Ovi Music an iTunes killer?
Nokia may be losing market share to other cellphone manufacturers, but it’s setting itself up quite nicely as an “over-the-top” (OTT) player to compete directly with Apple’s iTunes.
OTT is a term commonly used by incumbent telecoms operators like Telkom, Vodacom, MTN, Neotel and Cell C to describe those companies that deliver services over their networks.
While South Africa goes largely ignored by companies that sell or rent music, movies and series online, Nokia has brought us a localized, DRM free music store in their Ovi Music service.
Other than that Nokia have also introduced operator-based billing in their Ovi Store. This means you can pay for applications using the credit on your cellphone account rather than just a credit card.
To date Nokia is the only cellular brand to do so in South Africa. Google have yet to allow South Africans access to paid applications on the Android Market.
South Africans can also not legitimately buy songs from iTunes yet. This hasn’t stopped many from using the service, obviously, as South Africans are a rather resourceful bunch.
Not only did Nokia bring us a digital music store we can access without having to hack our way around the geographical blocks, they’ve made it platform-agnostic.
While it seems as if Nokia will continue to use “Ovi Music Unlimited” as a value-add to encourage people to buy Nokia devices, the pay-per-download Ovi Music service is usable on virtually any platform.
You hear that fellow Linux users and FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) fanatics? A mainstream store selling commercial music that’s completely DRM free and that is actively pursuing cross-platform compatibility.
The only complaint that comes to mind from a software freedom perspective is that the songs on Ovi Music are only available in 256 kilobits per second (kbps) MP3 format. There are those who would have preferred FLAC, or at least Ogg Vorbis support.
The other, much less technical benefit is that DRM free music will play on anything that supports the format (in this case MP3). For those of us that want to enjoy music on a variety of platforms, like an MP3 car radio, iPod, laptop, desktop and/or cellphone, it’s now possible to do so legally.
Content-wise Ovi Music seems pretty good. There’s a wide variety of mainstream as well as more “alternative” music. A good amount of South African talent is represented and there’s even some Alestorm, Eluveitie, Ensiferum, Machinae Supremacy and In Flames for folks like me with slightly heavier tastes.
And before you all ask, no Nokia isn’t paying/bribing me to write this. I haven’t used a Nokia device since the 3310 and am quite happy with my HTC Desire (albeit with a lack of paid apps and upgrade to FroYo). I’m not even among the journalists who’ve received pre-release versions of the Nokia N8.
They’ve just honestly got this Linux loving, DRM hating music aficionado excited.
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