Month: october

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This month in Britain, people will be able to purchase the new Nokia Phone that has a year long unlimited music subscription built into its price of $230. The service will allow you to download music, put it on your computer and then let you keep the music after your subscription is over. It has agreements with all four major labels and a few independents and those companies involved will get $5.60 per phone sold. Nokia see this new business model as a way to bring business and buzz to Ovi, which is a new mobile-internet service that it will also soon offer. This service offered by Nokia is said to bring competition against Apple and its services. Nokia though is just one of the many companies that are starting to build models that include unlimited music subscriptions. Sony’s PlayNow plus is just one in a few that are think of ideas and planning business models like Nokia’s. The question that has come to surface now is will this work? It seems so far that record labels and the music industry as a whole will benefit greatly from these new services, and that the revenue that they will receive are projected to be around $338 million. It is not clear what Nokia has planned after the year subscription is up for a user, but most think that the idea is for teens especially who love to have the newest coolest phone to just buy a new one when their year is up. Unfortunately, at this time the Nokia service will only be offered in a few countries in Europe and while there will be no direct competition when competition arises, users may not like the fact that the services are not compatible with one another. While there are pros and cons to this new idea, it could be a way to reduce piracy, but it could lead to people not buying CD’s and using other services like iTunes which could have negative affects brought on by the new “free” music offerings.

Month: october

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Seven years ago, Apple came out with the iPod. Many thought that the expensive new device would fail not only because Apple was stepping into a new area, but also because the country was facing a recession. As we now know, the iPod was a great success for Apple and between that and iTunes, which came out in 2003 the music industry has changed as a result. Today, CD sales are still in decline, and unfortunately digital sales are not making up the loss. While the younger generations view music as free and piracy has become a large problem, a lot has been tried to try and bring in revenue. Giving away music and letting people give what they think the music is worth and subscription services are just two of the ways that the industry has tried to save itself, but nothing to this point has really worked. It has been hard to keep the music industry and its consumers happy with one another when it comes to people getting music. Consumers want unlimited music, while companies in the industry would like to use more of a subscription basis. The issues in the past is that the industry has had with the subscription model is that the people who use them can not access the music they have already received if they do not continue to pay for the subscription. At this time, seven years after the iPod came out , Nokia has decided to launch a product during a economical hard time. People are unsure if it will be successful, but it is a way that the industry can provide music in a way that will feel free for the consumer, yet generate revenue needed for the people and music involved. Nokia’s Comes with music model is a new one that is getting a lot of attention. When users buy a Comes with music phone, they will also be paying for a year subscription for unlimited downloads of music. The price of the subscription will be hidden in the cost of the phone. This model if it works, could be put to use in other areas of business. In the future, if this works there could be opportunities for other companies to bundle their products with a “free” music subscription, which could help it land loyal customers.

Month: September

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With mobile sales climbing, Nokia announced that they will start focus more on the mobile music content market. Nokia's Music Stores will carry music from the four major international record companies and thousands of independent record companies. Similarly to Apple launching iTunes to be compatible with their iPod, Nokia will bring four new phones optimized for their Music Store.