Telenor Norway expands cooperation with WiMP

The music service WiMP has experienced strong growth in Norway since its launch in February 2010. Now that WiMP has signed a new distribution agreement with Telenor, customers of both Telenor and djuice will have the option of including WiMP as part of their service.

Revenue for the music industry

'We already cooperate closely with Telenor and now we are increasing this cooperation so that we bring WiMP and music to an even larger audience. This agreement is of great significance in establishing streaming as part of everyday life and ensuring even more revenue for the music industry,' says Per Einar Dybvik, the Managing Director of WiMP Norway.

WiMP is, as always, investing in its own strong editorial team who work to show what is going on in the Norwegian and international music worlds. There are now over 20 million songs in the WiMP music archive.

Norway at the forefront

'Norway is one the world's leading markets in the expansion of music streaming services and we know that many of our customers will appreciate that both Telenor and djuice offering music as part of their subscription service. WiMP will be included in some subscriptions, while it will be possible to get WiMP as an add-on service for others,' says Stein-Erik Vellan, director for Consumer Mobile Market at Telenor Norway.

Vellan adds that Telenor's mobile network offers reliable streaming of new services such as film and music streaming. As the only operator in Norway, Telenor has launched 4G mobile services.

'Telenor's mobile network traditionally distinguishes itself through good coverage and high speeds. And with our recent launch of 4G on your mobile, it's lightning quick,' says Stein-Erik Vellan.

In conjunction with a major revision to djuice service packages, the add-on service +WiMP is being launched today and can be added to most fixed-price subscriptions offered by djuice.

Facts about Telenor's investment in music

History: Telenor spotted the opportunities for digital distribution of music early. The company was the first telecoms business in Norway to invest in developing solutions for legal digital distribution of music via mobile phone. Telenor launched the first music store on mobile phones in 2004.

After a cautious start, sales figures increased rapidly in 2007 and 2008. Telenor's investment in music took another major step in 2009 when Platekompaniet and Telenor launched a completely new music store on the web.

WiMP: In 2010, a radical shift in the way people listened to music took place when Aspiro, Platekompaniet and Telenor launched WiMP. Where we had been used to buying our music piecemeal, now you could buy access to an enormous music archive.

You can stream music to your PC, tablet or mobile phone using WiMP. Music streams across your wireless network at home and, when you step outside, WiMP switches seamlessly to the mobile network - without you noticing a thing. Thanks to WiMP, customers can have millions of songs in their pockets. This has become the new every day reality of music.

Guaranteed income: With WiMP, people now have a great option for the legal digital distribution of music. Telenor are proud and pleased to have been involved in developing the solutions that guarantee income for artists and rights holders - and that distributes music to our customers regardless of which device they want to use to enjoy their music.