The rumor has been floating around for a week or so now via Zunescene, here’s my take. I think everyone wins in this deal.
- There’s been no mention of any kind that Nokia will launch Music in the US or Canada and Zune could instantly fill that as that’s where they currently play. Nokia is already cutting deals in other countries (think we are up to 8 now) and Zune could get instant access to listeners there.
- Nokia would instantly get a social network built around music via the Zune Social, which is compelling yet under utilized by Microsoft. There’s a great sharing and discovery aspect to the Social when you have a subscription which would only be enhanced by adding a real time connected device like a mobile phone.
- Nokia handsets already support Windows DRM. I can’t imagine it would take very much to update the software to go from Plays for Sure to Zune since they are really based on the same technology.
- Subscription music rocks! I’ve had a Zune subscription for about 6 months and it’s been an excellent tool in my musical discovery process. I love that I get any album as they are released on Tuesday and regularly use the meta-data they offer to discover more music. I could easily live without Comes With Music (again there’s no mention of this coming to the US yet) and would love to use my handsets as additional Zune’s in my plan.
I actually can’t think of anything bad here. Sign me up!
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