In a nutshell...

Transfer music and playlists from your PC to your Nokia mobile or MP3 player. Dead simple.

What’s it good for?

Offering an alternative to Windows Media Player when it comes to music syncing.

Judgement time...

When we first booted up Nokia Beta Labs’ latest offering we were left scratching our heads as to the point of it. Nokia Music is a PC program that lets you transfer your digital music over to your phone or other portable device. Fine, we thought: everyone who wants to listen to some tunes on their blower needs to get those tunes on there somehow - but doesn’t Windows Media Player, a program that comes pre-installed on pretty much every PC sold, do exactly the same thing?

Well, yes, at the moment. This being a beta version of Nokia Music, some of the functionality is missing (namely the ability to access the Nokia Music Store in a single click), which leaves it looking a bit pointless. You can rip and transfer CDs to your phone simply by dragging one icon into another, which is a really nice touch, but aside from that it really struggles to offer something to make it worth the download.

It’s reasonably easy to use, automatically scouring your hard drive for music files the first time you run it. These then appear in the app’s central window, can be viewed in artwork or list form and sorted by artist, album, tracks, genres and “recently added.” The right hand window shows what you’re currently playing (yes, the software plays music as well as syncs it), while a column on the left displays your devices: PC, CD drive and any mobile device you connect up.

When your phone (or whatever) is hooked up you can drag tracks across from the middle to its icon, and they’ll begin syncing. Alternatively, you can have your phone and PC automatically sync every time they’re connected.

As this is a beta there are a few performance issues (it takes what seems like an age to start up on our laptop) but these should be worked out over the coming months. When it’s running slicker and quicker, with Nokia Music Store integration and one or two other features you won’t find in Windows Media Player (wireless syncing via Bluetooth perhaps?), this might well be worth installing on your PC. At the moment, we’d advise you to stick with what you’ve already got.