The unique thing about the system is that users can carry out payment in a simple and secure way, at the same time attending to the rights and copyright protections of the artists.

Smsmp3.no is an alternative for artists who don’t distribute through record stores. All rights to the music are held by the artists themselves, but smsmp3.no is the distributor.

"We don’t know how big the demand for such a net-service is, but we believe it is there, and we believe the payment method is friendly because it’s simple", explains ViaNett head Lars Helland. "At the same time that many music websites are experiencing economic problems, that creates room for new entrepreneurs who don’t want to invest millions in a solution. The situation is a display window for the web solutions we can provide", he explains. ViaNett has based its website on the standard products ViaNett Publishing, E-business, Forum, and SMS.

"smsmp3.no can also accept artists, but we want from the outset to be very sober about charging income for the service", concludes Helland.