Google has bought music-streaming service Songza for an undisclosed sum, hot on the heels of Apple’s recent acquisition of Beats for US$3bn. It could be said the internet giant may have bought the company for a song by comparison.
Songza adds a layer of intelligence in terms of hooking listeners up with the songs they want.
The acquisition could lead to Google adding clever new music discovery tools to services, such as YouTube and Google Play, for example.
The service uses a contextual expert-created playlist to give listeners the right music at the right time.
“We aren’t planning any immediate changes to Songza, so it will continue to work like usual for existing users,” Google said.
“Over the coming months, we’ll explore ways to bring what you love about Songza to Google Play Music.
“We’ll also look for opportunities to bring their great work to the music experience on YouTube and other Google products. In the meantime, check out their service to find a playlist for any mood you’re in — whether you’re feeling a little mellow or a lot funky.”
The fledgling music service has 5.5m users worldwide and an undisclosed percentage of these would pay US$0.99 a week to avoid ads.
The company has so far raised US$6.7m in funding from investors that include Amazon, Gary Vaynerchuck, Scooter Braun, Lerer Ventures, Deep Fork Capital and Metamorphic Ventures.
“We can’t think of a more inspiring company to join in our quest to provide the perfect soundtrack for everything you do,” Songza stated.
“No immediate changes to Songza are planned, other than making it faster, smarter, and even more fun to use. In the meantime, we’ll be walking on sunshine.”
Music lover image via Shutterstock
