Nokia opens Irish online music store

02-04-2008

by Ciara O'Brien

Nokia is challenging Apple in the digital music market with a new online music store aimed at Irish customers.

Tracks from the Nokia Music Store http://www.music.nokia.ie are compatible with any device that plays Windows Media Audio files (wma), which are embedded with Microsoft's digital rights management technology. However, iPods and iPhones do not support the wma format, effectively cutting iPod users out of Nokia's potential customer pool.

The good news for the Finnish mobile giant is that there are plenty of mobile phones and other devices out there capable of playing the Windows format files.

The Nokia store currently has more than 2.5 million tracks, with major label Universal already on board. The service is also being tailored for the local market, promoting Irish music and including several independent labels in its catalogue.

Tracks will cost EUR1 each, or EUR10 for an album. The store also offers a streaming music service for a monthly fee of EUR10. While the presence of DRM in the tracks is somewhat of a disappointment -- other music stores have been removing the limitations from their tracks -- the music will not expire and is essentially the customer's to keep.

Nokia has been working towards its music store for some time, with the launch of its Ovi portal, which includes music, games and mapping tools, and the "Comes with music" devices, for which consumers pay a premium for free access to music tracks for a specific period of time. The labels are paid out of this premium, according to their market share.

"We want to become a major player in the music market," said Shane O'Brien, service and software manager with Nokia in Ireland, speaking with ENN. "We're very excited to have the music store in the market. It's a new era for us."

Nokia is already in talks with other major labels to bring them into the music store, to offer customers a wider choice of artists and tracks.

Mobile music is a developing market segment, with subscription music services and full-track downloads expected to drive the market in the coming years. According to the latest data from Juniper Research, global revenues should hit USD17.5 billion by 2012.