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Business News Digital
Napster partners with SFR mobile network in France
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 26 September 2013
Napster, now the European arm of American streaming company Rhapsody of course, has announced a new partnership with SFR, the flagging French mobile network owned by Universal Music parent Vivendi (for now).
Asked how important deals such as these are to streaming services, Thorsten Schliesche, Napster Senior Vice President and General Manager Europe, told CMU: “Carrier deals are very important for our business in order to reach a broader audience and enable people to experience the benefits of music streaming. In general this type of deals do support our brand awareness in the market”.
Similar to Spotify’s hook up with Vodafone in the UK, Napster will be offered to SFR’s 4G customers as a free content add-on. And whereas Spotify, a service that has a much lower profile amongst mainstream consumers than a lot of people seem to think, has to compete for love from Vodafone customers with that rather-easier-to-figure Sky Sports, the even lower profile (these days) Napster will sit alongside four other content options for SFR customers.
Though it will be the only musical option. Being the only music service on offer put the company in a good position, said Schliesche, explaining that he believed that this would be enough to convince many SFR customers to choose a Napster account over any of the other four possible extras on offer: “Music has a high importance to a huge percentage of consumers and in delivering a great music experience to them, we strongly believe that Napster can become the preferred choice of the extras”.
As previously reported, Napster’s US parent company Rhapsody recently announced a restructure following new investment, which will see it take on a new Prseident and lose 30 members of staff.
