Online music streaming service Deezer called together a press announcement in London today in order to unveil two major platform developments, as well as announcements about the service’s performance to date. The keynote took place in iconic music venue Ronnie Scotts (quite fitting for the announcement) and was delivered by Deezer CEO Axel Dauchaz.
30m tracks total… That’s 27,000 new tracks and 1700 new artists added every day! #YourDeezer
— Deezer (@Deezer) November 6, 2013
The announcement kicked off with some key growth figures. Deezer boasts 5 Million subscribers, with paid subscribers in 180+ countries around the world – essentially, everywhere but the United States, a point Dauchez emphasized. The company also boasted 30 Million tracks in their catalogue, more than 200 years of music in total.
On the discovery front, Deezer announced an entirely revamped & personalized news feed (and service overall) – called Hear This – based on your “listener DNA.” Dauchez cited ‘casual’ ‘eclectic’ and ‘rock’ listeners as examples, though it’s not sure how broad the DNA graph goes, and showed how one user will be recommended new tracks, new artists, relevant radio stations or more
“The level of quality of music streaming services needs to improve” – Axel Dauchez
Lastly, Deezer announced a new private beta application (Mac-only, PC to come soon) that Dauchez dubbed “Dropbox for Music.” Dauchez says the goal is to onboard mobile users (he says 60%) who prefer to have folders for music, to share music with friends, and to keep their own private catalogue. The product will be released by the end of the year, and is a light-weight mini-player that provides access to all 30 Million songs, as well as a Dropbox-like file storage system. The product is set to launch by the end of the year.
Deezer also announced two key hires: former head of Paypal Europe Christopher Coonen, who will join as COO, as well as Gerrit schumann, founder of German music streaming service Simfy, who joins as VP of Europe.