Deezer unveils tarted-up music-streaming service after $130m injection

Music streamer Deezer sexed up its wares yesterday, the new features the result of a gigantic recent $130m investment. Streaming services notoriously have all the sex appeal of a spreadsheet, and Deezer wants to improve music discovery as well as appeal to music grown ups who have invested a lot of time in managing their own …

[Christopher Reeve's Horse]

Lossless downloads

Well of course he'd look at you funny, that's the last thing their business model would ever allow. If you could download your own high quality digital copies you'd simply amass all the music you wanted and then cancel your subscription.

If you've put the effort into having your own high quality and well organised digital collection of music, why would even need a subscription based streaming service in the first place? It's just another layer of interference between you and your music.

I see a horrible future where no-one ends up owning copies of ANY content, just so you can be charged regularly to access it. It will be sold as a benefit (hey! look at the variety!), but all the industry wants a predictable revenue stream. Quality will decrease as the accessibility increases, or else higher quality will separate into more expensive tiers of service.

[Lottie]

Re: Lossless downloads

The only answer to needing a subscription based service is when they do sugestions based on stuff you already like.

As for your prediction of the future... it's all too feasible and that upsets me.

[Sil]

Xbox Music or Qobuz

For the biggest library by far, and convenience - at least for MS users, turn to Xbox Music.

For super high true audiophile quality - please don't listen on an iPod or Beats crap, turn to qobuz.com for downloads.

Library is unfortunately quite limited but there is no alternative at the high end.

[BigAndos]

I've taken to using Spotify as a "preview" service to road test new albums. If they pass the test (i.e. I still like them after 2-3 months) I go buy them on vinyl. Vinyl albums these days tend to come with a code to download high a high quality MP3 or even flac version.

Then I get high quality to listen to at home and on the move. However, really I find the quality on spotify downloads perfectly fine for listening to out and about, most listening done on the tube where you can't really appreciate sound quality! Not tried Deezer however, maybe I should do a trial to compare and contrast. Anyone used it?

[Lamont Cranston]

I get it as part of my Orange/EE contract.

My experience so far is as follows:

- Having not used any similar services before, I think it's quite good, but I wouldn't spend money on it.

- Playlists are a fine idea, but cannot be reordered, and don't play back in the order they were compiled.

- Many tracks drop out during the first few seconds of playback, whether on 3G, WiFi, or cached copy.

- Choice is good, but not comprehensive, so it's easy to not find the track I'm after (or end up with a cover version).

What's "vinyl"?

[Chris 171]

Streaming no, Streaming Radio yes.

With actual DJ's curating and mixing the content for me, which I can then choose to buy, maybe even sometimes on a 12" disc of hard pressed plastic!

There are so many of these stations online that most bases should be covered from Gershwin to Gabba Techno.

A stream of unmixed singles wont inspire many, hearing a DJ play a forthcoming tune thats unavailable for a while will lead to more sales, and physical sales at that when the release date arrives.

If someone says they love music & only has downloads I couldnt believe them, I for one, must have a tangible asset when it comes to spending my hard earned on beats.

[iancm]

Hit a raw nerve?

The "moon on a stick" could be something to do with the fact that just before you interviewed Deezer, rival French company Qobuz had announced it was expanding into more E.U. countries including the U.K. As mentioned before Qobuz`s niche is H.Q. streaming and also downloads to buy.

So after all that money spent on sexing up their company you were still asking for what they are not offering- lossless streaming but their smaller upstart rivals are!

It remains to be seen how this all works out but I hope some of the big boys start to take notice of calls for lossless streaming after all on the movie T.V. side H.Q. streaming is becoming the norm.