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Will Podcasts Change Music? Deezer and Google Are Both Betting Yes

Paul Resnikoff
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The podcasting comeback is just getting started, with music a giant part of the resurgence.  Early mega-players include EDM mainstays like Above & Beyond and the Chainsmokers, with KEXP and KCRW also bringing in serious downloads.  And the increasingly-policed Soundcloud is losing out, especially as DJs migrate to the less-complicated, fast-growing podcast world.
But everything’s happening on iTunes, right?  Not anymore: just this morning, Deezer announced the arrival of 20,000 new podcasts, part of a serious expansion that doubles its current offering.  That follows the company’s purchase of Stitcher in 2014, a major stab into the ballooning world of podcasts.

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Others are rushing in. Google Play Music is also planning a serious expansion: just yesterday, the struggling music play announced that podcasts would be ‘coming soon,’ with some potentially cool ideas for curating and delivering content to users.  Currently, Google Music is inviting podcasters to jump on board ahead of its release.

Perhaps Deezer, which boasts a presence across 180 countries, can add some international sauce to the podcast palette.  Bayerischer Rundfunk, talkSPORT, France 24 and Braincast are just some of the new additions, with of course a variety of languages offered.  That will add to the existing menu of podcast heavyweights, with podcasts NPR, Financial Times, Panoply, WNYC, This American Life and CBS Radio News previously on board.

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The question is how this helps Deezer build a real business model.  The streaming music app, which has yet to enter the United States, just cancelled its IPO amidst serious ‘market condition’ problems.  Core problems with Deezer’s subscriber base, including the presence of a highly-disengaged, bundled subset, undoubtedly created some skittishness as well.  The IPO was scheduled to happen on the Paris Stock Exchange.

6 Responses

  1. Tone

    Why isn’t there a mention of Mixcloud in this article? My brand switched from SoundCloud to Mixcloud last year and we’ve seen incredible growth and engagement on the platform.

  2. Remi Swierczek

    Both Deezzer and especially Google are FULL of CRAP!
    80% of GOOGLE revenues comes from Adwords. The rest is SADISTIC advertising activity around forcefully and semi-forcefully FREE MEDIA. Soon Google and YouTube will be converting half a TRILLION dollars of perfectly monetizable media to just $10B of ad dust.

    Dear Mr. Page,
    Fire half of your MBAs and go for the biggest moonshot of your life.
    Annual music goodwill is worth $200B to a total idiot. Make, than take control, of new game board and triple Google on music. Good start: conversion of global Radio and intoxicated streamers to primitive discovery based $100B music store before 2020. Labels are dead, so the hopes and happiness of musicians and writers is in Google taking the lead and generating more cash from MUSIC than ads by 2025!

  3. Ryan

    Why don’t more people talk about the fact that a HUGE percentage, easily nearing 100%, of music podcasts are unlicensed and illegal?

  4. Ryan

    Why don’t more people talk about how a HUGE percentage, probably close to 100%, of music podcasts are unlicensed and illegal?