OSLO, Norway, June 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

In Scandinavia, music streaming has already become mainstream, and revenues are increasing at a brisk pace. New research reveals willingness to pay for such a service is at its peak amongst the future generation. Half of those under 30 have also disposed of their CD-collection, and stopped downloading illegally.

The figures derive from a survey conducted by Norstat on behalf of music streaming service WiMP, in Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

In the young population, almost half of the Scandinavian respondents listened to music through streaming during last week. Swedes are on top of the charts, closely followed by Norway and with Denmark somewhat behind.

Among young Swedes, a staggering 73 percent claim to be willing to pay for a music streaming service, however 18 of these 73 percent note that it depends on the quality of the service. Correspondingly in Norway, the number of youth willing to pay is 65 percent.

In the first quarter 2011 according to IFPI, the digital music revenue share was larger than the physical in Norway, while streaming revenues were larger than download.

While streaming is rapidly becoming the norm in the northern countries, a total of some 30 percent still claim not to know what a streaming service is, suggesting a potential further increase as knowledge continues to spread.

"It's very gratifying to see that especially the young people are willing to pay for a good music service that offers a music experience. It bodes well for the future. Paid streaming will help to reverse the declining trend in music revenues," said Per Einar Dybvik, head of WiMP in Aspiro.

The survey also shows that by far the most important factor for Scandinavian's choice of music service is that it's easy to find old favorites.

"We work hard to make it easy for people to find their fancy amongst the millions of tracks in our service, and to highlight and promote old and new favorites in various genres. This is the focus both for our local editors, and our development team," says Dybvik.

The increase in streaming also affects the proportion of people who download music files illegally. Almost 40 percent say that streaming has led to that they no longer do so, while the figure is even higher, close to 50 percent for those under 30. Half of the younger generation, according to the survey also already got rid of their CD collection, compared to about a quarter of the population overall.

The survey was conducted in June by research firm Norstat on behalf of the music service WIMP. The survey had 3,000 respondents, divided equally between Norway, Sweden and Denmark with a thousand each. For further details, please go to http://www.aspiro.com/musicinsights

Aspiro in Brief

Aspiro has unique positioning as the world's only provider of both streaming music and TV services delivered as a complete hosted white label service to partners. Aspiro also delivers music streaming service WiMP directly to consumers in Scandinavia. Aspiro utilize over ten years mobile technology and retail experience, delivering its premium services to companies worldwide including Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica O2, Telenor, 3, TeliaSonera, BBC, Aftonbladet, mBlox, TVNorge, Entel and VG. Aspiro is listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stock Exchange in Stockholm. 2010 sales for continuing operations were SEK 262 m and the company has some 115 employees.

SOURCE Aspiro