Q&A With @Deano_42 The Nokia Music Man

While we were in Barcelona covering MWC we got a chance to meet up with some great Nokia people, including the Product managers for all the new Nokia devices. We also met up with Dean Pattrick who we already met last year at MWC who you may recall from the Nokia Music promos

-I must say the greatest thing about Dean (besides his hair 😛 ) is his passion for his work; Nokia Music- it makes it so easy to get sucked into what he’s talking about simply due to the enthusiasm he has for his own work. (Also I look kinda creepy in the picture above mainly because my lack of sleep was starting to catch up to me by day 3).

So here’s a quick run down of what we covered (I thought it would be easier to simply put it in bulletin points rather than wording both the question and the answer:

• Nokia Music, is and will remain a Nokia Lumia exclusive, just another example of all the great software features you’re in store for once you buy a Nokia Lumia Windows Phone device.
• The music playback through Nokia Music+ is high quality streaming at 192 AAC with Dolby Pulse audio.
• Nokia Music + is an optional upgrade that we provided due to feedback gathered from consumers; in essence it’s a “soft sell” meaning we’re not trying to force it on to consumers, the app might suggest you subscribe if you want these extra features, but in no way are we trying to be “pushy” with it. 
• With Nokia Music + the main advantages are the removed skip barrier,unlimited number of offline mixes, higher quality streaming and synchronized lyrics.
• We’ve had some great feedback in terms of the lyrics; and we were surprised to find that it was one of the features that most users appreciated in Music +
• With the lyrics you can either have them run as synchronized (karaoke style) lyrics or you can scroll ahead and view the complete lyrics of the song
• We’ve also introduced a new unified screen layout were you can access the same great Nokia Music interface across multiple devices, with a new Music Windows 8 app coming soon that will provide the same great interface on your tablet or Windows 8 PC.
• If you don’t have a Windows 8/RT device you can still access your Nokia Music + account from the new HTML website, which lets you stream music through the browser (no mix downloads though).
• Nokia Music doesn’t aim to compete with Xbox music, think of them as completions of each other; where one is available in regions where the other isn’t.
• Due to Background task restrictions on Windows Phone, devices can only download 25 “things” at a time in the background; since mixes on Nokia music are made up of 50 tracks this means that Nokia music can’t fully download mixes while running in the background/lock screen; but we’re working with Microsoft to fix this.

One huge announcement is the fact that the Nokia Music API’s are openly available to use/download in the making of your own app; and there are already some great examples utilizing the Nokia Music library/APIs:

• MIX NFC Writer- which allows writing NFC Music Tags; which allows writing a specific mix onto a NFC tag, the once the tag is read by any phone it will instantly launch Nokia Music and start playing that Mix.
• Music Scene- uses integrated maps to show the birthplace/origin of nearby musicians; and gives a detailed bio.
• Pop Quiz– which plays random snippets of music and tests your trivia at guessing which artist/track is playing
• the New Nokia Burton App

*note: you can find the links to the Nokia Music APIs under the settings in THIS APP

Check out an awesome video demo of NFC tagging Nokia music in action by Sam down below:

And while we’re at it another recap of Nokia Music + and everything involved

Category: Lumia, Nokia, Windows Phone