Nokia To Use Microsoft Digital Music Software

BCMM writes "From an article on Reuters: 'The world's largest mobile phone maker, Nokia, and software giant Microsoft struck a deal on Monday to make it easier for consumers to buy digital music on-line and play it back on their handsets ... Nokia agreed to put Microsoft's music player software into its handsets.'" (The BBC covers the deal as well.) "The articles don't mention what sort of DRM or licensing will be involved." jfanning writes "Two new Series 60 phones were also announced that ship soon and support WMA, the 6680 and 6681. I haven't seen it mentioned clearly yet, but also the Media Transfer Protocol has been licenced, so that could mean the phone will show up as a media device in Windows Media 10." jfanning mentions also that Nokia has licensed the Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol for business phones.

Comments

Yay! WMA on my phone!

[Augusto]

Now I can unwittingly download the latest spyware!

Where's my stream?

[EspressoMachine]

I want my mobile to be able to stream music. And for that matter, I also want my car stereo to be able to receive streaming audio. Downloading is so yesterday, who wants to pay per song? As a Rhapsody subscriber, I'd love to access my playlists through my phone or my car - Get on it, guys!

Interesting

[Joshua53077]

It does make sense that the media companies (i.e. MS, Apple, Napster, etc.) are trying to lock up license agreements with cell phone makers but why wouldn't these companies go after the cell phone providers instead? I mean, if Apple came up with an agreement with Verizon to be their exclusive provider of music, wouldn't it force the cell phone makers to engineer apple's DRM and iTunes into their future phones? And put another way, if I were a cell phone carrier, wouldn't I want a piece of the action and the opportunity to control media standards?

Because after all, we all love...

[Tackhead]

> struck a deal on Monday to make it easier for consumers to buy digital music on-line and play it back on their handsets ...

...aah, in rapture to Beethoven's Ninth, compressed to a 32kbps mono .WMV, gloriously rendered on a tinny piezoelectric speaker.

Turning phones into music rental devices seems to fall under the "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should" category.

Even if you stuck a headphone jack into your phone to get around the shitty piezo speaker problem, consider that if you actually plan to use your phone for something (oh, I don't know, say, talking on it?), why would you want to wear down its battery by playing music on it?

Re:Because after all, we all love...

[skubeedooo]

When I'm listening to my mp3 player, i can't hear my phone ring. And i can't feel it vibrate because it's usually in my bag (i don't like leaving it in my pocket all the time). This obviously causes a problem, because if i'm expecting a call then i have to not listen to music, and if i'm not expecting a call then i'll probably miss it.

And regarding batteries, i have a charger at home and at work. Most of my friends have nokia phone chargers. If listening to music through my phone reduces the battery to, say, 5 hours, then i probably won't care.

I find it really bizarre how the slashdot community has so many neo-luddites. Just because this technology is not perfectly set up for how YOU listen to music, or how YOU use your phone, it doesn't mean it isn't good for others. Sometimes i get the feeling that my grandparents are more adaptable to change than the average slashdot reader.

People that buy these...

[Sheetrock]

Are definitely into it for the gadgetry rather than the purpose. Unfortunately, that serendipity in addition to the average longevity of cellular hardware and batteries in general contributes to a major environmental problem.

Granted, the manufacturing processes have gotten better, or at least have been outsourced to other countries, but we desparately need to find a way to extend the life of old electronics and recycling components in order to develop a environmentally-safe and sustainable electronic culture.

Too much of even a good thing makes you barf.

[nomad63]

I am talking about consolidation here. You consolidate your PDA with your phone. Fine. It was a wise move not to carry two separate address/phone books. It was vital and trivial decision for the business minded. But Music on my phone at the same time in return for a M$ DRM installed on my phone ? I don't know how'bout you but I do not feel my contacts staying secure after some piece of micro$oft code placed in my phone.
Obviously this unti is going to be targetted at the college kids but, how many college kids have the money to throw away on DRM'ed song downloading anyway.
In my opinion, this is going to be another one of Nokia's flops.

Microsoft? Open Standards?

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft will introduce open standards for digital music compression and piracy protection in its Media Players for personal computers

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! (sniff - wipes tears from eyes)
Microsoft supporting open standards. (snort) Now, that's funny!

Missing Sync

[Doc Ruby]

Palm also licensed the MS ActiveSync (Outlook/Exchange protocol). Now Nokia. How does an open source project, like Open-Xchange, license a product like that? Beyond the legal issues of GPL on software that depends on a (very) proprietary license (which can be overcome by partitioning the licensed SW over IPC APIs), how does the project negotiate with MS, and be trusted to honor the agreement? How to pay? If this is all doable, what are we waiting for?

It's not just Microsoft doing this

[Buran]

... and why doesn't the story reflect that? Motorola reportedly showed off their new iTunes-compatible phone today, too!

The dirt on the Motorola E1060 - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Drivers and Drivers

[Stanistani]

*Press One to Download Drivers*
Beeep
*Press Two to sync device with server*
Meeep
*Look up to avoid crashing into large truck*
Yaaaaaaagggh!
*crunch*

Duh

[dsmitchell1]

Your car already has streaming audio. It's called radio!

What will it do really well?

[Perl-Pusher]

So they have a phone that can play windows media, does it do it well? For what purpose would I want this? My daughter has a phone that takes pictures, real crappy pictures. She's always using my digital camera, so she must think so too.

My daughters and I have iPods, we connect them to our car stereos, the home stereo, manage it with our computer and I even use it to play music in between sets in my band. What advantage would there be having a cellphone play music? What happens if a call comes in while attached to my PA system? I'm sorry but I want device that does it's main function really well, not a bunch of mediocre features slapped together in a phone.

WMP10 is for PC - NOT phone

[4r0g]

The reuters story isn't really in line with the actual press releases.

It does not say that Nokia is licensing Windows Media Player for phones, rather the technologies underneath, such as WMA, for achieving better interoperability with the PC. WMP10 is used as the PC frontend for the music solution they just launched.

There's going to be "support for Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) digital rights management and the MPEG Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) family of codecs in Windows Media Player via a plug-in" too to support the service.