deezer.com

Many people often refer to music as the "universal language." This is because, in spite of cultural and linguistic differences, everyone has had the experience of listening to music and understanding its power. Music is one of the most universally loved arts; you would be hard-pressed to find someone who says they never enjoy listening to music. Many people find that music is a fundamental part of their lives. They listen to music while they drive, while they work, and even when they are just chilling out. The right soundtrack can add a lot of pleasure to any activity.

And music is important and universally appealing, often being meticulously crafted to fit certain moods and activities. For instance, I have a long sleep playlist filled with songs that help lull me into a deep and dreamy REM cycle.

To find the right music streaming service that best suits your unique musical needs, you must take a look at each one and see if it harmonizes with the ways in which you prefer to listen. Some music streaming apps, like iHeart Radio, Pandora, and Last.Fm, rely more heavily on emulation of radio formats; whereas others, like Spotify and Tidal, allow for a more customizable and personalized experience.

Deezer is a music streaming service founded in Paris, France that offers over 56 million songs to choose from. The service has a larger following in Europe than other music streaming services, with 14 million active monthly users. Although it may not be as well known or powerful as Spotify or Pandora, Deezer is worth considering if you are looking for a music streaming service.

History

In 2006, Daniel Marhely developed the first iteration of what is now called Deezer. At that time, it was not called Deezer; the name emerged later when he renamed his project after noticing that other streaming services were using the name. Marhely had a dream of providing people with unlimited music via streaming technology and quickly worked towards making that dream a reality. Blogmusik was charged with copyright infringement by the French agency, SACEM, and its site was shut down in April of 2007. Marhely did not let this discourage him, though. By August of 2007, the site had once again been up and running, this time branded as Deezer (a much better name anyway).

He struck an agreement with SACEM (the French media association) which said that he would pay off the copyright holders with money earned through advertising on Deezer; the agreement also dictated, for some reason, that Deezer must give its users the ability to download the songs that they streamed on Deezer off of iTunes, resulting in Deezer earning a commission on each purchase.

When Deezer proper finally launched in 2007, Marhely had not yet negotiated contracts with any major record companies. This led to an extremely limited library of available songs. It took more than two years, but eventually, Marhely was able to get the three largest labels in the world onboard: Universal, Sony, and Warner. Additionally, Deezer acquired the rights to music from several smaller, lesser-known labels, giving the rich collection of music to be found on the service today.

Design

The Deezer app has an impressive rating of 4.6 on the Apple App Store. This is due, at least in part, to Deezer's intuitive and aesthetically pleasing design. The app is extremely user-friendly, making it easier than ever to browse songs, make playlists, discover new artists and tracks, and keep up with your favorite podcasts. The best way I can think of to describe Deezer's design would be to say that it is something like a cross between Spotify and Apple Music. It has all of the convenient functionality of Spotify with a very intuitive organizational structure, similar to Apple Music. As far as music streaming apps are concerned, Deezer easily has some of the best designs on the market.

Content

As I mentioned previously, Deezer offers 56 million songs and podcasts to stream and download. But that is not all that this service provides. Fans of streaming talk radio shows will be happy to learn that Deezer also has a regularly updated list of all the best in streaming talk radio shows. Deezer is not just for music lovers, it caters to just about all of your audio streaming needs. Deezer is an easy-to-use streaming service that includes features to help you discover new music. There is a setting called ?Flow?, which offers personalized listening recommendations; as well as suggests new genres, artists, and songs based on your unique listening habits. If you are familiar with Spotify, this is akin to the Discover Weekly playlist, except for you can delve in and broaden your musical horizons whenever you please with Flow.

Desktop and Mobile Experience

As I have already said, the user experience of the app is nearly perfect. There will be no learning curve whatsoever standing in the way between you and hours of uninterrupted listening with Deezer. You are not limited, however, to just listening to songs on your smartphone either. Thanks to Deezer Premium?s download capabilities, quickly and conveniently listen to your music on any device, making the desktop experience just as great as the mobile one.

Pricing and Plans

The Deezer Premium plan offers high-quality sound with no ads, offline mode, and more tracks. Finally, the Deezer Family plan gives you access to all of the features of the Deezer Premium plan, as well as family sharing so that up to six people can have access to your library of music. Deezer offers three different plans: Deezer Free, Deezer Premium, and Deezer Family. The first two plans are essentially the same except for the lack of ads on the Premium plan and family sharing on the Family plan. The third plan, which is called Deezer Family, is a premium plan with many features that are included in the other two plans but are also shared by up to six people. The Premium plan from Deezer offers access to everything the service has to offer, including unlimited skips, no ads, and the ability to listen to content offline on any device. It is priced on par with most other services of its kind and is available for $9.99 per month.

Whereas Deezer Family is essentially a Premium plan with six profiles, the Deezer Plus plan offers you a whopping 12 individual profiles. For just $24.99 per month, this is an incredible value.

Suggestions that I have for Deezer

I would like Deezer to make it easier for independent and underground artists to place their music on the service, as well as be more frequently featured. Sure, Deezer does offer songs from plenty of indie labels, but I think it could be made easier for any band anywhere to quickly upload their music to Deezer. Spotify and Apple Music, for contrast, are both pretty good about this. I believe that Deezer should follow suit.

Conclusion

Despite being a relatively unknown service, Deezer may just be the best music streaming service on the market. It has more songs than both Spotify and Apple Music, as well as a wealth of podcasts. The app design is great, and there are some fun and useful features available too. If you're looking for a quality streaming experience, Deezer is worth checking out.