For the past couple of years, Nokia has been holding Music Connects event in India. The aim is to bring people from Indian music industry and its affiliate sectors under one roof and discuss issues related to music. Now what does a company like Nokia that pre-dominantly manufacture phones have to do in it? Well, the answer lies in its Ovi umbrella of services, which recently launched its music services for Indian consumers.
Nokia India launched the Ovi Music service that gives Nokia phone users an opportunity to purchase songs from a huge collection right from their mobile phones or PCs. In short, think of it as an iTunes store for Nokia devices.
Extending this further, Nokia is also offering Ovi Music Unlimited that allows user to download unlimited number of songs for free for a year. The good thing is, once the subscription is over, the songs remain forever with the user. A good initiative to curb piracy, however, since there are very few Nokia models in the market that can leverage the Ovi Music Unlimited subscription, the purpose gets defeated.
Good thing for us is that Nokia Ovi Music Services Global Director, Adam Mirabella was in town recently and we happened to discuss this and many more issues related to Ovi Music in India.
A brief background about Adam: Adam Mirabella is the Global Director of Ovi Music Services for Nokia. He manages music retail sales and operations worldwide for the company which consists of fifteen “Comes With Music” stores as well as twenty three A La Carte digital music stores around the world. Adam is also a member of Nokia’s global music management team.
Question: How does Ovi Music Unlimited benefit consumers and publishers?
Adam Mirabella: An initiative like Ovi Music Unlimited gives consumers a legitimate access to over 4 million songs across various genres and a way for artists, labels and publishers to earn money.
Q: What pricing models are available on the Music Store?
AM: The India Music store currently offers two types of models – a la carte via a voucher and Ovi Music Unlimited. A la carte is offered to most users on purchase of most handsets whereas Ovi Music Unlimited is available on select devices like the Nokia X6.
Q: What happens when the subscription ends?
AM: The subscription is valid for a year wherein users can download as many songs from any genre. However, once the subscription ends, users won’t be able to download any more songs but can keep all the downloaded songs on the phone as well as PC for as long as he wants.
Q: What happens if a user has two Ovi Music supported Nokia devices, will he be able to listen to the collection on both the phones?
AM: No, in case a user upgrades his Nokia phone, the Ovi license from the previous phone will be transferred to a newer device.
Q: Are songs DRM-free?
AM: Songs sold on the Indian music store are not DRM-free and China is the only region where we’re able to pull it off. (DRM-free songs will allow users to download and play the songs on non-Nokia devices as well).
Q: What is the future of Ovi Music in India?
AM: We’re planning to expand Ovi Music to more devices in the future and will roll out a new pricing model, which will be in between our Voucher downloads and Ovi Music Unlimited.
PS: Our discussion with Adam has been paraphrased like a Q&A for better readability.
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