The Middle East launch covers 11 markets that include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. With the purchase of the new Nokia X6 16 GB Comes with Music edition, users will have access to a music catalog of an estimated four million tracks from the biggest international and regional labels. The Nokia X6 16GB smartphone with the service will be commercially available the first week of March, for an estimated price of $600.
It must be emphasized that initially Nokia is bundling the Comes with Music service only with the with the Nokia X6 16GB smartphone. This means that owners of other Nokia devices won’t have access to the music service. The Nokia X6 16GB has enough onboard storage space for 5,500 music tracks. The smartphone offers a 3.2-inch widescreen capacitive touchscreen and runs the latest version of Symbian. It has a powerful battery that enables 4.5 hours of video playback or 35 hours of music playback. Additionally the X6 is equipped with a 5-megapixel camera and is compatible with the new Ovi Maps walk and drive navigation. So the X6 is much more than an MP3 player, but it still means that those who want the Comes with Music service will have to forgo any other handset.
The Comes with Music proposition is straightforward. “When you buy the Nokia X6 Comes with Music device, you get 12 months of unlimited access to millions of tracks from the Ovi Music catalog. You can enjoy the music on the Nokia X6 device or your dedicated PC. The songs are yours to keep. So after the year is complete, the licenses do not expire and you can continue to enjoy all of your music,” said Jake Larsen, Head of Music, Nokia Middle East and Africa.
Music in the Ovi Music catalog is provided by all major international and regional labels including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, EMI Music, Rotana, Mazzika, Melody Music, Platinum Records, and leading content aggregator The Orchard, as well as thousands of independent labels. The cont-ent covers a cross section of Western and Arabic music, as well as among others, Indian, Pakistani and Filipino catalogs.
“You can download as much as you want without thinking that you need to pay or even how to pay,” Ayman Chalhoub, Head of Retail Sales for Music at Nokia said. “We want to move away from the a la carte model where you pay for every track that you purchase. We began rolling out Comes with Music in 2008 and we scaled it up in European and Asian markets in 2009. Now we’re launching it in the Arab World because we’re trying to reach everyone. We believe that consumers want access and a great user experience and that’s what we’re providing.”
Nokia believes that Come with Music provides a business model that best removes the barriers to downloading music legally. Chalhoub remarked that everyone in the music industry ecosystem including music labels, publishers, Nokia and consumers benefits from such a strategy.
“The X6 is the first product that we’re launching with Comes with Music and we expect to launch more than one product in the future,” Chalhoub added. “This sets up the scene and creates a foundation. For a year or so we’ve been working quite hard to get Comes with Music into the Middle East and we’re really excited about it.”
Once the Comes with Music bundle is purchased, the user takes the enclosed PIN number and sets up an account at Ovi Music. One PC and one Nokia X6 smartphone may be registered against the PIN. Every three months it is possible to change either device. While the music downloads are unlimited for a year, consumers may have to pay data charges depending on the connection they use to download the tracks. Downloads can be in the form of individual songs or full albums.
One additional point that those considering a purchase of Comes with Music should be aware of, is that Nokia has decided that the service must conform to the regulations that exist in the physical retail world within Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries.
“If a song can be sold legally within Saudi Arabia, then you’ll find it on the Ovi Music service. If the song is not able to be sold in Saudi Arabia then you won’t find it on the Ovi Service,” said Chalhoub. “It’s about respecting the social standards of the market. In the first phase of the Comes with Music launch it will be one approach. So if we cannot sell a song in one Middle East country then it would be withdrawn from all markets in the Middle East Ovi Music service. It is all determined by what the music labels can or cannot sell in the Middle East on a song by song basis.”
Nokia believes that at its launch Comes with Music will offer not only a broad catalog of music from international artists, but the widest range of music from regional artists, making it the best music service in the region. The company hopes that with unlimited access to the Ovi Music catalog for a year, people will not only enjoy their favorite artists but will also delve into new genres and try music from emerging artists without having to worry about individual track or album purchases, leading to a growing appreciation of the local music scene.
