs sinking deeper into the La Brea tar pits!
December 4th, 2008 at 6:37 am