Trade Review: Week Three (2/2)

"Nokia Music Streaming Services Launches in America"

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/blogs/gear-up/nokia-music-streaming-service-launches-in-america-20120911

In another effort for a company to get involved with the music streaming service industry, Nokia is the latest tech giant to take a chance on cross promotion of their products with the music industry. With a music streaming service similar to Spotify but with many twists to its business model, Nokia hopes that their music streaming endeavor, Nokia Music, will jump overall revenue for the company. Nokia Music is incredibly unique in its infrastructural design and offerings for its customers. Foremost, since Nokia phone holders already have access to the Nokia Music platform it allows customers to not "give over credit card information, [fork] over an email address or [endure] time and bandwidth-sucking ads" (Grow). The notion of Nokia Music already being an additional service to a Nokia phone incentivizes customers to purchase a Nokia phone knowing that they can listen to the same music in the same music streaming fashion through less hassle and time, where Nokia really wants to get "all of the clutter out of the way between the user and music" (Grow). 

Additionally, Nokia Music will not have any ads, there will be no subscriptions needed and no additionally payments. Definitely the most incredible part to this new business model is that Nokia is footing the licensing bill for all the content provided on Nokia Music; therefore, customers do not have to pay an extra cent to use the application that is even preinstalled on the phone so you do not have to even download it. A major move for Nokia and music streaming alike, Nokia's goals to bring Nokia Music was not easy (Nokia is based in Finland). To further prove how far Nokia has gone to make Nokia Music a game changer for the music industry, Nokia even has customized the music available based on your country of location. So, Nokia had various programmers to make sure that each country's musical preferences were adjusted accordingly in order to make the content available enjoyable. 

Nokia music becomes even more personal by allowing you to select three songs and Nokia Music will make a playlist just based on the artist, style, tempo, and genre of music. Other playlists are provided on Nokia Music that cover a wide range of musical genres, including celebrity playlist that Rhianna, Green Day, and Lady Gaga have created for the program. Also, Nokia allows you the option to skip over six songs every hour, which is then tracked to ensure that your taste in music is personalized, adjusted, and will play the music you enjoy - something similar to Pandora. The notion of creating your own personal radio without having to select the music yourself is the newfound phenomenon for music streaming. 

Although Nokia Music is by far one of the most detailed music streaming services to come out to date, the few flaws in the system inhibit a large portion of potential revenue. Despite it being a perk, the notion of Nokia already having the application and music licensing prepaid really cuts into the potentially profits for Nokia Music. As well as, the music offered is limited to how many songs they were allowed to license for the service, how many songs they choose to offer, and how much Nokia Music can afford to support thus far. Nokia Music also has the downside of users not being able to pick their own music and solely relying on a program to select the music they like based on scanning your music library or choosing three songs for a playlist. 

After just launching this September it will be interesting to see if Nokia sales will go up due to this new service, or if consumers are truly faithful to their precious iPhones, Droids and Blackberries since Nokia has never been a popular United States smart phone. For me, I am most interested in seeing how the mere idea of footing the licensing bill, no ads, and the deep personalization factor in Nokia Music could pave the way for larger media, tech, and music giants to offer services similar to Nokia Music's. 

1. Grow, Kory. "Nokia Music Streaming Service Launches in America." Rollingstone.com. N.p., 11 Sept. 2012. Web. 16 Sept. 2012. <http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/blogs/gear-up/nokia-music-streaming-service-launches-in-america-20120911>.