Strong Start For TV2’s New Talent Show The Stream

Last week TV2 launched the auditions round of its new concept show The Stream to online viewers. It has already generated 180,000 unique visitors to the site and over 500 applications have been received to audition for the show.

Dagbladet reports that Sony, Warner and Universal have joined forces for The Stream, a brand new music venture which aims to seek out Norway’s next big thing. Spotify will stream the competing artists, and the 100 most streamed by May 1st will progress through to heats to be recorded for TV2 this summer.

The final 100 will be whittled down to a final nine, all of whom will be given a recording contract before the live shows begin in the autumn, when the audience will vote for the overall winner.

Bjarne Laastad, TV2 Deputy Communications Director said: “It usually takes some time for people to sign up, but here it’s a completely different pressure than what we’re used to.”

“In the first Idol I believe we eventually had about 3000 participants. The fact that we have received 500 applications in just over a week is quite large.”

“Here the application is in the form of a clip… Everything happens on the website where people watch the videos and hear the music. Usually the artists have no relationship with viewers before they appear on the screen, but here the dialogue begins once you have uploaded the song.”

“What distinguishes this from other talent shows is that here artists are signed before they go into the final rounds. The music they release is used as soon as it is released so you get an indication of whether you can actually work as an artist.”