What exactly is Nokia Comes With Music? Well it’s a range of phones (but most notably the Nokia 5800) that literally comes with music in the form of a direct link to Nokia’s music store (either via the phone or your computer), that allows you to download music directly to your device.
Here’s the best part: if you have the phone, your music from the store is free for a year. So essentially you have access to more than 4 million tracks (that usually go for S$2 each), for the price of the phone.
I think this is the huge selling point for the phone for me. One of the reasons why piracy is so rampant is simply because we (at least here in Asia) don’t exactly have alternatives when it comes to getting it legally. Comes With Music totally gets rid of that problem.
If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering what happens after the year is up. Does Nokia lock up all the tracks you downloaded? Well the answer is no. The tracks are yours to keep, and can be played from your computer, but you’ll need a new Comes With Music phone to play them on a mobile device. To some, this may be a catch, but the few people I’ve talked to have said this isn’t a deal breaker. After all, Apple/the iTunes store, also has DRM built in that wouldn’t allow you to play your track on anything other than an iPod. I can’t even play it on anything other than iTunes!
I think the idea of having music just readily available to you at no added cost could be a very, very compelling reason to get this phone. Heck I gave serious thought to getting one just for access to the store. Nokia: C’mon let’s have a yearly access plan straight to the store!
Fallout 3 is hands down my game of 2008. I’ve completed it once and spent about 45 hours to do so. But this isn’t a gaming blog, and this isn’t a gaming post. I’ve spent quite a bit of time observing what Bethesda (the creators of Fallout 3) have done with the game, and what makes it successful both in the long and short term.
Content
In this day and age, everything is about content. Fallout 3 delivers that in droves. Not only is the game content excellent, but as of right now, they have new “modules” of content being released every month from January to March. If each of those modules has content as deep and engaging as Fallout 3 (and I bet it will), then Bethesda easily has a cash cow on its hands (assuming the content isn’t free). Such content releases are a much more effective piracy-deterrence than DRM if you ask me. (Hear that, Spore?)
User-Generated Content
Deliberately or not, Bethesda made the virtual world so incredibly sprawling that you might say it’s too much for one person to explore by him/herself. So what happens? People crowdsource. From a Fallout 3 wiki to a user-generated shockwave map of the game, you can find virtually anything you want. Bethesda also released a tool (called the GECK) to enable users to create maps, rooms, creatures etc for the game, and presumably share them online too.
If you’ve played Fallout 3, what do you think about these moves? Are other companies equally savvy when it comes to embracing the digital age? Or do you think many are left behind? Love to hear from you whether you’re a gamer or not.
In line with generating some social capital, I thought I’d go back to my link-sharing ways to both spread stuff of value, as well as generating some nice linklove.
Corporate Social Media
Social Media For Business – Who’s Doing It Well & How – In addition to some common social media case studies, I really liked breaking down the social media strategy to a four step process, and being absolutely clear who your target audience is. Too many people have the misconception that social media reaches everyone, and reaches them quickly. False on both accounts.
Don’t Be Boring – Ten Company Blogs Analysed – by who else but Hutch Carpenter from May’s blogs worth reading. What I appreciate is the attempt to distill blogposts and empirically count them, what I enjoyed was hearing that companies include silliness in blog content. And why not? Brilliant, I say.
5 Competencies of the Connected Corporation – For the people working in social media enabled workspaces. I think being in the loop and being nimble are traits that you need to have in this new world. The sooner companies realise this and try to get there, the better.
RSS
I’m Evangelizing RSS With Google Reader’s E-mail Function – Haven’t linked to Louis Gray in awhile (though I am still reading him frequently), but this post is great because I honestly have never used Google Reader’s email function. Now that I know how useful it is, you can bet I’ll be using much more of it. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that Louis has emailed someone content from my blog. Thanks!
Music
What Would the Perfect Streaming Music Service Look Like? – Although I usually blog about music over on my personal blog, I think this link is good just to share good stuff about the music world, and how it’s not driven by the labels. I feel their legal nonsense and DRM issues in general are the biggest threat to music innovation.
I’m always on the lookout for great blogposts to read and share. If you have any, feel free to post them in the comments, or send them over to my Delicious profile.
