Google has acquired music streaming service Songza after weeks of speculation around a potential buyout. The companies announced the deal on Tuesday . The price wasn’t disclosed, but Songza’s 40-person team will be joining Google, according to Elias Roman, chief executive of Songza.
Songza’s look to using human curators to enhance music experience was clearly the selling point. This approach is also used by Beats music. Pandora, Spotify, and other big players on the other hand rely heavily on algorithms.
According to Google, Songza will remain intact for users and nothing will change about the service for now, though Songza’s expertise will be applied to other products like Google Play Music, YouTube, and other products.
Songza launched as a streaming service for expertly curated playlists. Eventually, the company launched its Concierge feature, which uses date and time and activity to serve up the right playlist at the right time. Songza’s streaming music app has 5.5 million users, compared with 70 million forPandora Media Inc., 40 million for Spotify Ltd., and 40 million for Apple Inc’s iTunes Radio.
