WiMP, the Norwegian music streaming service owned by Aspiro, has announced that it is expanding into Poland, stepping on the toes of European competitor Deezer, the other major player operating in the country.
The move also sees WiMP set up a local office in Warsaw, while (impressively) the company has recruited ex-Head of Digital at Universal Music Polska, Adrian Ciepichal, as Polish General Manager, in addition to Katarzyna Rogalska, former editor and journalist at Agora, who is taking on the role of Editorial Manager.
On that note, WiMP says that it’s currently tailoring the service for the Polish market, in order to offer “the best editorial music experience” to its Polish users. It claims over 18 million tracks in its catalog and places an emphasis on editorial curation and recommendations by “real people”, hence Rogalska’s appointment. These include daily recommendations, musical tips, and playlists.
To that end, WiMP’s CEO, Espen Lauritzen, says in a statement: “WiMP enters the Polish market with the clear aim to be the best music service for anyone who appreciates music in Poland. Streaming is a new technology that Polish music lovers will appreciate, providing unlimited access to everything, anywhere.”
Noticeably, however, the other major player locally, Spotify, has yet to set up shop in Poland, perhaps as a result of its preoccupation with conquering America. That’s in stark contrast to Deezer who, supercharged by a hefty new $130m round of funding, has been aggressively pushing on with its own Rest of the World (RoW) expansion strategy. Meanwhile, also steering clear of the U.S., the move by WiMP to enter Poland, in addition to its existing operations in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, and Netherlands (via a whitelabeled version), suggests that the music streaming service remains very much a European play-only — for now, at least.