Deezer, an internet-based music company, is trying to take on the likes of Apple Music and Spotify. The company thinks music from local artists can make big waves and recently launched a streaming channel on Roku devices in the U.S. The company’s CEO joined Cheddar for an interview Tuesday. He said curating locally-sourced music, which might be unavailable on other platforms, and tailoring a “flow” of content, which includes a playlist of songs users may already like, while also making targeted suggestions is what differentiates the company from big playmakers. “We believe that music is a very local entertainment product,” Hans-Holger Albrecht said, adding that Deezer wants to “be very local in every market.” The executive said that Deezer uses artificial intelligence technology, sophisticated data algorithms, and humans to adapt to the taste of users. What is not clear, however, is whether “local” means that the music varies depending on a user’s location or if it's curated to their individual profile. Still, Albrecht says that Deezer is on pace to present itself as real competition to the bigger companies. Research firm Goldman Sachs predicts that digital streaming will be a real disruptor in the music industry, but could ultimately result in revenue doubling by 2030 to about $104 billion. “There’s a very good spot for us, Deezer, in the global streaming market,” Albrecht said, noting that the decade-old company has seen very strong growth in 2017, the number of daily users rising 35 percent. He forecasts the platform could see $300 million in revenues this year. While the company originally planned to go public in 2015, it changed plans due to market conditions. The CEO says that looking back, scrapping the IPO was the right move. Deezer raised over $100 million in private funding two years ago. “There’s no pressure or no rush for us to tap the public market in the near future,” he said Tuesday.
