Nokia Music+ set for SA launch

The streaming music offering will cost significantly less than similar services. By Duncan McLeod.

Added by Duncan McLeod on 28 January 2013.
Saved under News, Top
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Nokia-Music-Plus-640

Nokia’s new music streaming service will be launched in South Africa before the end of March, a spokesman for the company’s local subsidiary said on Monday.

On Sunday, the Finnish company announced the launch of Nokia Music+, offering about 15m songs for a monthly subscription fee that is far below rival services such as Spotify, Simfy, Deezer and Rara.com.

The service will cost US$3,99/month in the US or €3,99 in Europe. Nokia South Africa spokesman Leo McKay says the service will cost about the same locally as internationally, though rand pricing hasn’t yet been finalised.

Nokia Music+ is effectively an upgrade to the free Mix Radio service the company launched last year. Unlike Mix Radio, which will continue to be available free of charge to users of Nokia’s Lumia devices, Nokia Music+ will offer unlimited song skips and track downloads.

“This is for people who care enough about music to pay something for more quality and choice, but don’t want to pay €9,99 monthly,” says Nokia entertainment vice-president Jryki Rosenberg in a blog post on the company’s website.

The service will also offer higher-quality audio files than the free Mix Radio, according to Nokia. It will be available on desktop computers through a Web application, too.

Nokia Music+ will start being rolled in the “next few weeks”. It comes at the same time that Microsoft is expected to launch Xbox Music in South Africa. Xbox Music was expected to be launched by the end of last year, but was delayed for what South African MD Mteto Nyati described as “technical challenges”.

Several European-based streaming services have been launched in South Africa in recent months, including Germany’s Simfy, France’s Deezer and the UK’s Rara.com.  — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media

Share this article

  • moo

    NOKIA SHOULD JUST ROLL OVER AND DIE

    there phones are NOT WHAT THEY USED TO BE,

    Do yourself a favor and get an android or apple

    this music steaming is just another way for them to convince the idiots out there that have there useless new breed of smart phones that nokia are still cool.

  • pjn123

    Hello troll,

    Apple’s phone are what they used to be… almost exactly for the last 3 years.

    Nokia might have had a rough patch for the last 2 years but things are already turning around for them. WP8 have potential but still have its flaws. iOS should listen to your advice since they’re now the new blackberry when it comes to innovation – and this isn’t just troll talk, look at there share price these last two months.

    As for Android – I like it since its almost like Symbian but just faster and theres allot of Apps for it. I also like the fact that you can flash your phone with different roms almost daily. The only reason I will not buy it is because no manufacturers comes close to the quality of the hardware of Nokia and Apple. Their top of the range devices just feels more premium. Further more no Android phones really excels in the camera department. At best average. Theres just one brand thats actually innovating and moving the boundary of what we thought was possible and thats Nokia.

    Lastly Nokia Maps are still a very big deal to not have for me. Offline maps is a must and I can’t compromise on this. Their map data I have also found to be more accurate than Google especially on streetnames of new areas. I’ve also compared it to a dedicated garmin when I was traveling in USA and it was really embarrassing for the garmin when it came to search results and user friendliness. I will admit that I do miss Google streetview in Nokia Maps (duh) but luckily theres apps for that and hopefully Nokia/Navteq will someday mine their own street view images with the new acquisition of earthmine.

Why TechCentral?

We know that as a prospective advertiser, you are spoilt for choice. Our job is to demonstrate why TechCentral delivers the best return for your advertising spend.

TechCentral is South Africa’s online technology news leader. We don’t say that lightly. We believe we produce the country’s best and most insightful online tech news aimed at industry professionals and those interested in the fast-changing world of technology.

We provide news, reviews and comment, without fear or favour, that is of direct relevance to our fast-expanding audience. Proportionately, we provide the largest local audience of all technology-focused online publishers.

We do not constantly regurgitate press releases to draw in search engine traffic — we believe websites that do so are doing their readers and advertisers a disservice. Nor do we sell “editorial features”, offer advertising “press offices” or rely on online bulletin-board forums of questionable value to advertisers to bolster our traffic.

TechCentral, which is edited and written by award-winning South African journalists, cares about delivering top-quality content to draw in the business and consumer readers that are of most interest to technology advertisers.

We’d like the opportunity to demonstrate the value of directing a portion of your advertising budget to TechCentral, whether your company is in the technology field or not. Numerous opportunities exist for companies interested in reaching our audience of key decision-makers in South Africa’s dynamic information and communications technology sector. We offer packages that will deliver among the best returns on investment available in the online technology news space.

For more information about advertising opportunities, and how your organisation can benefit by publicising itself on TechCentral, please call us on 011-792-0449 during office hours. Or send us an e-mail and ask for our latest rate card and brochure.