Orange has finalised a deal with music-streaming service Deezer as it looks to expand its digital services offering in a bid to attract more customers.
The mobile operator, part of the Everything Everywhere group, has agreed a partnership with the France-based Spotify rival to make the Deezer music service available exclusively to Orange contract customers.
Orange pay monthly customers on Panther tariffs will get Deezer Mobile included as part of their tariff, allowing them to stream up to 13 million tracks from all major labels.
According to an inside source, Orange had considered teaming up with Spotify but balked at the terms of the deal, and was also more impressed with Deezer’s mobile operation.
Set up in 2007 in Paris, Deezer now boasts 20 million users worldwide. It has 1.2 million premium subscribers in France and already has a tie-up with Orange in its home country.
The music site, which does not run a free ad-supported service as Spotify does, said last week it planned to become “the number one destination for all UK music fans”.
This move comes a month after Spotify announced a similar partnership with Virgin Media, which will see the latter offer Spotify’s premium music streaming option as part of its bundled television and mobile deals .