Following Apple’s recent $3.2 billion purchase of Dr Dre’s Beats, Google has announced it has acquired Songza, a free online streaming music service that creates customised playlists of recommended songs.
“Google just bought Songza! What a crazy ride for a company I started over two weekends in a Chicago Starbucks,” tweeted Songza founder Aza Raskin. While exact terms of the deal have yet to be announced, unconfirmed reports put the deal’s worth at around $US15 million ($A16.23 million).
“We’re thrilled to announce that we’re becoming part of Google,” Songza said on its website. “We can’t think of a better company to join in our quest to provide the perfect soundtrack for everything you do.” Songza works in a similar fashion to popular streaming site Pandora. It suggests playlists based on what users are doing at the time.
According to The New York Times, another deal with the Weather Channel allows Songza to further craft its music recommendations in accordance with a listener’s current weather conditions. Google said that it was not “planning any immediate changes to Songza,” but it may begin to incorporate the service into the company’s existing platforms, like Google Play Music or perhaps YouTube.
Like many streaming services Songza offers its playlists free along with advertising. “They’ve built a great service which uses contextual expert-curated playlists to give you the right music at the right time,” Google said.
The Songza deal pales in comparison to Apple’s recent $3 billion deal for Beats, which along with its line of trademark headphones boasts a subscription music streaming service. Google recently spent $19 billion to acquire the free messaging service WhatsApp.
