May 13, 2009

By By Aymeric Pichevin, Paris

French digital music platform Jiwa has signed licensing agreements with Warner Music, EMI Music and Sony Music Entertainment for its on-demand streaming service. Following an earlier deal with Universal Music, Jiwa now has the four majors on board for the French territory, as well as a deal with French songwriters and publishers society Sacem.

The service now claims 4.8 millions tracks, with 497,000 unique visitors measured by Nielsen, according to Jiwa CEO Jean-Marc Plueger, who declined to unveil the number of streams per month.

Launched in March 2008, Jiwa released its v2 edition last week with a focus on editorial, featuring in-house produced interviews and album reviews plus news provided by third party ChartsinFrance.

"We are building a media, not a jukebox," says Plueger. "Editorial content will also help us raise our [visual] advertising rates, as our users will actually watch our pages while listening to the music." In parallel, Jiwa also intends to insert audio ads in the near future.

The new site also features links to download songs from iTunes, with Jiwa getting an undisclosed revenue share on each sale. Plueger says premium features, mainly on mobile, are under way. "This is where the real competition [between streaming services] will take place," he adds.

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