**CONTEST UPDATE**
WIN a trip to the UK to see BON JOVI perform LIVE! All you have to do is tweet to @HPIndia describing what music means to you and mention the #HPConnectedMusic hashtag, or leave a comment in this post describing what music means to you in just 100 words or less. Don’t forget to mention the #HPConnectedMusic hashtag! That’s it! Contest ends May 30th so hurry!
Digital music sure has come a long way. From the early days of Napster (you know you did it) to the growth of on-demand streaming, music fans have been spoiled for choice. And now, jumping into the fray with a brand new offering, is HP‘s Connected Music service. Launched in India in February of this year, Connected Music claims to be unlike anything else available in the country: Over 1 million tracks, ready to download, and get this – totally free. Hard to believe? We thought so too. We love our music, so we decided to get our hands dirty to see just how legit this latest entry truly is. Read along!
Let’s get straight to the point. Free music? Well, yes and no. Connected Music is a web-based service that comes free for one year with select new Windows 8 HP PCs, and is more of a rental service than a retail one. Members are free to download any tracks for use on their HP machines, for a one year rental period. While this will feel limiting to some, I can’t think of too many tracks over a year old that I still listen to regularly. Even so, I like the idea of downloading as many free songs as I want before deciding which ones to buy into my permanent collection. After your one year membership is up, HP is betting you’ll be hooked enough to shell out for the service at a yearly fee (which hasn’t been disclosed yet).
If you’re not convinced by the rental scheme, you may be swayed by the music collection. HP has tied up with both Universal Music and Hungama.com, which gives users access to a catalogue of over 20,000 artists and 1 million+ tracks, all ready for download. They’ve done a pretty good job diversifying their selection for the Indian audience, including regional selections (along with the mandatory Bollywood and International hits, of course). From our experience, the store is well organized and downloads on our broadband connections were super fast.
The last piece HP is betting on are services they say “money can’t buy.” This includes the chance to meet bands and artists as well as an ongoing selection of autographs and merchandise up for grabs by lucky draw. Power users will also be rewarded through such gratifications, so the more you use, the more you’re rewarded. Now if only everything worked that way…
So what’s the catch? For one, all music is DRM protected, which means tracks have to be played off your HP machine (ie: you can’t slip them onto your smartphones or iPods.) Since user playlists are saved in the cloud, you can, however, access them on other portable HP devices. The other drawback we could see is that the collection currently leans towards commercial music, so indie and niche genre lovers may not find this a complete solution. The average consumer probably won’t notice, and given Universal and Hungama’s large catalogues we expect new music to be added at a a pretty frequent beat. Lastly, we’ll have to wait and see where HP prices the yearly subscription, but for now we’re loving freeeeeeeeeeeee!
Is it worth it? If you’re in the market for a new PC, HP’s Connected Music could be a compelling factor (but we’d recommend something portable like the HP Envy so you can trot your tunes around). Also, for anyone looking for a guilt-free (read: legal) way to consume large quantities of music without paying a dime, we have to say this is a pretty satisfying option (we’ve already downloaded waaay more than we can listen to). Final verdict? A satisfying, seamless experience – and we think you might like it too.