Deezer Acquires Muve Music

Deezer has acquired Cricket’s music service Muve Music, allowing the French on-demand audio service to make a solid inroad into the North American market. Cricket, a subsidiary of AT&T, provides 4G wireless voice, text and data. Muve Music has approximately 2 million paying subscribers.

Muve will be discontinued on Feb. 7, while “Deezer from Cricket” launches Jan. 31. All Cricket customers will be able to access Deezer, which offers more than 35 million tracks. Muve users will have the option to sign up for an extended free trial, download the Deezer app, and transfer their existing libraries and playlists.

Deezer also recently acquired Stitcher, with plans to add talk radio to its music service. Deezer opened a U.S. office in 2014, but the service was available solely as a premium hi-fi service through Bose or Sonos speakers.

“Our strategy,” Deezer North American CEO Tyler Goldman told MusicWeek, “is to deliver services that fit different market segments. With Sonos we reached the music enthusiasts, who like listening at home with quality audio. With Cricket, we move into the pre-paid wireless segment. I was a big fan before talking to them. They’ve done a good job at building a service. They have effective marketing and distribution channels. They are doing things that are right so it’s a big opportunity for us to market our service to their users.”