Deezer, a France-based music streaming service, will finally become available in the United States next year after expanding to hundreds of countries. What it only needs now is an actual launch date, but co-founder and CTO Daniel Marhely has confirmed in an interview with AFP that Americans will start enjoying their Deezer app beginning 2014.
The service took too long to expand to the U.S. market, saying it has way too much competition. Instead, Deezer opted to serve markets where Pandora and Spotify do not support, gaining enough popularity and mileage to be competitive enough to take on the big boys.
Despite being a preferred music streaming service in many countries around the world, with over 5 million paid subscribers, the United States remains the largest market for music. This is something music startups like Deezer cannot avoid.
What Deezer needs to complete its U.S. crossover is an investment partner, much like what it does in its many markets. In France, for instance, wireless carrier Orange is also a shareholder, providing a premium subscription service along with many smartphone plans.
Source: TechCrunch
