Spain’s first online streaming-only music service has been launched, claiming to offer 2 million songs by 50,000 artists from major and independent labels.
Yes.fm compares itself to other services such as Last.fm in the United Kingdom or Pandora.com in the United States. It allows fans to listen to individual or connected tracks, entire albums, personalised compilations, or playlists put together by Yes.fm’s team of DJ experts.
Initially, limited access to the service at www.yes.fm is being made available free of charge, although full access is only available to subscribers. A range of subscriptions is available, according to the level of service chosen. Yes.fm’s income will come from subscriptions and advertising, says its content director Kiko Fuentes, formerly managing director at Warner Music Spain.
Yes.fm senior executives Hugues de Montfalcon, Christophe Cassand and Frédéric Terrien, were the founders of mobile content company Mediafusión, which was sold to multi-national group Jet Multimedia in 2005. Yes.fm’s parent company is Madrid-based La Banane Box.
The service launched Sept. 10. Yes.fm has deals with the four majors — Universal, Warner Music, SonyBMG and EMI — as well as with several leading Spanish indie labels such as BOA Records, Blanco & Negro, and Subterfuge. It is in talks with other indie labels.
“We hope to have some 1 million clients by the end of this year, of which 5% should be subscribers,” says Fuentes. “About 25% of our available tracks are in Spanish, including catalog material from the 1960s-80s, which is a high percentage compared to other online discharge or streaming services.”
According to La Banane Box managing director Cassand: “the main aim of Yes.fm is to give back value to music by bypassing piracy and free downloads. Yes.fm is a solution, helping consumers to enjoy an enormous music offer in a way that is secure and 100% legal.”
