Orange has joined forces with European music streaming service Deezer to offer Orange customers the latter's Premium advertising-free subscription service and is in advanced talks to buy a minority stake in the company. Ultimately, Orange intends to folds its Wormee music streaming brand into Deezer, a company spokesman told Les Echos. The first fruit of the partnership will be the September introduction of Deezer Premium on the Orange mobile and ADSL offers. The tie-up will expand Deezer's over 7 million-track catalogue and boost the pay service's user base by offering it to Orange's massive customer base. The EUR 9.90 per month unlimited streaming service has attracted 20,000 subscribers to date. The companies did not reveal their pricing plans for the autumn. Orange's intention to buy a minority stake of Deezer fits within its new content strategy of not going it alone. The move will also bring welcome funds to Deezer, whose CEO, Axel Dauchez, recently told Les Echos had broken even and expected a EUR 15 million turnover this year. Newspaper reports speculate that Orange could purchase 20 percent of the streaming service, whose full value is around EUR 80 million. When asked by AFP, the operator declined to coment on these figures.
