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France’s Deezer prepares for battle with Spotify

French music-streaming service Deezer is preparing for a "decisive" battle as it faces off against big names like Spotify and American rapper Jay-Z's new venture Tidal, its CEO said.

Published: 20 May 2015 08:24 CEST
France's Deezer prepares for battle with Spotify
Deezer CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht poses for a portrait. Photo: AFP

Hans-Holger Albrecht, the new German CEO of the company who replaced Axel Dauchez in February said: “I think there is going to be four or five big players in the future. Deezer is going to be one of them,” said 

Albrecht said Deezer's strategy is different from giants like Apple, which is due to come out with its own streaming offer.

“Apple will be a strong competitor for sure,” Albrecht told AFP in an interview.

Much of Deezer's strategy is focused on global expansion, and it has already invested in 180 countries.

“Our strategy is to develop more in terms of geography, so we have more emerging markets, we have more telecom partnerships and we go more diversified in terms of products,” said Albrecht.

“Our product is top class. We've been very efficient at building a customer base with limited capital resources, so there is a high degree of efficiency.”



Video not a priority

Deezer unveiled on Tuesday a podcast option for customers in France, Britain and Sweden, hoping to enrich its content offerings.

“We have to demonstrate to the consumer that there is more than just music on Deezer. We know people have different kinds of tastes and needs,” said Albrecht.

Even with these new features, Deezer does not plan to change its monthly premium price of €9.99 ($11.12).

The company entered the American market last year when it partnered with Sonos, a California based wireless headphone manufacturer. It also acquired Stitcher, the independent American supplier of podcasts.

The company counted six million paid subscribers last year, and 16 million unique users, still small compared to Swedish streaming giant Spotify's 60 million.

Deezer has yet to release its subscriber numbers for the last several months.

While strengthening its key markets in France, Germany and Britain, Deezer is also trying to lock in more global partnerships, especially in developing countries.

Albrecht is familiar with emerging markets. He is former CEO of media and telecommunications group Millicom, which counted 50 million clients in Africa and Latin America.

In terms of user experience, Deezer wants to continue investing in technology and algorithms to improve its musical recommendations so listeners can have customised experiences.

“There is nothing more individual in entertainment than music. Around the world you don't have two people creating the same playlist. Music is very personal,” said Albrecht.

As far as adding video to its service, which Spotify has started to do, Albrecht says it is not high on the company's to-do list.

“Maybe we will do it later. It's not a key focus.”300

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CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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