Rumour has it that Google is looking forward to strengthen its music front by acquiring online music streaming companies like Songza – a streaming and music curation service that boasts of 5.5 million active user base.
While Songza’s userbase is only a fragment compared to Spotify’s 24 million active users and Pandora’s 77 million active users, the company is quite strong as far as curation service is concerned.
Songza’s strategies are unique as it lets users choose songs curated specially for what the user is doing while listening to music – for instance it offers playlists chosen for activities like “working in office”, “boosting energy”, etc.
Unlike Songza, most of the popular streaming services curate based on what the user prefers usually, for example, their favorite artists, albums or bands.
If we dwell into numbers, reports indicate that Google is looking at a $15 million Songza deal – a steal if compared to Spotify’s $4 billion and Pandora’s $5 billion valuations.
It is said that Google might want to take advantage of this competitive edge to enhance its Google Play Music All Access service which currently costs $9.99 per month to listen to any music on Google Play.
“Google is offering them around $15 million — the question is does Songza take it?”, revealed a person familiar with the acquisition talks to New York Post. It’s not just Google showing interest in Songza as the source revealed that several other companies have also put forward their bids.
Though Songza is currently a free service, it has been trying to bring in some light commercial activity by including ads which pair playlists co-branded with brands including Febreze’s Sleep Serenity, and more.
