Orange has unveiled Orange Monkey, the first Pay As You Go package for the UK market that offers free music to customers when they top up their mobile. Working together, Universal Music, Channel 4 and Orange have developed a package that gives customers free and easy access to hundreds of thousands of songs (plus free texts) streamed through any mobile handset and online at www.orange.co.uk/monkey from today.
Monkey is targeted at 16-24 year olds. As well as free music, Monkey offers customers free texts, allows for playlists to be shared on social networks, and delivers offers from relevant brands to the handset. Customer who want to find out the name of the track they are listening to  just need to press 5 while listening to the track to receive a free text message with the artist name and track title. The track is also saved in their Favourites section on the Monkey website.
The free music element of the package, says Orange, fulfils an untapped market that is looking for a low cost, easy access music service, with no concerns about download costs or the functionality of the handset. The dedicated Monkey website aims to create a community where customers can broadcast their individual playlists online and share them with their friends.
Orange has developed a streaming model which allows interaction with mobile music. As well as giving Monkey customers access to its catalogue, Universal Music will provide exclusive music, pre-release tracks and other content to the Monkey website, such as competitions, artist interviews and playlists, all aimed at helping to build the Monkey community.
Music channel 4Music delivers targeted access to Monkeys core demographic, with over half of its adult viewers being aged 16 to 34 years. Using a combination of traditional advertising, integrated programming and music editorial expertise, 4Music will promote the Monkey service from early September across the Channel 4 portfolio. Online, 4Music.com will promote the Monkey service and music offering, and the 4Music team will be the editorial voice of the official Monkey website, which will carry news, artist features, playlists, exclusive content and competitions. 
Unlike some music services which are either restricted to high-end more expensive handsets or have download costs, Monkey is for everyone, says Orange CEO, Tom Alexander. All you need to do is top up to get free music on any handset or online. Orange, Universal Music and 4Music will benefit from the success of Monkey, and each partner will contribute by doing what they do best. Universal Music has the best content and artists; 4Music has the best capability to reach the target audience and has the most respected editorial voice in this space; and at Orange weve got a great brand, great distribution and know how to develop and sell innovative mobile propositions.
Monkey customers can access the service on their phones by dialling 247. Customers are presented with a choice of 8 pre-set play lists e.g. R&B, Rock, Pop, etc., as well as playlists from 4Music. These will be refreshed regularly
Customers can access the service online here. Customers can set up eight of their own playlists on the Music Player and share their unique number(s) with their friends.