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Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyNokia music : when things go wrong #fail (updated : Resolved)
Posted on January 01, 2013For a long time in SA we didn’t have any real choice if we wanted to buy music online. iTunes didn’t support us, the other stores wanted to sell DRM’ed music, the methods to download the music were painful and it really wasn’t much cheaper than getting the physical CD’s instore. Then I found Nokia Music (OVI store). They supported South African musicians, have a decent selection of artists and albums, are reasonably priced and provide further discounts for buying credit up front. Albums average between R60 and R100 each (and often it is the newer ones at R60). Songs between R6 and R10 each. Buy R500 of credit and get R600. So you could get between 6 and 10 albums for R500. Thats good value.
To download your music though you have to use the clunky Nokia Music Player. Worse than iTunes and I never use it for anything other than downloading my music. The problem with it is that it queues your songs for download but they regularly fail. Then it is a manual process of logging onto the website and getting the missing tracks individually. With the Lumia 800 things improved a little (or so I thought). You could now download the albums directly to the phone over wi-fi, no PC needed.
In the meantime iTunes started selling music in SA. I bought a Freshly Ground album for R60 but the rest of their music seemed expensive, sometimes as much as twice the price of Nokia Music (Rihanna Unapologetic Delux R60 vs over R120). I thought I would stay with Nokia music and put up with the hassles. iTunes really worked better, faster, simpler. But we all have our price.
Then it all went wrong. (Although @NokiaRSA did fix it in the end : See update at end)
Lonehill Estate – Lonehill Estate : Great album and a bargain at the Nokia store
Posted on June 03, 2012I’m rather enjoying Lonehill Estate’s new self titled album. Having heard a few tracks on the radio (Technoband, Daans and now Look Good) and been pleasantly surprised to find out it was our local boys I decided to pick up the album. This morning at the local mall I had a look around and neither CNA nor Checkers had a copy (though I did get the Parlotones Journey Through Shadows from Checkers).
On Twitter @lonehillestate themselves suggested I get it from @Look&ListenSA. This evening I checked out the online store and found the Album for R100, which wasn’t too bad. I always fill a little reticent paying close to physical prices for downloads so was going to give it a skip when I thought to check out the Nokia Ovi store. Delight. The full album (here) for R60. Bargain. Sold! I am now happily listening to the album.
Always worth shopping around, even online. Worth noting that their previous EP, Phone Home, is R100 on Nokia and only half the price at Look and Listen online. So Nokia isn’t always the cheapest, though generally I find them to be so.
Click through for the album track listing
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