Currently owned by the Wise Music Group, it was for the majority of its history a family-owned and operated business.
The Hansen family maintains the Norsk Musikforlag imprint as the only portion of their company that they did not sell.
In 1887 the firm expanded into Germany; establishing a branch in Leipzig that was active until World War II forced it to close.
[1] In 1915 Hansen founded the Swedish music publishing house Nordiska Musikförlaget [sv] in Stockholm.
[1] Some composers who were clientele of Hansen included Hugo Alfvén, Sven-Erik Bäck, Agathe Backer Grøndahl, Antonio Bibalo, Johan Halvorsen, Emil Hartmann, Peter Heise, Vagn Holmboe, Arthur Honegger, Yrjö Kilpinen, Witold Lutosławski, Carl Nielsen, Selim Palmgren, Francis Poulenc, Knudåge Riisager, Hilding Rosenberg, Arnold Schoenberg, Jean Sibelius, Christian Sinding, Emil Sjögren, Igor Stravinsky, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Johan Svendsen, and Svend Erik Tarp [de].