Google in talks to buy Songza

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SongzaGoogle CEO Larry Page is in talks to acquire the Songza, a Long Island City-based music curation and streaming service with 5.5 million active users, two sources told The NY Post. Songza competes with Pandora, with its 77 million active users, and Spotify’s 10 million active users.


“Google is offering them around $15 million, the question is, does Songza take it?” said one source close to the conversations.

The offer seems puny when placed next to Spotify, which has a $4 billion valuation, and Pandora, which has a market cap of $5 billion, Post sources noted.

That Google was on the prowl for a streaming service, perhaps one with a well-known or catchy brand name, was reported exclusive by The Post on 6/4. The search firm needs help defining its offerings in the space, experts said, pointing to Google Play Music All Access, which costs $9.99 per month, as one example of Page’s weak line-up.

While some streaming companies curate playlists by, perhaps, taking a subscriber’s choice of an artist and offering up songs that are similar to the singer’s style, Songza creates playlists that take into account what people are doing while they’re listening to music.

The home page has suggestions for other states of being, including “working in an office” or “boosting your energy.”

The free service has been dabbling with advertising of late, creating such co-branded playlists as “Sleep Soundly with Febreze.”

Pandora has done the same thing with Lexus—a Lexus-branded music channel.

Songza was the first major streaming service to launch in Canada and garnered a million downloads within three months of launching in 2012. Songza also won a $4.7 million investment round from Amazon and Justin Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun.

Google’s moves come on the heels of Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics, which houses an audio/headset company as well as Beats Music.

See the NY Post story here