DEEZER

Despite some companies falling by the wayside in recent years, the amount of streaming music services remains on top. There are purely music-focused companies vying for your ear alongside tech giants like Amazon, Apple, and Google. As a result, a streaming music service has to be really good to stand out from the pack.

Deezer is a music streaming service based on the Internet, which allows users to listen to music content from record labels including Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group on various devices online or offline. More specifically, the service doesn’t do anything revolutionary, but its blend of traditional streaming music, live radio, podcasts, lyrics, and other features makes Deezer worth your consideration.

THE HISTORY

In 2006, Daniel Marhely developed the first version of Deezer, called Blogmusik, in Paris. Its idea was to give unlimited access to music lovers through streaming technology. The site in its original incarnation was charged with copyright infringement by French agency SACEM, and after being shut down in April 2007 was relaunched as Deezer in August 2007, having reached an agreement with SACEM to pay copyright holders with revenue from advertising on the site and by giving users the ability to download songs streamed on Deezer from iTunes, with Deezer receiving a commission from each purchase.

By May 2008 it had 2.75 million monthly active users, up from 773,000 in August 2007. However, the firm was not earning enough to offset the cost of music licensing fees. In February 2009 it made site registration mandatory so it could obtain more accurate user data and run more targeted ads, and also launched a three-tier service model with two different subscription services.

Despite these efforts, by January 2010 less than 15,000 of the company’s now 12 million users had signed up for its new subscription services. In August 2010 Deezer partnered with mobile operator Orange to include free access to Deezer Premium with some of its telecommunications contracts. Shortly afterwards the rate of subscription sign-ups exploded from 6,000 to 100,000 a month.

By 2011 Deezer surpassed one million subscribers and had rights to eight million songs. Later that year the company formed a partnership with Facebook enabling users to send each other music via the platform. By 2013 it had expanded its availability to Africa, Australia, Latin America, Asia, the United States, and all of Europe. In late 2015 it postponed plans to complete an IPO.

THE INNOVATION

It combines the best of man and machine, joining together the technological innovation of our developers with recommendations hand-picked by our Editors and tailored for you.

• Get recommendations direct from our Editors around the world based on the music you listen to. The more you listen, the better your music feed!
• See the latest releases from your favourite bands — from the newest pop anthem by Katy Perry, to the most recent croonings from The National, you’ll hear as soon as new music comes out.
• Hear playlists created by your friends that match your taste — perfect for parties and road trips.
• Listen to tunes that your friends recommend.

Explore is the second feature to be unveiled today. It provides a unique way to browse the latest releases and Deezer Picks.

• Filter by region to find the latest recommendations from a particular part of the world. Our team of around 50 Editors are spread all over the world, hunting down the best music in their region.
• Explore your favourite type of music with the new genre filters.
• You can now search and filter the music in your beautiful new Library to easily find that perfect track.
• Loved a song but can’t remember what it was called? Simply go to your listening historywithin your Library to find all the music you have listened to, ever!
• Preview tracks before listening to the whole song. Click and hold on the cover image and you’ll hear 30 seconds of the track, enough to decide if you want to give it a full play or not.

And since we’re all fired up and in the mood for innovation, we’re busily working away on Deezer for Mac, an app that will prove essential for music lovers everywhere. With this new feature you’ll be able to access absolutely all of your music through your Finder.

Daniel Marhely, Deezer’s founder said today, “Innovation is in our DNA. We want to help people build and discover their own unique music identity, which is why this year we’re getting personal. Hear This and Deezer for Mac are game changers for us, they are pure innovation. We’re combining the best of Deezer — man and machine — to give users a unique experience, that’s tailored exclusively to them.”

THE BUSINESS PLAN

Before we dive into the features, you should know that Deezer has three account types. Unfortunately, details on these account types are either sparse, outdated, or irrelevant to U.S. users. The three account types are:

• Discovery which is the basic free account.
• Premium+ which is the full account for $10-per-month.
• Elite which is only for Sonos devices for $16-per-month.

Deezer also has shareable family accounts that are currently only available in France, but might be available in the U.S. at some point later. For this article, we’re only going to focus on the first two account types.

Discovery account users have these limitations:

• Periodic audio ads between songs.
• Only 128 kbps MP3 audio quality.
• Only 5 song skips per hour.
• No audio scrubbing.

In addition, Discovery accounts only have access to the first three features in the list below. However, as of this writing, the only way to get a Discovery account is to first participate in the 30-day Premium+ trial offer and cancel afterwards.

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So which features offered by Deezer are free?

• Playlists: Over 100,000 public playlists are available for Deezer’s music library of over 40 million tracks. These playlists have anywhere from 30 to 120 songs and can be filtered according to 27 different genres.
• Mixes: A dynamically-generated sequence of songs that sound similar to a given artist or belong to a given genre. Think of it like the “artist radio” feature that other music streaming services have.
• Flow: A mix of songs based on your tastes, at least according to the songs you listen to on Deezer and the songs you add to your favorites. It’s always evolving and adapting.

And which features of Deezer are premium?

• Moods: Moods are basically playlists that are categorized by how they make you feel rather than their genres. There are seven moods to choose from: Romance, Party, Workout, Moments, Activities, Moods, and Chill.
• New Releases: A daily-updated page that shows newly released albums and singles, sorted by genre. Great way to stay on top of the ever-shifting music industry.
• Hear This: Deezer’s music recommendation engine. It’s basically a page full of taste-tailored suggestions for artists, albums, and playlists that you might like. Great for discovering new music!
• Offline Playback: Download songs to your device so you can play them from anywhere at any time. Possibly the most important feature offered by Deezer (or any music streaming service).
• Audio Quality: Upgrade the audio quality from 128 kbps to 320 kbps, which is about the best level of quality that most users can hear.
• 5-Band Equalizer: For fine-tuning your audio quality.
• Casting: Integrates natively with Chromecast.
• Lyrics: Instantly pull lyrics from any song with vocals.
• App Extensions: Apps are optional features that you can enable to expand what Deezer can do. As of this writing there are 18 apps in the library, like Chordify (extract chords from any song) and IFTTT integration.

And lastly, Deezer is supported on the following devices:

• Web (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge, Safari)
• Windows 10 (PC and Mobile)
• Windows 8 (PC and Mobile)
• Mac OS X
• iPhone, iPod, and iPad
• Android
• Roku
• Smart TVs (Samsung, LG, Toshiba, WD, Panasonic)
• Sonos

Futher more,

Customer Segments

Deezer has a mass market business model, with no significant differentiation between customer groups. The company targets its offerings at anyone who wants to stream music.

Value Proposition

Deezer offers five primary value propositions: accessibility, convenience, customization, cost reduction, and brand/status.

The company creates accessibility by providing a wide variety of options. It is available for use on computers (PCs and Macs), mobile phones, tablets, smart watches, television sets, and in cars.

The company offers convenience by making life simpler for customers. The premium version of its platform features no ads or interruptions. Furthermore, users do not have to be connected to the Internet, as they can download songs to their devices. Deezer provides lyrics to songs on the device screen as they are played. Customers can cancel their subscriptions at any time. Lastly, it enables artists with songs on the platform to view analytics on their performance.

The company enables customization through its capabilities. It recommends music to customers based on their listening history. They can create tailored playlists of their favorite songs. It also allows artists who want to make their music available on the platform to create personalized Artist Pages.

The company reduces costs in a variety of ways. It offers new customers a free 30-day trial of its premium version so they can test it out. Afterwards, it only costs $9.99 a month.

The company has established a strong brand due to its success. It has 10 million active users in over 182 countries. It has 100 million playlists and offers 43 million music tracks, including everything from Top 40 singles to music by unsigned artists. Lastly, it has over 50 music editors who curate playlists.

Channels

Deezer’s main channels are its website and mobile app. The company promotes its offerings through its website, social media pages, and advertising.

Customer Relationships

Deezer’s customer relationship is primarily of a self-service, automated nature. Customers utilize the service through the main platform while having limited interaction with employees. The company’s website provides answers to frequently asked questions.

There is a co-creation element in that musical artists can upload their own music to be included in its inventory. There is also a community element in the form of a forum where customers can interact with each other.

Key Activities

Deezer’s business model entails maintaining and updating its platform for its users. Its platform includes its website and mobile app.

Key Partners

Deezer’s key partners are the media companies it signs agreements with to make its service available on their platforms (e.g., Orange and Facebook) and the technology firms it works with to make its service accessible on their devices (e.g., Samsung, Toshiba, and LG). The company also maintains the following types of partnerships:

• Unsigned Artist Distributors — The company maintains a list of firms it recommends for use by artists not signed to a label who want to put their music on its platform. These firms can oversee the licensing, distribution, and administration of the artists’ music. Specific partners include Tunecore, Record Union, CD Baby, ONErpm, Spinnup, and AWAL.
• Signed Artist Distributors — The company maintains partnerships with firms it recommends for use by artists who are signed to a label but do not yet have their music on its platform. Specific partners include Believe, Finetunes.net, The Orchard, Merlin, INgrooves, and state51 Conspiracy.
• Affiliate Partners — The company works with third parties that promote its offerings on their platforms (websites, mobile apps, etc.) in exchange for cash rewards.

Key Resources

Deezer’s main resource is its proprietary software platform, which serves over 10 million active users. It depends on human resources in the form of the engineers that maintain and update its platform and the music editors that curate its playlists.

Lastly, as a startup it has relied heavily on funding from outside parties, raising $217.5 million from seven investors as of January 2016.

Cost Structure

Deezer has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation and low-price value propositions. Its biggest cost driver is likely sales/marketing, a fixed cost. Other major drivers are in the areas of administration and customer support/operations, both fixed costs.

Revenue Streams

Deezer has two revenue streams:

• Subscription Revenues — Revenues generated from fees charged to customers for use of its premium listening service
• Advertising Revenues — Revenues generated from fees charged to advertisers for promoting their offerings to non-premium users on its platform.

Mirella Sifri Ηρω Πασχαλιδη Kelly Vlachou Erieta Basdeki Katerina Apostolaki

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