Nokia Ovi Music Store Leads the Way Towards Freedom from DRM

Listening to your music on your phone like the ones available on Nokia's Ovi Music Store has a host of advantages over more traditional means of enjoying music. It is a lot more convenient, because it saves you the trouble of carrying two different devices: a phone and a music player; It is more cost effective, because you do not have to spend money on two separate devices; and it is much more fun because it allows you to download the latest songs straight out of the internet.

A big burden to mobile music lovers though is the DRM chains that are usually attached to downloadable music content. This is a total turn off to most users of Nokia's Ovi Music Store because it restricts the enjoyment of the material in a number of ways.

From the standpoint of most companies that sell downloadable music, DRM - which stands for Digital Rights Management - is a useful tool to keep their original works from being used in any way that the content provider does not allow. It also assures them of safeguards for the integrity of their artistic talents and of continuity for their revenue surges. For most consumers though, DRM could easily stand for Digital Restrictions Management.

Nokia is trying to address this issue in all of their Ovi Music Stores worldwide.

Ovi stores allow Nokia customers to download content into their phones such as games, handheld applications, phone ringtones, and of course music. This service is usually free of any fees. However, there are instances where some of the content will require some charges. These charges may be conveniently paid through the customer's credit card. In some countries though, payment to Nokia Ovi Stores are charged through the local service operators in the host country.

Nokia Ovi Stores make it easy for Nokia users to download their desired content by neatly categorizing the available media that they have. They also send their users some recommendations as to the content that are compatible with their current devices. In Nokia Ovi stores, users can share with their friends information about the items they have already downloaded and also the items that they are interested in acquiring for their devices. This makes Ovi stores very interactive and fun.

Slowly but surely, Nokia is trying to disengage its entire music catalogue from the grasp of DRM. For starters though, the DRM free plan only covers Nokia's single song download service. This means that its "comes with music" (a download all you can subscription plan developed by Nokia) service will not as yet be enjoying the same shackle free privileges of being DRM free.

The first one to free itself from the DRM lock down is Nokia's Ovi Music Store in Russia. This particular store started going DRM free since last November. In order to lessen problems during the overhaul of the system, the Russian Ovi Store offered single style sign ups for the other OVi services that it was offering.

India is reported to be quickly following Russia's lead in the pursuit of DRM free music downloads. It is poised to be the second Nokia Ovi store to be rid of the DRM problem.

Apparently, the strategy that Nokia Ovi Stores are implementing for this revolt against DRM is via the growth markets route. No problem there. As long as it gets this pesky DRM out of the way, it would be a very welcome development for consumers.

"Nokia Ovi Music store slowly shedding its DRM shackles globally" engadget
"nokia Ovi music store" newstiger