Comes With Music is part of Nokia Music's strategy for world domination, offering an all-you-can-eat music download service. With well over 6 million tracks to choose from, it's well on its way to being the best resource for digital music anywhere. All you need is a Nokia XpressMusic phone and a Comes With Music account. We've been using the service to build a music library like no other and have reached the Letter P - see how we've been getting on...
Comes With Music has so far added close to 350 albums to our burgeoning music collection and we're only just over half way through this experiment. After last week's slow start with the Letter O we're hoping for better things with Letter P.
Pre-teen daughter of the house failed to be impressed last week but with P she's on safer territory as one of her favourite artists is Pink. The pint-sized pop star has gone from rap-star with attitude to punk-princess with, well, attitude, in her career and Comes With Music has them all to choose from. So starting with 1999's Can't Take Me Home, and the follow-up Missundazstood to the more recent Try This, I'm Not Dead, Funhouse and the most recent The Remixes EP it seems our house now has more Pink than we thought possible.
When looking for music on Comes With Music it pays to think logically sometimes. For instance, teenage boys first choice is The Prodigy but when in types in just Prodigy, some odd-ball US rap act pops up. However, type in The Prodigy and the back catalogue of the UK uber-dance act comes into view. In reality, there are a few gaps missing but their breakthrough Music For the Jilted Generation and Their Law: the Singles are present, so that's enough to get started with.
Moving on to more standard rock fair, teenage boys second choice is Papa Roach – one of those bands who seem to dominate the lower charts on MTV so must be huge in the States but less so over here. Comes With Music has a decent array of albums to choose from, so Infest, Lovehatetragedy and Getting Away With Murder are snatched up.
Pantera may have lost Dimebag Darrell but Comes With Music pays respects to the man by offering a healthy selection of hardcore metal to download. So, we find Far beyond Driven, Reinventing the Steel, Vulgar Display of Power and even Cowboys From Hell getting added to the download list.
The lady of the house has the more eclectic music tastes in the house but doesn't mind just opting for the Best of or Singles collections for most artists. This was highlighted with her most recent choice, The Police, Prince and Placebo.
The Police are one of those bands synonymous with growing up, as they always seemed to be in the charts but do you need anything other than the 30 track The Police? In our house the answer is no, so it gets added. Prince has a couple of certified hit albums under his belt, such as Purple Rain, Sign O' The Times and even Batman, which get added to the collection. However, it's Ultimate Prince with 28 tracks that will no doubt get played the most often.
Then we come to Placebo, who apart from their first album, it's only the 19 track Once More With Feeling Best Of that seems to strike a chord. That's the beauty of Comes With Music as it allows you to pick and choose exactly what you want, leaving the rest for later.
For the first of my choices I've picked a band from my youth – Pixies. I'm a little disappointed to find the choice a little thin on the ground. Sure, there is the classic Doolittle, as well as the follow-up Trompe Le Monde, but where is Surfer Rosa and the short but sweet Come On Pilgrim! - come on Comes With Music, sort it out! We have to content ourselves with the Best Of, Death to the Pixies.
Hoping for better things with Pavement, it's pretty much the same story with only a mixed bag on offer. However, on closer inspection, what the albums on offer – Brighten the Corners, Wowee Zowee and Crooked Rain. Crooked Rain, are all the Domino records re-issues stuffed with extras, bringing in close to 150 tracks from just these three albums. Still, it would be good to get Slanted and Enchanted into the list but sadly it's not to be.
So, the Letter P has been something of a mixed affair. While all the bands we've checked out have albums on offer with Comes With Music, there are gaps that need to be filled to make the collection whole. Still, it's been a good haul and that's before we move on to the random album.
Random Album: P can only stand for Pop and the Editor's Choice for this week is Jordin Sparks with Battlefield. Its got an impressive 14 tracks on there showing off a variety of styles and while lady of the house nods along, it's pre-teen girl who seems to like it the most. That's as close to success as it'll get in our house!
Letter P: 28 albums downloaded
377 Comes With Music albums downloaded to date