Orange UK has partnered with Universal Music and 4Music (a derivative of the terrestrial TV Channel 4), to launch a free streaming music service for new tariff called ‘Monkey’. The tariff is for prepay customers, which makes the whole data consumption angle more interesting (prepay users are not usually looked after in terms of data usage!).
Users will be able to both create and share playlists on the web, and somewhat unsurprisingly will be sent Mobile Ads too. Luckily, as the ‘yoof’ market (which this tariff is squarely aimed at) is apparently accepting of this kind of thing, it should be no problem.
You’ll be able to get a bit of Monkey in Orange stores and Phones4U stores now, and then from September in other channels. Channel 4 will be doing its bit and promo-ing things across its various TV and Web properties.
Clearly Orange is aiming to target users who perhaps don’t have the high-tier smartphone-type handsets, and those who are unable to consume existing pay-for music services – so it’s going to be interesting to see how popular this is, and how it plays out. I wonder if Orange will release usage stats some months down the line?
[Via: Mobile Today]