Twitter announced its latest partnership with the French streaming service Deezer for its Audio Cards Feature on Monday. In 2014, Audio Cards were introduced and exclusively made available to iOS and Android users for listening and sharing audio through their timelines without leaving the site.
More options for music lovers
Twitter’s other partners for the feature are SoundCloud, Spotify, iTunes and Rhapsody. Deezer may not be as popular as these services, but having it on the list makes sense. Deezer is very popular in its home market of France, and a few months ago, it entered the crowded U.S. streaming market, notes The Next Web.
Deezer Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer Golan Shaked said, “We’re excited to be teaming up with Twitter to offer fans the ability to listen to music through the integration of Audio Cards on the platform.”
Considering that music and social media are growing to be an important part of people’s lives, Shaked said it is essential that they create opportunities for users to access new music and their favorite tracks.
“This is just one of the many ways that we are enabling this,” Shaked said.
Three months after the cancellation of its IPO due to market conditions, Deezer raised $109.1 million in a fundraising round. If it would have held the IPO, it could have raised €300 million, giving it an overall valuation of €900 million to €1.1 billion, the report notes.
Apart from holding half of the French streaming market, Denzer’s other strength is its enhanced music catalog. The French firm has about 40 million tracks, which is 10 million more than Spotify, the report notes. Its varied local tunes from around the world will hopefully please Twitter users.
Twitter needs to rethink its strategy
In other Twitter news, the company is reported to have rejected the predictions of being on sale to larger tech firms. There were “no bids on the table,” and the company is now exploring cutting costs, the company representatives told CNBC.
After Twitter’s board meeting, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities told CNBC that before seriously being considered for a buyout, the micro-blogging firm needs to rethink what it wants to do.
“They should want to be the first source of news. Their addressable market is the two-and-a-half billion people on the internet who want to know about anything,” Pachter said.
At 11:24 am Eastern, Twitter shares were up 0.55% at $18.20. Year to date, the stock is down more than 18%, while in the last year, it is down almost 34%.
