Deezer revamps discovery features to compete with Spotify and Apple
After getting on the Apple Watch in March and selling off its podcast app Stitcher last month, music streaming service Deezer is cleaning up its user experience. To compete with Spotify and Apple Music, they’ve freshened up their homepage in hopes that winning hearts and minds today requires discovery to be front-and-center.
Deezer isn’t innovating so much as keeping pace with its rivals: Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists have 40 million listeners and Apple Music will get a cleaner interface for finding music when iOS 10 launches this fall. All seem to be hunting for that sweet spot where a little bit of user choice guides a ton of algorithmically-chosen songs.
For Deezer, that means augmenting their signature auto-generated playlist, Flow, with Channels full of content and podcasts corresponding to music genres. Their auto-curated selection takes your location into account, according to the press release, though it isn’t clear whether this means suggesting local artists or tailoring your mix to the tastes of other nearby users. The update releases today, which means Deezer has a few months’ head start on Apple Music, but time will tell whether the UI revamp is enough to secure users from the tide of hype that comes with a new iOS.
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