// Pocket Picks //

This month has seen the launch of two mobile music services, competing for the ears of the mobile-equipped music fan.

Nokia’s Music Store and Vodafone’s MusicStation both offer DRM-laden music downloads, on a per-track or per-album basis (Music Store) or by paying a fixed monthly fee for unlimited access to their music libraries (Both services).

The two services appear quite similar at first glance - how do they compare?

How does it work?
Nokia Music Store

Nokia’s Music Store is (obviously) aimed at Nokia handsets - currently only the N81 and N95 8GB handsets, although whether this is due to a technical limitation or merely an attempt to flog their new phones is not immediately clear.

You needn’t feel completely left out if you have last season’s phone though. Nokia will let you download WMA tracks to your computer (Windows PC & IE only, of course) and then upload them onto one of the 16 compatible handsets.

Vodafone MusicStation

MusicStation is currently a handset-only service letting you browse and download tracks to your handset… from your handset.

It’s also not simply restricted to 3G handsets (like the Vodafone Live! mobile music services), thus it has a much wider range of compatible handsets including 2.5G devices. All you need is a mobile internet connection and a music playing handset.
First Impressions
Nokia Music Store

Nokia claims that ‘millions’ of tracks are available via its deal with EMI and in practice it seems to have a broad - if not deep - selection that covered most of the willfully obscure searches I threw at it.

MusicStation

MusicStation offers a similar selection - most searches returned at least a couple of tracks by even fairly obscure artists. If no obvious tracks are turned up, the search will attempt to find similarly-spelled artists, often with amusing results.

e.g. I searched both services for Japanese noise-punk nutjobs Melt Banana. Nokia found one obscure remix on a compilation, MusicStation had nothing by them, but helpfully suggested velvet-throated Jazz legend Mel Tormé. Not quite what I had in mind.

Ease of use
Nokia Music Store

Nokia have gone to great lengths to make both their website and integrated services simple to use - the interface is well thought out and (providing you already have the necessary software installed) buying and streaming tracks works.

MusicStation

One area where Vodafone MusicStation scores over Nokia is its billing system. As all its users will necessarily have Vodafone accounts, this allows the unlimited track download subscription of £1.99 a month to be quietly added to the customer’s monthly phone bill.

Although Vodafone users can access other streaming or download services via Live! with 3G, it is worth pointing out that MusicStation downloads are not deducted from your monthly data tariff, which could be a big saving compared to rivals.

Nokia Music Store
Good Points

• broad selection of tracks
• good user interface
• media bar plug-in lets you play tracks from within browser
• not tied to any network

Bad Points

• Limited number of compatible handsets
• no streaming to mobile
• no support for Mac OSX computers

Vodafone MusicStation

Good Points

• simple billing system
• downloads do not use up monthly data allowance
• huge range of compatible handsets

Bad points

• Limited to Vodafone customers only in the UK (at the moment)
• no streaming of music to handsets - it’s downloads only
• No dual-downloads to PCs

Overall

If you are already a Vodafone customer and have a hankering for ‘unlimited’ (subject to a slightly nebulous ‘fair use’ policy) mobile music, but don’t have one of its 3G phones, then MusicStation should be a no-brainer.

Nokia’s service might appeal to non-Vodafoners, but it seems generic and limited when compared to (say) iTunes and the lack of wide-ranging handset compatibility is a disappointment.

With so many other ways of listening to music on your mobile, from ripping your own CDs to other, less legal methods you may end up wondering if the convenience of these two services is worth the extra expense, and the inevitable disappointment if you decide to change phone or network and want to take your music with you.