Deezer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Deezer

logo
legal form SA
founding August 22, 2007
Seat Paris , FranceFranceFrance 
management
Branch Streaming media
Website www.deezer.com
As of October 31, 2018

The areas marked in blue show the availability of Deezer as of August 2016.

Deezer is an international music streaming service founded in France in August 2007 . Deezer is available in more than 180 countries and currently streams a catalog of 56 million titles at a bit rate of up to 320 kbit / s and - with Deezer HiFi - 1411 kbit / s. In addition to music, users also have access to audio books , radio plays and podcasts . Deezer is partially funded by advertising and has around 14 million active users. (All figures are as of October 2018 according to their own information.)

history

Foundation and early years

The service was first launched in 2006 on an informal basis under the name Blogmusik.net . However, a complaint from the French collecting society SACEM led to its closure in February 2007. The name was changed to Deezer and operations resumed on August 22, 2007.

Shortly after it opened, Universal Music filed a complaint that it believed it had provided copyrighted material unlawfully.

The operator, on the other hand, relied on an agreement with SACEM that had already taken place before the name change. On the other hand, Deezer was able to agree a collaboration with Sony BMG in October 2007 which would enable the use of this company's titles. On May 14, 2008, Universal Music France signed an international agreement with Deezer that allows access to their music catalog. On September 11, 2008, Deezer and Warner Music International finally announced an agreement to make the major label's music catalog available on the website .

In addition to the agreements with three of the four largest record companies , Deezer has agreements with many independent record companies such as Believe, Because Music, Beggars, The Orchard and Naïve.

In August 2007, the first month that Deezer officially went live, the platform had 773,000 visitors. The number of users rose to 2.75 million by May 2008 and climbed to seven million by December 2009.

Despite the high volume of users, Deezer ran into financial problems almost at the same time. The company achieved sales of just € 875,000 in the first half of 2008, which was not enough to pay the license fees. In July 2008, the service began to advertise on its platform. In October of that year, Deezer secured $ 8.4 million in funding from AGF Private Equity and CM-CIC Capital Prive. This increased the total investment in the company to US $ 15.8 million.

In February 2009, Deezer introduced an obligation to register in order to be able to determine more precise user data for targeted advertisements. In November 2009, audio advertising was started between songs.

On November 5, 2009, Deezer launched a three-tier offering model. While the service kept the free version, two paid subscriptions were added. For € 4.99 per month, users received better sound quality and music without commercial breaks; for € 9.99 per month, users could also use it offline for computers and mobile Android , BlackBerry and iOS devices.

In January 2010, Jonathan Benassaya, CEO and co-founder of Deezer, left the company after fewer than 15,000 of Deezer's 12 million users had taken out paid subscriptions. Axel Dauchez has been appointed as his successor as CEO.

In August 2010, Deezer entered into a partnership with the French mobile network operator Orange . Its customers received free access to the Deezer Premium offer with certain contracts. Soon after the partnership began, the number of Deezer Premium subscribers rose from 6,000 to 100,000 users per month. At the beginning of 2011, 500,000 people already had a paid Deezer subscription. The one million subscriber mark was then broken in mid-2011, six months earlier than planned. The two companies expanded their partnership in September 2011 to include Orange contract customers in the UK.

Also in September of the same year, Deezer integrated Facebook into its service to allow users to share music through the social media service.

International expansion and financing

In December 2011, Deezer announced that the company plans to expand to all of Europe by the end of the year and to the Americas excluding the United States in 2012, as well as Africa , Southeast Asia and other countries around the world. Until then, the service was only available in Belgium, France and the UK.

However, it took Deezer until March 2012 to make its service available across Europe. The service started on April 25, 2012 in Australia , Canada and New Zealand . On June 8, Deezer announced availability in 35 Latin American countries excluding Brazil, Cuba, and Venezuela. On August 15, Deezer announced that its service would also be available in Indonesia , Malaysia , Pakistan , the Philippines , Singapore and Thailand .

On October 10, 2012, Deezer received a $ 130 million investment from private equity firm Access Industries , founded by billionaire Leonard Blavatnik . A year earlier, Access Industries had already bought the music company Warner Music Group for a sum of around US $ 3.3 billion. Deezer used the investment to continue expanding internationally and shortly thereafter announced that it would be available in 76 new markets, bringing the total number of countries to 160 worldwide.

At the end of 2012, Deezer had around three million paying subscribers out of a total of seven million active users per month and a catalog of 20 million songs.

In January 2013, Deezer continued its international expansion into 22 new countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, as well as Brazil and the USA. This increased the number of countries to a total of 182. The market entry in the USA was initially limited to a limited number of device partnerships with providers such as Sonos and Bose. In July 2016, Deezer became available to all users in the USA.

In April 2014 it was announced that the previous global CEO Axel Dauchez would leave the company until September. At the end of 2014, Deezer appointed the German lawyer and manager Hans-Holger Albrecht , who has held the position since February 2015, to succeed him.

In October 2014, Deezer bought the Stitcher podcast app. With the acquisition, Deezer expanded its existing music offering to include radio broadcasts and podcasts. Initially, the new content was only available in France, Great Britain and Sweden. From October 2015 podcasts and radio will also be available in Germany via Deezer. In 2016, Deezer resold Stitcher for US $ 4.5 million to the US media company EW Scripps Co. Content such as podcasts and radio are still available via Deezer.

In January 2016, Deezer received another € 100 million in capital. In addition to Access Industries, the French telecom group Orange also invested in the streaming service this time .

At the beginning of August 2018, Deezer confirmed another financing round of € 160 million. Access Industries and Orange have repeatedly invested. The Arab Rotana group of companies and Kingdom Holding from Saudi Arabia came on board as new donors . In the course of this new financing, Deezer is valued at one billion euros.

In October 2018, Deezer announced that the streaming service is now also available in Arabic. Users in the Middle East and North Africa can, in addition to Deezer's international catalog, also have exclusive access to musical content from the Rotana Group's catalog. Deezer is also planning to open a location in Dubai .

Deezer currently lists 189 countries on its website where its service is currently available. In addition, the company states that it has 14 million active users who can access a catalog of over 56 million titles (as of December 2019).

Deezer in Germany

The Deezer service has also been available in Germany since December 15, 2011, and the service has had an office in Berlin since mid-2012.

On June 10, 2014 it was announced that the streaming service Ampya will be sold to Deezer. The approximately 400,000 customers will be taken over by Deezer.

After the streaming service Simfy discontinued its offer on May 1, 2015 , all Simfy customers were forwarded to Deezer. Deezer spoke of a partnership.

Since September 2015, Deezer has been offering podcasts as well as audio books and radio plays in Germany.

Partnerships

In order to attract new potential customers, Deezer began to form partnerships with companies that have a large customer base, namely:

  • Tour operator In
    2014, this included a partnership with the tour operator TUI , whose customers received a three-month Deezer Premium trial subscription when booking a trip. In the same year, the electronics company Samsung also cooperated with Deezer and offered buyers of their Galaxy S5 smartphones a free Deezer trial subscription for several months.
  • Other broadcasters
    In November 2014, the television broadcaster Joiz Germany joined as a partner. Part of the partnership were playlists that were created by the moderators on various topics and also integrated into the program in the form of moderated clip series. Furthermore, Joiz Germany played the top 30 of the current Deezer streaming charts in his weekly chart show Coffee & Charts. In addition, premium subscriptions should be raffled regularly.
  • Telecommunications company
    Another marketing partnership that was added in 2014 is with the British telecommunications provider Vodafone . Contract customers can add Deezer to their Vodafone tariff at reduced rates. The partnership was extended to two more years in 2016.
  • Grocery
    discounter From 2016 there was a partnership with the discounter Lidl . However, the collaboration was ended on March 31, 2018, as Lidl discontinued its streaming offer, through which Deezer could be used at a discount.
  • Bike rental company
    Deezer nextbike station Berlin on Landsberger Allee

    Since the end of 2017, Deezer has been cooperating with nextbike , the city of Berlin's public bike rental system. Deezer has introduced its own design for this; the bicycles have a 3-speed gearshift and are equipped with sturdy pneumatic tires. Several permanent lending locations have now been established in Berlin; the loan works contactless with the Deezer customer app. The users already registered with Deezer can use the bike for free for the first 30 minutes.

Functions

principle

To use Deezer, the user must first register via the Deezer website or app. You can then listen to unlimited music, audio books, radio plays and podcasts. In the free version, there are adverts between the individual titles from time to time.

Flow

Deezer calls the flow function a personal soundtrack. It is a patented algorithm that uses the user's listening habits to compile an endless stream of current songs and favorite songs.

Offline mode

In the paid version, Deezer offers an offline mode. This has the advantage that users can download titles and listen to them even without an Internet connection. So, z. B. when listening to music on the smartphone, the consumption of the data volume is spared.

Lyrics

Since 2014, Deezer has partnered with the Canadian lyrics platform LyricFind. In the Deezer app, users can click the microphone icon to view the full text of a song while it is being played.

Podcast

Podcasts have also been available on Deezer since 2014. As with the music offering, the podcasts are divided into categories and there are editorial recommendations. Since 2016, the service has also been producing its own podcast formats with the so-called “Deezer Originals”, which are offered exclusively on the platform. The in-house productions include B. “Das kleine Fernsehballett”, in which the presenter Sarah Kuttner and the media journalist Stefan Niggemeier chat about TV shows and series.

Audio books and radio plays

In Germany, Deezer has had an audio book app integrated into its user interface since 2015. In this, audio books and radio plays are divided into categories. As the first streaming service, Deezer also introduced a bookmark function for audiobooks, so the user can continue listening to the title at the point where he left off before.

Device support

Desktop pc and laptop

Deezer can be used directly in the browser via its website. There is also a desktop app. It is available to users of a paid offer. The operating system is at least Windows 7 or macOS from "Mavericks" needed. A Deezer app is also available for Windows 10 devices.

mobile devices

There are Deezer apps for Android , iOS and Windows devices. In addition to BlackBerry smartphones supported.

Smartwatch

Deezer has been available on the Apple Watch since 2016, and watches with Android Wear were added in 2017.

Deezer has been available on various Fitbit and Garmin Fitness smartwatches since 2018 .

Audio systems and speakers

Deezer is integrated with a variety of sound systems, including: a. Devices from Bang & Olufsen , Bose , Onkyo , Samsung , Sonos , Sony and Yamaha .

Voice assistants

Deezer has also supported Google Home since 2017 . A separate Alexa Skill for Amazon Echo followed in 2018.

Smart TV and game consoles

Deezer has been available on Samsung smart TVs since 2011 . Since 2013 also on Toshiba and LG televisions . This was followed by integrations with TV sets from Panasonic, Philips, Sony Bravia and Bang & Olufsen. Android TV users can also download a Deezer app. Deezer is also compatible with Chromecast as well as Amazon Fire TV .

Since 2012, Deezer can be used on the Xbox 360 and since 2018 on its successor, the Xbox One .

cars

Deezer is integrated with various car infotainment systems. There are integrations with the systems for BMW, the Fiat 500X, the Jeep Renegade and MINI vehicles. Here the service can be operated via the board computer of the respective vehicle.

Deezer has also been available for Apple's CarPlay since 2015 and for Android Auto since 2016.

Musicians on Deezer

Remuneration of the artist

Part of the proceeds are passed on to the rights holders, with Deezer having no direct contracts with artists. According to an interview from 2015 with Deezer's CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht, streaming services pay around 70 percent of their income to music labels and distributors.

The amount of revenue per piece of music depends on its market share and can vary from month to month. It also plays a role here whether the song from the free offer or the paid premium subscription is played and in which country it is heard. For example, in 2012 Deezer in France paid between € 0.005 (0.5 cents) and € 0.035 (3.5 cents) for each listening. How the labels or distributors ultimately distribute this money to artists depends on the respective contract the artist has concluded with them.

Deezer announced in 2017 that it was working on a user-centric licensing model to restructure payouts to rights holders. With this new model, to put it simply, the subscription fees of each user are to be divided according to their listening behavior and no longer according to their overall market share. The new model would u. a. Make streaming scams harder and local musicians would earn more.

Music piracy and stream ripping

As with other streaming services, all available albums and songs can be viewed on Deezer in the paid version, e.g. B. on the smartphone or in the offline mode available for the browser. Therefore, some artists fear that their music will not be bought in external areas such as Amazon or iTunes using legal programs , but could be downloaded in another form via legal programs, which would lead to loss of income. So it is e.g. B. by means of a recording program possible to record the currently running music stream with the program and then save as a separate file (z. B. as MP3). This method, known as stream ripping, is a well-known problem in the music industry. According to the Federal Association of the Music Industry, however, these copyright infringements in Germany are below the global average.

In recent years numerous musicians, such as B. Taylor Swift , Herbert Grönemeyer or Die Ärzte , because of the possible music piracy and the low income in their opinion, repeatedly spoken out against streaming services. In some cases, the artists did not make their music catalogs available to the services or had them removed again. However, with the increasing popularity of streaming services, many artists are lifting their boycott. So are z. For example, since November 2018, the band's albums have also been available on Deezer, Spotify and other services.

Offers and subscriptions

There are five different Deezer offerings.

Surname price Ad-free Bit rate listen to music Others
Free Free No 128 kBit / s MP3 Unlimited, but mobile with restrictions On the smartphone, tracks can only be played in random playback, 6 tracks per hour can be skipped, no offline mode
Premium € 9.99 / month Yes 320 kBit / s MP3 Unlimited Available on mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows etc.), audio systems and speakers, Internet TVs, game consoles, voice assistants and wearables, offline listening possible
college student 4.99 € / month Yes 320 kBit / s MP3 Unlimited Available on mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows etc.), audio systems and speakers, Internet TVs, game consoles, voice assistants and wearables, offline listening possible
Family 14.99 € / month Yes 320 kBit / s MP3 Unlimited Six Deezer Premium Profiles for one price, available on mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows etc.), audio systems and speakers, Internet TVs, game consoles, voice assistants and wearables, offline listening possible
Hi-Fi 14.99 € / month Yes 1411 kBit / s FLAC Unlimited Available for the Windows desktop app and on selected audio systems (currently from Pioneer, SONOS, BANG & Olufsen, Yamaha and MOON by Simaudio)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.deezer.com/de/company
  2. ↑ http://www.deezer.com/de/offers/
  3. ↑ BlogMusik devient Deezer ( Memento from September 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Infos-du-net from August 22, 2007 (French). Accessed August 31, 2019.
  4. ↑ Universal: nos titres sont exploités illegalement sur Deezer , PC Inpact
  5. ↑ Press release from Deezer ( Memento from September 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF)
  6. ↑ Deezer ajoute Universal Music à son catalog de musique en ligne , ZDNet.fr, May 14, 2008
  7. ↑ a b c d Pascal Rozat: Deezer: Profitability Down the Line? In: INA Global , August 19, 2011 ( Memento from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Ben Rooney: Deezer's Expansion Plans Get a Boost. In: Wall Street Journal , Oct. 8, 2012
  9. ↑ Robin Wauters: Digital music startup Deezer debuts desktop client, premium offering. In: TechCrunch , November 5, 2009 ( Memento from December 21, 2012 on WebCite )
  10. ↑ Roxanne Varza: Post bloodletting, Deezer appoints a new CEO. In: TechCrunch , January 28, 2010 ( Memento from December 21, 2012 on WebCite )
  11. ↑ Orange brings Deezer Premium to its customers. In: Screen Digest , August 6, 2010 ( Memento December 21, 2012 on WebCite )
  12. ↑ Deezer takes on Spotify with Orange deal. In: Financial Times, September 7, 2011 ( December 21, 2012 memento on WebCite )
  13. ↑ Deezer enters realm of Facebook. In: Telecompaper , September 23, 2011. ( Memento from December 21, 2012 on WebCite )
  14. ↑ TechCrunch: Deezer plans to launch music service in 200 countries by June 2012. In: TechCrunch , December 7, 2011.
  15. ^ Robin Wauters: Deezer now covers all European countries from Iceland to Russia (46 countries). In: The Next Web , March 15, 2012.
  16. ^ Matt Brian: Spotify rival Deezer continues its worldwide expansion with launch in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In: The Next Web , April 25, 2012.
  17. ^ Paul Sawers: Music streaming service Deezer goes live in 35 Latin American territories today. In: The Next Web , June 7, 2012.
  18. ^ Steve O'Hear: European Music Streaming Service Deezer Heads to Asia. In: TechCrunch , August 15, 2012.
  19. ^ Carsten Knobloch: News from the music service Deezer. In: stadt-bremerhaven.de , October 10, 2012.
  20. ^ Reuters: Russian billionaire buys Warner Music. In: Zeit Online , May 6, 2011.
  21. ↑ Tom Warren: Deezer's streaming music service now available in 160 countries, US market not ready In: The Verge , October 10, 2012.
  22. ↑ Ingrid Lunden: Deezer's CEO Axel Dauchez On Cracking Into The US And Why It's Not Just Another Spotify In: TechCrunch , October 9, 2012.
  23. ^ Sarah Perez: Deezer Takes On Spotify With Expansions In Middle East, Africa, Brazil And Asia. In: TechCrunch , January 28, 2013.
  24. ↑ AFP: Deezer compte se lancer aux Etats-Unis en 2014. In: Challenges , November 20, 2013.
  25. ↑ Joan E. Solsman: Deezer entering US In: Cnet.com .
  26. ↑ Micah Singleton: Deezer's music-streaming service is now available for everyone in the US In: The Verge , July 19, 2016.
  27. ↑ Music Business Worldwide: Deezer CEO exits, becomes Publicis France Boss In: Music Business Worldwide , April 29, 2014.
  28. ↑ Musikwoche: Deezer makes German manager head of the company In: Musikwoche , December 19, 2014.
  29. ↑ a b Pascal Wuttke: Deezer buys Stitcher In: Caschy's blog , October 25, 2014.
  30. ↑ Sascha Ostermaier: Deezer: Podcasts and radio broadcasts now also available in Germany In: Caschy's blog , October 29, 2015.
  31. ^ Janko Roettgers : Scripps Buys Podcast Service Stitcher from Deezer. In: Variety , June 6, 2016.
  32. ^ Deezer Talk. Support.deezer.com, accessed December 9, 2018
  33. ↑ dpa: Deezer gets 100 million euros from investors. In: Focus Online , January 20, 2016.
  34. ↑ Musikwoche: Deezer confirms multi-million dollar financing round. In: Musikwoche , August 3, 2018.
  35. ↑ Music Week: Deezer wants to continue growing in the Middle East and North Africa. In: Musikwoche , October 22, 2018.
  36. ^ Deezer for developers. Developers.deezer.com, accessed December 9, 2018.
  37. ↑ Handelsblatt: Deezer online service attacks in Germany. In: Handelsblatt , December 14, 2011.
  38. ↑ Jürgen Stüber: What Berlin music streaming services can do better than Spotify. In: Morgenpost , December 2, 2013.
  39. ↑ Georg Räth: ProSiebenSat.1 hands over Ampya to Deezer - to overthrow Spotify in Germany. In: gruenderszene.de , June 10, 2014.
  40. ↑ Deezer press release about Simfy customer takeover
  41. ↑ Spotify competitor Simfy shuts down , t-online.de, May 4, 2015, 9:05 p.m.
  42. ↑ a b Lennart Gotta: Audiobook for on the go: Deezer expands its range. In: Computerbild , September 25, 2015.
  43. ↑ Christian Remse: Use the music and audio book streaming service Deezer for 3 months free of charge. In: TECH.de , March 9, 2014.
  44. ↑ Don't forget to claim 6-months free Deezer music with your Galaxy S5 In: AndroidCentral , April 12, 2014.
  45. ↑ Petra Schwegler: Deezer pimps himself with Joiz In: W&V , November 18, 2014.
  46. ↑ Dietmar Schwenger: Deezer and Vodafone enter into partnership. In: Musikwoche , September 5, 2014.
  47. ↑ Music Week: Deezer and Vodafone extend partnership. In: Musikwoche , October 27, 2016.
  48. ↑ Music flat for 7.99 euros: Lidl cooperates with Deezer and Maxdome. In: ifun.de .
  49. ↑ Manuela Pauker: Lidl is ending its streaming offer. In: W&V , February 22, 2018.
  50. ↑ Nextbike Berlin cooperates with Deezer , accessed on October 25, 2018.
  51. ↑ Selim Baykara: Use Deezer for free and stream unlimited music - that's how it works. In: Giga.de , September 12, 2017.
  52. ↑ [1]
  53. ↑ Frank Schmiechen: How Deezer wants to attack the big players in the music streaming industry. In: gruenderszene.de , December 19, 2016.
  54. ↑ [2]
  55. ↑ Chris O'Brien: Deezer partners with LyricFind to let users see words to songs as they stream. In: venturebeat.com , December 18, 2014.
  56. ↑ Info Digital: New exclusive podcast with Sarah Kuttner & Stefan Niggemeier In: Info Digital , March 21, 2017.
  57. ↑ Kurt Sagatz: Sarah Kuttner and Stefan Niggemeier start podcast. In: Tagesspiegel , March 21, 2017.
  58. ↑ [3] Deezer on desktop and in the browser
  59. ↑ [4] Deezer on smartphones and tablets
  60. ↑ Florian Müller: Deezer Apple Watch App published. In: Smartwatch-im-Praxistest , March 16, 2016.
  61. ↑ Michael Schäfer: Music streaming: Deezer now supports Android Wear. In: Computerbase , July 2017.
  62. ↑ Peter Lanzendorf: Fitbit is further expanding its OS platform for smartwatches. In: CE & Trade , January 15, 2018
  63. ^ Rik Henderson: Garmin watches finally get full Deezer integration. In: Pocket-Lint , September 6, 2018
  64. ↑ [5] Deezer on audio systems
  65. ^ Carsten Knobloch: Google Home with Deezer support. In: Caschy's blog , August 9, 2017.
  66. ↑ Ingo Pakalski: Amazon's Alexa streams music from Deezer. In: golem.de , 2018.
  67. ↑ Press report Smart TV
  68. ↑ Knut Schlinger: Napster and Deezer bring music to the Xbox. In: Musikwoche , December 12, 2012.
  69. ↑ Michael Keller: Xbox One now supports Deezer. In: Curved , March 14, 2018.
  70. ↑ Georg Räth: BMW anchors Deezer. In: Gruenderszene , June 18, 2013
  71. ↑ Fiat 500X review In: RAC , December 5, 2014.
  72. ↑ Nele Korn: Jeep Skills: the app for drivers who want to have everything under control. In: Die Autotester , August 11, 2016.
  73. ↑ Christian Stein: Deezer brings music streaming to the Mini. In: Musikexpress , May 25, 2013.
  74. ↑ Leo Becker: Apple's CarPlay: Deezer music service now integrated. In: heise.de , December 9, 2015.
  75. ↑ Steve Haak: Deezer: Spotify competitor supports Android Auto. In: Androidpit , February 24, 2016
  76. ↑ Thomas Heuzeroth: Sooner or later everyone ends up streaming. In: Die Welt , September 4, 2015.
  77. ↑ Rates of Spotify competitors ( Memento from December 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  78. ^ Uniform Motion - Update to Release Day Economics
  79. ↑ a b Daniel AJ Sokolov: Fairness Debate: Deezer wants new music licenses. In: heise.de , April 26, 2017.
  80. ↑ Illegal music downloads: Popular method makes Spotify & Co. desperate. In: Chip.de , October 11, 2018.
  81. ↑ IFPI publishes Music Consumer Insight Report 2018. Bundesverband der Musikindustrie, accessed on December 9, 2018.
  82. ↑ Einav ship and Christian Schröder: Taylor Swift is fighting for musicians rights. In: Tagesspiegel , November 28, 2018.
  83. ↑ Rolling Stone: Overview: All streaming services that have Die Ärzte. In: Rolling Stone , November 16, 2018.
  84. ↑ Deezer Deals . Deezer.com. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
  85. ↑ Deezer HiFi | Unlimited music streaming in high definition. Accessed December 5, 2018 (German).