According to reports by the New York Post, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is offering something in the neighborhood of $15 million for the 6-year-old company that claims 5.5 million active users.
A smart pittance for Google?
“Google is offering them around $15 million, the question is, does Songza take it?” said one source close to the conversations.
Curation of music, is the latest battleground in the streaming music wars and Songza does it pretty well. Users have given the company high marks for its ability to pick playlists based on users states preferences rather than solely relying on algorithms that the heavyweights use. The service offers playlists based on your mood, for example users are given a choice of mood based playlists like “getting fired up” or “taking the day off” rather than using your preferences and existing music on your device.
Beats is more than headphones
With Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) already offering on-demand streaming through its Google Play Music All Access service, presumably the company is looking at Songza solely for curation and making its existing service more intuitive. While many have suggested that Apple overpaid for headphone company Beats when it recently acquired the company for $3 billion. That’s too simplistic.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook didn’t just pick up a headphones company but a streaming music service that he believes is the first “to get it right.” A bold statement given the fact that Apple already released iTunes Radio and he’s essentially saying Apple got it wrong. Beats looked to music industry to build its streaming service and Jimmy Iovine has always insisted that streaming music requires a human element.
Songza agrees. The company’s website says, “Our free streaming music service has expert-made playlists for every occasion and makes it outrageously easy to find the right one, at the right time.”
Whether this belief will make a sale go through, however, remains to be seen.
