Google Buys Music Curation Startup
Source: Laura
Google has made another bold move aimed at dominating the music streaming arena. The web giant announced Tuesday that it has purchased Songza, a music curation tool.
Songza stands apart from competitors Pandora and Spotify because it uses human experts, rather than algorithms, to create unique playlists tailored to the mood and preferences of a user. Songza even takes the weather into account when developing playlists.
The startup has hired musicians, DJs, and Rolling Stone writers to curate its playlists, relying on the theory that a human touch may better capture the precise mood of a user.
Now those musical experts are going to be channeling their energies toward bolstering Google Play―the Google app that distributes books, games, magazines, and television shows, as well as music.
Although details have yet to be released, Billboard has reported rumors that Google intends to hire the entire Songza staff, which will soon relocate to Google headquarters in NYC.
The move comes shortly after Apple’s purchase of Beats, the popular headphone company that also offers a streaming service. Amazon has also recently focused on developing the Prime Music streaming program that launched last month.
Google-owned YouTube has also recently made plays to become more of a streaming music provider, so Songza may well be integrated into that new service.
According to Techcrunch, Songza now serves over 5.5 million users, some of whom pay a $0.99 weekly subscription fee.
A price tag around $15 million was reported by The New York Post last month.
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