Well I’m going to begin this post with some key words from will.I.am of the Black Eyed Peas who made the following statement at yesterday’s Nokia  “Comes with Music” launch; “music should some times be given away for free. Music has and can create movements”. He did not open the Comes with Music Launch but will.I.am did make one of the more poignant statements, in terms of music and its connection with fans that I have heard in a long while. What’s happened to the music industry since the 60s, 70s? Nowadays, mainstream artists feel unable to state political views or endorse a movement. Surely this is the role they play (and would want to play) as relevant artists?

The number of international press people at the event blew me away! I spoke with Benjamin Salacedo, the Director of Mexico’s edition of Rolling Stone, magazine editors and bloggers from Spain and so many more. So what was different form the iTunes Europe launch I attended back in 2004? Firstly, Nokia’s comes with music was launched at a London venue with true music pedigree and or history. It started at 5pm with the artist playing after 9pm. Bring on the real live music experience.

The Nokia 5800 Handset Experience
The screen shots on the main stage were awesome (check them out). On actually having a 3-minute play with the phone I have to state I was impressed. The fact it had options to use the touch screen in your preferred format was awesome. The sensitivity of the touch screen was impressive from my few plays and if anything the 5800 was slightly quicker than my 4 – 5 opportunities to play around with friends 2nd generation iPhones (e.g. 3G version).

And yes the device comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack as standard. So we have Motorola, RIM (allbeit all photos on this post were taken on a blackberry – when are RIM and iPhone going to get with the picture and include decent cameras in their handset propositions?) and now Nokia offering the real deal in terms of headphone interoperability, when will we see this on the iPhone?

Oh and the killer noise level speaker wise is supplied by Plantronics (the guys who took the first headset to the moon in 1969). I cannot wait to have a real play around with the Nokia 5800 device when we in the UK get an opportunity to play with it properly. Keep your eyes and ears posted for that.

The Proposition
You pay £129  for the 5310 (in the UK) and €279 for the 5800 (in Europe). These prices are based on a pre-pay, no contract, from Carphone Warehouse. It enables the music fan to get a phone and unlimited music downloads for between 12 – 18months. The killer deal closer: you get to keep ALL of the tracks you have downloaded through the service during the term of the deal. The catch? If you download OTA you get hit with your carriers data charges. Mmm so when are these carriers going to stop so blatantly ripping off their customers and constricting the growth of OTA mobile full track downloads? Music Industry lets push them on this issue…

…Guess what? The Nokia comes with music proposition has a solution: you can create a download wish list on your Nokia handset instead of downloading the tracks you want OTA and when you get to your PC you sync it with your handset and it downloads to the PC and at one push of a button and you’ve synced it with your handset! Furthermore, all of the consumer’s consumption of music via the handset is chart eligible.

Now instead of making this post immediately after the press launch I spent the evening speaking with key Nokia executives to get the low down and clarify the itty-bitty details. As far as I can surmise, there are no catches except burning tracks to CDs where you have to spend on an add-on license fee to enable CD burning.

As far as TMV is concerned this is the best music consumption proposition in the marketplace today. No doubt the majority will agree that up until yesterdays launch, music subscription services have failed. The main downfall in my opinion is that previous music subscription services have not provided the music fan/consumer with what they demanded. What did they want? Ownership of the music after the subscription period ended. What music fans have demanded Nokia seems to be providing.

Could it be that the major labels holding out on iTunes in cutting back on DRM restrictions was orchestrated as a move to open up the market to competitors with a serious chance of eating away at Apples current dominance in this music consumption segment? Only time will tell.

The Global Rollout
After the presentation I spoke with Jo Harlow the Global VP LIV Devices at Nokia. From this brief chat the key and most news worthy element of the whole proposition was that despite the international press launch being hosted in London it is the emerging markets (UAE, Hong Kong, China, India and others) which will have the first consumer roll-outs of the 5800. Even though the UK is the worlds 3rd largest music market in terms of sales Nokia is launching in emerging markets first. Us people in the western world will not get to see rollout till the 1st quarter of 2009, whilst the emerging markets get 4th quarter 2008. The good news is that the service is available in the UK from October 16th on the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music device. Two weeks and counting!

TMV believes this represents a key strategic view that it is the emerging markets, which in economic terms represent the largest growth area in music consumption in the coming year. Would be great to get the music industries views and strategies on music consumption in these new emerging markets.

Other readers also read:

Free Isn’t Working, What’s Next?

Mobile Music At The Crossroads

TMV Review: Nokia 5800 Express Music Handset