Deezer

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Deezer

URL	www.deezer.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Music, Search, & Community
Registration	Optional
Available language(s)	Multi-lingual
Owner	Blogmusik SAS
Launched	August 22, 2007
Alexa rank	1,517 (March 2012[update])[1]
Current status	Active

Deezer is a French web-based music streaming service. It allows users to listen to music on various devices online or offline. It currently has over 15 million licensed tracks and over 30,000 radio channels.

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 the streaming technology. ^[2]

Jonathan Benassaya joined Daniel Marhely as co founder to set up Deezer in January 2007. In June that year Xavier Niel, founder of French internet service provider Free, invested in Deezer. ^[3]

In 2007, Deezer expanded globally. By December, the service was available in over 130 countries. Deezer has established partnerships with global players such as Facebook and Telecom Operators (Orange , Belgacom, Everything Everywhere…) and manufacturers (Thomson SA, Nissan…)

In October 2007, Deezer began to grow and integrated the first large catalogue of tracks after an agreement with Sony Music. ^[4] In 2008, Deezer secured €6.5 million from DotCorp Asset Management (founded by Steven Rosenblum and Bruce Rosenblum, founders of Pixmania) and business Angels.

In January 2010, Axel Dauchez joined Deezer as CEO. ^[5]

In August 2010, mobile operator Orange partnered with Deezer to bring their unlimited music service to a broader audience in France.^{[6] [7]}In September 2011, Deezer partnered with Facebook to allow users to sign in with their accounts.^[8]

In December 2011, Deezer announced plans to launch in over 200 countries in 2012.^[9]

In April 2012, Deezer announced availability in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.^[10]

Team

Daniel Marhely

Daniel Marhely left school at 16 to focus on his passion for the web. In 2000, he headed the web department of the Agrafe communications agency. In 2002, he decided to focus exclusively on web development. Two years later, he co-founded the dating website “Lovelee.com”. In 2006, he co-founded the company Aliza Medias. At the same time, he was exchanging music with his friends, sharing his musical passions, tastes and moods. He started Blogmusik, a streaming music site. At that time, the website did not meet with Sacem's, a music rights association, approval. So, he decided to stop Blogmusik and negotiate directly with rights owners. On August 22nd 2007, a historical agreement was signed with royalty collecting agencies. ^[11] Blogmusik was then renamed Deezer.com.

Axel Dauchez

After studying at university and then working at Procter & Gamble, Axel Dauchez quickly made his way into the media and the web. In 1995, he became director of the consumer marketing department of CoktelSierra-Blizzard, the world-leader of edutainment games and software for computers. In 1996, he launched their first paying online service. Appointed President of the first French Web Agency BDDP & Tequila interactive in 1998, he then became the CEO of Moonscoop Group, the world’s largest company in audio-visual animation production, in 2002. There he oversaw the group’s implementation in the US and created several transmedia storytelling platforms (Kabilion in the US, Taffy Kids in Asia and Allofamille with Allociné in Europe). He became CEO of Deezer on the 26th of January 2010. Axel Dauchez chairs the ESML syndicate which aims to enhance digital legal music development.

Simon Baldeyrou

Simon joined Deezer in 2009 as Chief Financial Officer. ^[12] One year later, he was nominated Deputy CEO of Deezer and stayed in charge of the Finance department. Prior to that, he co-founded two consulting firms, SBA-Conseil and Sport Value, in which he supported several financial and management operations (press, tourism, event etc.). From 2005 to 2008, he served as Financial Director of GIP Coupe du Monde de Rugby 2007. Simon began his career in the banking industry within Toulouse & Associés (acquired by Gruppo Banca Leonardo). Simon graduated from the Universities Paris XI, Birmingham and ESSEC.

Features

Search

Deezer allows users to search its library by track, album, artist or genre. Some artists are not available on Deezer due to licensing restrictions by the record labels: Francis Cabrel and The Beatles are examples.

Create

Users can create their own library by setting up playlists or editing them with other users. They can also ”follow” an artist or add an album, track or radio channel into their library. There is no limit on the amount of times a user can listen to a track. Deezer’s technology allows the import of users’s MP3's from their local library and from other music platforms such as Soundcloud. The library created can then be listened to offline on every device.

Biographies

Deezer provides access to editorials and biographies, allowing users to find information on their chosen music. The main difference with other services like Pandora is the ability to skip tracks.

Social

Deezer has several integrated social features:

Facebook

In September 2011, at Facebook’s developer conference, Deezer announced its integration with the Facebook Platform to allow users to discover music through their friends.

Deezer Community

Through the Deezer Community, users can “follow” an artist, leave comments, share music and see what music their friends like.

Technology

Deezer is a 100% web-based product, accessible without prior need to download a desktop application. First developed using Adobe Flash Technology, the Deezer platform is now based on HTML5.

Accounts and subscriptions

As of 2011 there are three Deezer account types.

Geographic Availability

Deezer was launched in France in August 2007.^[13], ^{[14] [15]}

By November 2011, the service was available in Belgium and the UK.

During the "At the LeWeb 2011" ^[16] conference in Paris, the company announced plans for expansion:

• December 8th, 2011: Ireland, The Netherlands ^[17]
• By December 31st, 2011: Rest of Europe: 45 countries including Spain (Dec. 13th),^[18][19] Italy ^{[20] [21]} (Dec. 14th), Germany (Dec. 15th) & Russia ^[22] Dec.16th)
• By January 31st, 2012: Canada and Latin America (38 countries)
• By February 28th, 2012: Australasia and Africa (41 countries)
• By June 30th, 2012: Rest of the world (115 countries)

See also

• Spotify
• Grooveshark
• ShareTheMusic
• Guvera

References

External links

• Deezer.com