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Irene Tham
Digital Life reporter
Buying music at a kiosk?
January 16, 2009 Friday, 05:52 PM
Irene Tham checks out Sony Ericsson's offline music download kiosks.
"CONTENT, content, content". This has been the war cry of mobile phone makers for years. Thus far, one thing has gotten in the way: digital rights management (DRM) or copyright protection. This means users can either transfer songs from one device to another for only a few times, or not at all, to protect record labels' revenue. So the Singapore media's excitement was justified when Sony Ericsson said it was launching a new service that would let its phone users download music free of DRM. When time came for the unveiling of its big secret two days ago, the Sony Ericsson music service dubbed PlayNow was nothing but a big let down. PlayNow is essentially a kiosk, available at seven of its retail stores island-wide. Consumers plug in their Sony Ericsson phones, browse for content on a touch-screen, download music and movies to their handsets and pay for them with a stored-value card. Why did Sony Ericsson take one step forward and two steps back? DRM-free, notwithstanding, buying music over a kiosk rather than over the Internet is cumbersome at best. With Singapore's household broadband penetration at over 90 per cent, who wants to make a trip down to a Sony Ericsson store to buy music whose format is compressed? If I'm going out, I would rather head down to a HMV store for a high-quality CD, whose price is the same as what PlayNow offers (Sony Ericsson's music albums start at $19.99). Even Nokia and Motorola understand this. That's why the online Nokia Music Store and Soundbuzz Mobile Store let people buy and download music to their phones via their computers. Just when you think buying music over a kiosk is archaic, Sony Ericsson has to make a bad move worse by making users pay with a proprietary stored-value card. And it is not compatible with the CashCard either. Tags: singapore, technology 
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pimpmaster, i am not sure where did you get your broadband penetration figure in singapore. but according to ida, the percentage is close to almost 100% from the latested report. http://www.ida.gov.sg/Publications/20080904150745.aspx granted the figure is inflated by the inclusion of 3g subscription, but it's definately higher than 30%
I've actually been waiting for something like this.
Go to a music store with my MP3 player, plug it in, and dowload the songs.
I'll pay.
Ericsson should have also allowed all USB MP3 players to connect. Then just give ericsson phone owners with discounts.
Btw, broadband penetration in singapore is less than 30%. In fact, reaching 30% in few years time is iDA's dream.
I was thrilled when i saw someone writing on the experience with a movie / music kiosk as a company owner who specializes in making kiosks its always interesting, especially negative commentary as that way we can find ways to improve.
Be honest i felt you hadnt really explained why it was negative experience, sure you point to the store card but why was a store card negative, in which way? with this info in hand we can understand what goes through the consumers mind. Secondly your point with kiosk contra internet certainly i cannot comment in Singapore but there is no doubt that many still see the net cubersom, and instead rather use an interactive station to browse and buy from, but location location location is vital. Costs always play a factor but as long as you still understand the philosophy of paying for your music and not downloading from peer to peer sites to get through the net of paying i think that the cost justifies there fixed costs.