Google Music - An Opportunity Missed

The following is pure speculation, with a touch of hopeful optimism, and not based on fact or any insider knowledge.

Google's plans to dominate your every online move is well documented, and considering their basic business model, it makes a lot of sense. Their main revenue stream is from advertising, and quite simply, the more people they can get online, the more their advertising will be seen. So how to get more people online? Simple; create a set of applications, add a 'cool' factor to lure people in, and then give them away for free. They started with Gmail, added calendar, docs, photo editing and management, earth, maps, and so the list keeps growing.
People's acceptance for working in the 'cloud' is growing, and their concerns over privacy are diminishing. Next year they'll launch Google OS on machines that are simply a vehicle for the Chrome browser, and I have no doubt people will buy them in their millions.
What are the 3 main uses for a computer?

1. Research - This is where Google started; their search engine dominates worldwide.
2. Work - Google already has this covered with Google docs, and several large corporations have already made the transfer to the 'cloud'.
3. Recreation - Google has a very popular photo application in Picasa, and has video wrapped up with YouTube. They have also been active in Social Networking, although Orkut wasn't as successful as they would have liked. However, Friend Connect continues to grow, and rumours about Google's interest in Twitter keep resurfacing.

Where it falls short is music. How Google OS will handle music has not been fully addressed, as the machines intended to run Google OS are not intended to have the huge memory required to store thousands of MP3's. Although their are plenty of options for streaming music on the web, these sites have been faltering under the burden of fees paid to the music labels, and are more and more turning to subscription based services.

Lala had a great model, and would have been a perfect fit for 'Google Music". On one's main PC, you access your Lala account and upload your entire music library to Lala, and then access it from any machine, via the web, for free. And legal. And the beauty of the system is that you don't have to physically upload your entire collection which would use many GB of bandwidth (and take days, if not weeks) - Lala scans your music library and registers each song in it's system. Then, if you want additional music, there is a nominal charge to allow streaming, or the option of downloading the song at a cost comparable to iTunes.
Lala sounded like they had the perfect model for Google, and they were for sale. But Apple beat them to it, and we will probably see these features being rolled out in iTunes at their next release.
The unfortunate problem with that is Apple's notorious 'walled garden'. You can only access iTunes with your iPod or iPhone, and although there are millions (and millions) of such users, supporters of Google's own Mobile OS, Android, will not be able to access Lala on iTunes. Google really slipped up on this one. Hopefully they have an even better solution!

Nokia Comes With Music Party Bus

As part of their 'Comes With Music' brand promotion, Nokia is taking to the roads of South Africa this summer in the Comes With Music Party Bus, featuring some great local bands along the way.

The tour kicked off yesterday (9 December) in Umhloti, north of Durban, and will travel down the coast to be in Cape Town for Christmas and New Year.

So if you want to support local music, find out more about the 'Comes With Music' offering from Nokia, or see what freebies are on offer, get down to your local beach on one of the days listed below.
From the Nokia press release:

SA’s hottest bands tour with the Nokia Comes with Music Party Bus

Nokia will be taking the South African coast by storm this festive season with the launch of the Nokia Comes with Music Party Bus. Beach-goers down South Africa’s South Coast will be serenaded by some of South Africa’s hottest bands on tour with the Nokia Comes with Music road show.  The tour will kick off in Umdloti, Durban on the 9^th of December.

The Nokia Comes with Music Party bus, which will be making stops at beaches and shopping malls throughout the season, will showcase live performances from some of South Africa’s top bands which include Ashtray Electric, Taxi Violence, Mix n Blend, Straatligkinders, aKing and Loyiso.

Sarah Crowe, head of marketing for Nokia South Africa says that the bus is just another way in which Nokia is showing its support of local talent.   “Nokia has exercised support for the local industry throughout 2009 with the launch of the Nokia Music Store and then the Comes with Music service. The Comes with Music party bus is a great way to end off the year and we look forward to giving fans a chance to see their favourite artists perform live over the festive season.”

As part of the tour, Nokia will be handing out free Nokia Music Store vouchers giving fans access to tracks from their favourite performers. Tracks to be included are ‘The Dance’ by aKing, ‘Quite Overstared’ by Ashtray Electric and ‘Shall We Swing (feat, Fletcher)’ by Mix n Blend. The tracks will be given away at each performance of specific bands per day. You can hear previews of these tracks from Nokia Music Store’s latest Podcast Episode at http://www.zoopy.com/audio/2fiy/nokia-music-store-podcast-episode-3?browse=3ur7

The Nokia Comes with Music Party Bus starts its tour in Durban following which it will travel to Margate, Port Elizabeth, Plettenberg Bay and Cape Town. 

Tour route:

9^th December – Umdloti, Durban: 11h00 Ashtray Electric and 15h00 Taxi Violence

10^th December – Westbrook Beach, Durban: 11h00 Taxi Violence and 15h00 Ashtray Electric

11^th December – Anstey Beach, Durban: 11h00 Ashtray Electric and 15h00 Taxi Violence

12^th December – Amanzimtoti, Durban: 11h00 Mix n Blend:DJ and 15h00 Straatligkinders

13^th December – Amanzimtoti, Durban: 11h00 Straatligkinders and 15h00 Mix n Blend:DJ

14^th December – Margate Beach, Margate: 11h00 Ashtray Electric and 15h00 Taxi Violence

15^th December – Margate Beach, Margate: 11h00 Mix n Blend:DJ and 15h00 Straatligkinders

17^th December – Hobie Beach, Port Elizabeth: 11h00 Mix n Blend:DJ and 15h00 Straatligkinders

18^th December – Hobie Beach, Port Elizabeth: 11h00 Straatligkinders and 15h00 Mix n Blend:DJ

19^th December – King’s Beach, Port Elizabeth: 11h00 Mix n Blend:DJ and 15h00 Straatligkinders

21^st December – Beacon Isle Beach, Plettenberg Bay: 11h00 Mix n Blend:DJ and 15h00 AKing

23^rd December – Ratanga Junction, Cape Town: 11h00 Mix n Blend:DJ and 15h00 Straatligkinders

24^th December – Cape Gate Centre, Cape Town: 11h00 Taxi Violence and 15h00 Mix n Blend:Band

26^th December – Ratanga Junction, Cape Town: 11h00 Mix n Blend:Band and  15h00 Taxi Violence

27^th December – Somerset Mall, Cape Town: 11h00 Taxi Violence and 15h00 Mix n Blend:Band

28^th December – Blue Route Mall, Cape Town: 11h00 Ashtray Electric and 15h00 Mix n Blend: Band

29^th December – V&A Waterfront, Cape Town: 11h00 Mix n Blend: Band and 15h00 Ashtray Electric

30^th December – V&A Waterfront, Cape Town: 11h00 Ashtray Electric and 15h00 Mix n Blend: Band

31^st December – V&A Waterfront, Cape Town: 11h00 Mix n Blend: Band and Loyiso

An Interview with Jake Larsen, Head of Nokia Music

I was recently very privileged to have the opportunity to pose a number of questions to Jake Larsen, Head of Music for the Middle East and Africa. This came about as a result of a previous blog post, where I was fairly critical of Nokia Music.

Nokia Music Store

Q: The SA Nokia Music Store was launched on 24 April '09. Now that the initial hype has died down, are visits/download meeting the expectations of Nokia? Do you have figures I can quote?

A: The Nokia Music Store has been received very well in South Africa and we are pleased with both the site visit and download figures. Whilst we do not share sales and traffic information, what is particularly interesting to note is that about a third of all downloads are happening over the air by 3G or wireless LAN.

Q: In SA, what is the split between local and international music on the Nokia Music Store?

A: The catalogue of more than five million songs on the Nokia Music Store is made up of a broad cross section of both local and international tracks from record labels large and small, major and independent. All the majors; Universal, Sony, Emi and Warner are represented as are such notable indie labels as Sheer, African Dope, Next Music and David Gresham. Local content is well supported by local music fans; a great example being Prime Circle who’s single “She Always Gets What She Wants” has been in the top ten for single downloads since the store launched in April 2009.

Q: Many online music stores are now offering DRM-free downloads, most notably iTunes. Why did Nokia launch with DRM, and is there any plan to remove it at a later stage?

A: We are committed to going DRM free with the Nokia Music Store and are talking to the music industry about how we can make this happen.

Q: Additionally, downloads are only offered in the WMA format. Are there any plans to offer the more universally accepted MP3 format?

A: Alternative file formats are currently being explored, but WMA will remain the format for the time being.

Q: Similarly, downloads are being released in 192kbps. This is better than the 128kbps we often see in other Microsoft DRM’d music stores but not quite as good as the 256kbps tracks you can get from iTunes. Are there any plans to offer better quality downloads?

A: The difference in perceivable quality between 192kbps and 256kbps is subjective and one needs to weigh up the balance between file size and audio quality as well as the impact that this has on the cost of the data needed to perform downloads. As mentioned above, alternative file formats are currently being explored, but WMA 192kbps will remain the format for the time being.

Q: I was impressed with the pricing offered - R100 per album is especially good value when compared to +- R160 for a CD. Is this pricing just an introductory 'special'? Will Nokia be able to hold this level of pricing in the longer term?

A: We believe that the pricing of R10 per song and R100 per album represents fantastic value, particularly since the latter is not linked to the number of tracks on an album. There are no current plans to change the pricing on the South African Nokia Music Store.

Q: While the XpressMusic range, especially the 5800, has been pushed quite heavily, there has not been much significant marketing of the Music Store in SA. Are there any plans for more aggressive marketing?

A: We are marketing the Nokia Music Store through various channels on a continuous basis. This includes traditional and online media.

Q: In some countries the "Comes With Music" package is offered with phones like the 5800XM. Why wasn't this strategy adopted for SA?

A: I am happy to let you know that we have just announced Comes With Music for South Africa! The 5130, 5530 and 5630 Comes With Music devices will be in store from the end of September through MTN, Cell C and Nashua Autopage with the 5130 being an MTN exclusive. Comes With Music is a revolutionary new service which provides buyers of Nokia Comes With Music devices unlimited access to the more than 5 000 000 songs on the Nokia Music Store  for 12 months at no cost and allows users to keep all of the music downloaded after the twelve months are up.

Q: The Music Store is only available through the Nokia Music application, or via a mobile app. I understand Nokia's strategy is to control the entire music experience, but many potential users are already quite heavily invested in alternative programmes like iTunes or Windows Media Player, and wouldn't want to switch to another player. Are there any plans to launch general web access?

A: The Nokia Music player is an integral part of the Nokia Music Store experience and acts as a hub for managing you music collection as well as providing an easy and efficient way to transfer music between your pc and device. One can import music from sources other than the Nokia Music Store, such as CDs and music stored on your hard drive, so there is no need to use any other piece of software in order to enjoy your music on device, PC or CD.

Nokia Music

Q: Nokia have entered this particular segment very late, and many people have already aligned themselves to iTunes, Windows Media Player, or one of a dozen alternative players. Currently, Nokia Music is lacking many of the features that consumers now take for granted. The latest release, V1.3, failed to add significantly to the feature set. When can we expect features like filters, auto-playlists, syncing of the play-count and on-phone rating and subsequent syncing to be added?

A: Nokia is the world’s largest manufacturer of digital music players and has operated in the music space for some time now. Our entry into the online retail space was a natural progression in the quest to provide a seamlessly integrated music experience and we are constantly refining the way in which consumers interact with the Nokia Music Store based on research and consumer feedback.

Q: In my experience the Nokia Music player is very slow and cumbersome. For example, there is a frustrating lag when trying to scroll through the library. I currently have a 40GB music library, and I found Nokia Music unusable. Right now there is no way I would switch players. Is this an issue being addressed for subsequent versions?

A: Through the Nokia Music player software, we currently offer the easiest way to load music onto your Nokia device and we aim to develop solutions that offer best in class experiences as the product develops.

Q: The comparison with iTunes is unavoidable. There is a lot of speculation about iTunes 9 at the moment, and the possible introduction of social features. Can you share Nokia's plans for the player going forward?

A: The future of Nokia Music is very exciting! We have just announced Comes With Music and believe it to be the most compelling music offering ever to be introduced in South Africa. Social features are undoubtedly going to be important in the future of music and sharing amongst Comes With Music device owners is an important part of the offering.

Unfortunately, I think Jake has ducked a few of the issues I raised, especially with regard to specific development of the current music player. Most people, when they connect their portable music player (be it a phone or dedicated device) to their PC, are expecting an interface and user experience similar or better than the iPod/iTunes experience. This is not available from Nokia now, and in my personal opinion, this may be the reason Nokia have delayed their Music Store release in the USA.

However, I believe that Nokia have the resources to get it right, and I am confident that Jake's promise of "best in class" will be met. I expect we'll be seeing a number of updates to the Nokia Music player in the coming months, along with corresponding firmware updates for the XpressMusic range of phones (in future to be known as the X Series).

The good news is Nokia are committed to offering DRM free music; some sources saying maybe as early as the end of this year. This may be the other reason the USA launch has been delayed.

I would like to thank Jake Larsen for agreeing to answer my quetions, and to Lauren Marks for facilitating the interview.

Thanks for reading.

The Problem with Nokia Music

I was really excited to see that Nokia Music had been updated to version 1.3; hopefully some useful functionality had at last been added. But once again I was disappointed.

I own a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, and when I chose this phone, I imagined that it would replace my aging iPod Nano as my MP3 player of choice. After all, this was Nokia's music phone, and my expectations were high. iPods have been around for ages, so surely Nokia would have raised the bar in terms of functionality?

Well, apparently the programmers working on the Nokia Music application have never heard of the iPod, nor do they have much interest in music.

You see, I listen to a lot of music via my PC (MediaMonkey) and my MP3 player, and my music collection on my PC is in excess of 30Gb. However, with only 8Gb available on my Nano I am able to keep my music fresh and valid with the use of 3 key function:

1. Ratings: I use the simple star functions to rate the music I like most. These can be changed on the Nano while I am listening to the track, and they automatically update the ratings on my PC when I sync.
2. Play count and Last Played: Similarly, this data is updated on my PC when I sync.
3. Auto Playlists: Most important of all, I have created autoplaylists on my PC that update the Playlist based on the above.

Based on the above, fresh playlists of all my favourite tracks are created every time I connect my iPod to my PC. Depending on the set of autoplaylists selected for the device, recently listened to tracks are automatically removed and new content is added.

Doesn't everyone do this?

Why then does Nokia's premier phone and PC app not have any of this essential functionality?

In fact, while it is relatively easy to add new music to the phone via the useful drag & drop function, I have still not been able to successfully remove older content with Nokia Music, let alone conduct a proper 'sync'. After having had to reformat my memory card twice I have given up trying, and now use the very basic music app included in PC Suite.

Nokia have put a lot of work into the Nokia Music Store, which is accessed via the Nokia Music app. However, tracks downloaded from the Store have DRM embedded, so despite the reasonable pricing (in SA), I won't be bothering anytime soon. The 'My Music' player side of the app is slow and clunky. It battles with my mere 30Gb; how would it be with 100Gb?

What the team at Nokia seem to have forgotten, however, is that people actually listen to their music, both on the PCs and on their MP3 players, and for that to work properly, Nokia Music has to be their music player of choice. I'll be sticking with MediaMonkey!

Thanks for reading.

The Big Music Rip Off

Music, and especially the downloading there of, has been much in the news of late. iTunes have dropped DRM (at last), and yet Nokia have launched their South African Store with DRM front and centre!

The guys behind The Pirate Bay were taken to court, found guilty and sentenced to 1 year in jail each. Of course it'll be years before they actually go to jail, as they've appealed the outcome, and in the meantime it's business as usual.

The record labels continue with their 'big stick' method of dealing with illegal downloading, but as quickly as they close down one avenue another one opens. They're fighting a losing battle.

I'm not usually on the side of illegal activity, but I really feel nothing for the big labels. They were greedy, and that greed is what's coming back to bite them now.

To explain I have to go back to the early '80's. I had just left school and was in my first job. At the end of every month I would buy a new LP, for which I would pay the princely sum of R18, or maybe R22 for an import.

Then along came CD's. They were great, and everyone started replacing their vinyl collections with the new media, but suddenly we were paying R65. We were told it was the cost of the shiny new discs, but in reality we now know that CD's are cheap to produce. So what had happened? The record labels used the popularity and demand for CD's to push up their profit margins. And for 20 years they have reaped the profits, and raped the consumer!

If we take the price of a CD today, it's about R150. That's a 230% increase. If we apply that to the R18 we were paying for vinyl, it comes to R41,50. That's what we should be paying! No wonder people are stealing music!

So along came MP3's and Napster and people jumped at the chance for free music because they were tired of being ripped off. Now the damage has been done; we have a whole generation that doesn't believe in paying for music.

Sure iTunes have made a success of selling music online, and now that they've dropped DRM they offer a viable, legal alternative (except in SA, where they're bogged down with all the red tape), but their pricing still sucks, The record labels are still being greedy, and expect the profits they were making in the '80's. Well, here's a newsflash: those days are over; it's time to look for a new business model.

In 1st World countries where there is cheap, always on, uncapped bandwidth, there is a new threat: internet streaming. Last.fm, Pandora, MySpace Music and many, many others are the future. The big labels have made it so difficult to actually own the music in the form the people want, they're starting to give up. Why own music when you can live stream straight from the internet? Some people think of this as internet radio. It's not. You can create your own playlists, share them with friends, and listen to them on your PC at home, or your iPhone wherever there's an internet connection.

Of course, big music is all over this too, and many sites have been closed down, but for each one, two new ones open up. The sites mentioned above are all legal, with agreements with the labels in place, for now, and it remains to be seen if these companies can turn a profit while paying exorbitant per play royalties. Last.fm recently introduced a charge for some countries (SA included), and Pandora is not available at all in SA. MySpace is OK, if you can put up with all the ads.

There is another alternative though; The Sixtyone is a great place to discover music. Any artist can add their songs, and listeners can rate each song, creating a natural order, as well as adding a social context. Best of all, it's free!

U2 - No Line On The Horizon

I'm not a music reviewer, nor could I be. I'm the first to admit that I'm tone deaf, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't have an opinion. I know what I like, and I like U2's 2009 album release No Line On The Horizon.

If you're looking for reviews, here is one that is positive, and here is one that isn't; this post is just my (very humble) opinion. 

This is U2's 12th studio album, in a career that into its 33rd year, and their first since How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb in 2004. Many reviewers are claiming this to be their best album since Achtung Baby in 1991, and I certainly agree, although I have enjoyed every one of U2's albums.

U2 have experimented a bit on this album, but not too much. The result is a freshness in their sound that keeps them at the forefront of rock music. This album has it all; from the hard-rock of "Breathe" to ballads like "White as Snow", and everything in between. The first single from the album is "Get on Your Boots", but I think it is probably my least favourite track, so if you've heard it on the radio, please don't jump to the conclusion that the whole album is the same; it's not. This is a great album, and any fan of rock music should have it in their collection.

Thanks for reading.

Discovering New Music

I'm loathe to admit it, but there are some benefits of using iTunes. Because so many people use it, there are some really cool apps written around iTunes. I stumbled across one of these the other day, and would like to share it with all of you, 'cos, well, it's cool.

The site is called 'I like b-sides', and doesn't require any registration or sign-in. Off to a good start. What you do is upload the “iTunes Music Library” text file (normally in My Music/iTunes), and the site offers up a number of songs not on your playlist that you might also like. It'll even let you sample them from Amazon, with the obvious choice to buy (I guess they get a cut). Don't like the choice; there's a shuffle button. Want even more? There's a list of songs off your upload that you might be ignoring. I'm not sure what criteria they use for this; maybe an average rating from all the uploads.

My only disappointment was that the results didn't offer any new artists, but I'm not sure if that would be true for everyone.

To discover new artists, I use 2 sources:

Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk - simply search for an album you like, and then look at the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section. With Amazon's turnover, you're bound to find something you like.

Last.fm - if you enter a songs name, they'll offer up a playlist of similar music. Even better, if you're prepared to create an account, and 'scrobble' your music for a while, they'll offer up quite meaningful alternative bands and albums. Last.fm has a lot of another useful and interesting features, like adding friends, and seeing how compatible your taste in music is to others, because it has a strong social side to it. If you want to give it a try, look me up. My username is Brat7.

Thanks for reading.