17 October 2008

Nokia 'Comes With Music' Service
Goes Live Today In The United Kingdom

After months of preparation and hard work, long awaited Nokia's Comes With Music service is launched today in the UK, via a deal with Carphone Warehouse to sell the first Comes With Music handset, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic.

Nokia has lent journalists and bloggers a handsets as well as the unlimited access to the service and the first hands on reviews and previews are very positive!

Folks from the 'Music Ally Weblog' are generally impressed with the user experience and especially praise the Nokia Music PC client, its intuitive, easy-to-use interface and the seamless registration process!

Right from the start, Nokia has clearly placed a big emphasis on the user interface. There’s a nifty rollover tutorial the first time you launch the application, every element has a pop-up explanation when you hover over it, and there’s lots of drag’n'drop functionality. So how does Comes With Music itself shape up?

As expected and as we previously reported, songs are provided in the WMA format (192 kbps) and protected with Microsoft's Windows Media DRM (digital rights management) restrictions, which limits how you can use the music. DRM covers unlimited plays, but without burn or transfer rights! However, if you really want to burn it onto CD, you’ll be to buy the track or whole through the Nokia Music.

Right from the start, Nokia has clearly placed a big emphasis on the user interface. There’s a nifty rollover tutorial the first time you launch the application, every element has a pop-up explanation when you hover over it, and there’s lots of drag’n'drop functionality. So how does Comes With Music itself shape up?