With the rivals including Apple and Amazon strengthening their music services, Google has also snapped up Songza, a music streaming service which contextually customizes suggestions.
The companies are yet to disclose the financial details of the deal. However, New York Times reports it to be a deal worth more than $39 million.
While Apple’s Pandora and other music streaming service serve song suggestions based on what the user has preferred at previous instances or what a majority of users like, Songza offers suggestions based on what the user is doing while listening to music.
For instance, it has lists specially curated for occasions such as working out, driving, hanging out at Songza, enjoying the morning, etc. The songs are also chosen based on the time of the day when the user wants to listen to music.
Songza Chief Executive Elias Roman said that the acquisition is at the right time when people will not have to find things as technology will do it for them. Roman added that the secret behind Songza is its ability to use information regarding what people are doing at a given moment in the right way to make lives better.
In May this year, Apple announced the acquisition of Beats Electronics which was followed by Amazon’s announcement about the launch of its Prime Music, a music stream service as part of its Prime membership program.
Google is said to use Songza’s music assets to amp up YouTube in future. There are also widespread expectations that YouTube will get its own music streaming service this summer.
However, Google has said that there will be no immediate changes to Songza and that the company will explore ways to integrate Songza with its music properties like YouTube and Google Play Music in future.
