Deezer acquires Stitcher, on-demand music streaming and radio come together

Deezer has announced its first US acquisition and it’s one few would have predicted: Stitcher Inc.

Stitcher is still a start-up - with 20 people on staff - but has become one of the largest providers of podcasts and spoken-word content, distributing work from the BBC, NPR and most independent podcasters including the Twit.tv technology network.

This is a major acquisition for Deezer, given that Stitcher had already raised $25 million in funding, but the terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal between Deezer and Stitcher represents the first time that on-demand spoken word content is paired up with on-demand music streaming and it could produce very interesting results. Today there is a stark separation between listening to Deezer or Spotify and listening to a podcast - there is no way to integrate the two experiences. Deezer's blog states that the company from next year will allow users to mix it up and access both their favourite albums and favorite radio content from the same app.

Deezer has just launched in the USA as part of a deal made with Sonos, but only its Elite, high-quality audio version is available. There is still no launch date for the “mainstream” version of Deezer in the US, though the Stitcher acquisition appears to be a clear sign that it may come soon.

On top of the Stitcher acquisition the stars may be aligning for Deezer since AT&T’s deal with Beats Music has now come to an end following the acquisition by Apple.

It is impossible to tell whether the largest US mobile carrier would want to enter a new deal with a streaming service in the immediate future as this could confuse its customers, but there are certainly long-term opportunities there. In addition, Deezer’s own break in France came from a telco deal, so the company is likely to pursue that avenue for a potential US launch very aggressively.

Spotify has been remarkably conservative in its approach thus far, focusing exclusively on music, but the underlying technology and its app could just as easily support spoken word content. The same can be said for the likes of Rdio and Rhapsody. Only SoundCloud has put considerable effort into expanding its spoken word catalogue, but has thus far failed to resolve the monetisation issue.

Will we see streaming services rush to acquire online radio aggregators over the coming months? Could they be developing their own technology behind closed doors?

We may have to wait until 2015 to get an answer to these questions, but today’s news has certainly blown a hole in the dividing wall that has thus far kept online music and spoken word content separate.


(Andrea Leonelli)