Update: Forget Spotify. Will Google Buy Songza?
Update
Oh my, we were so naive forty minutes ago! It seems that the New York Post has gone ahead and filed another story about a different potential target for Google’s music streaming acquisition plans: Long Island City-based start-up Songza.
According to sources, Google is talking with the company about a $15 million acquisition. While that’s a boatload of money, it’s far less than the $5 billion valuation attached to Spotify. While Songza isn’t nearly as popular or well-known as Spotify, it is less expensive, and has a much catchier name than “Google Play Music All Access.”
Moreover, buying a cheaper rival to Spotify is likely a better value-add for Google. Buying Spotify could potentially bring its 10 million subscribers and its brand-name recognition, but it has long been fighting to turn an actual profit on its streaming services. So what would Google really be getting except a popular, money-losing albatross?
With Songza, Google has the chance to benefit from a fresh brand, while Songza could certainly reap rewards from Google’s patronage. This acquisition makes a good bit of sense…but until we get any official word one way or the other, we’ll have to put it firmly in the “rumor” column for now.
Original Post
At this week’s WWDC event, we saw Apple make use of its recent acquisition of Beats Music: Craig Federighi called new Apple employee Dr. Dre via OS X Yosemite’s phone calling app. But now that Beats is under the Apple umbrella, a new report suggests that Google may soon make a similarly aggressive move in the music streaming world.
A new report courtesy of the New York Post claims that Google is exploring its options to beef up its presence in music streaming, as its Google Play Music All Access hasn’t really taken off in the way as some of the service’s snappier rivals. That includes mulling over whether or not to simply buy one of those rivals. Said one source: “They’ve been having discussions with banks about how they’re shaping their future music strategy.”
The natural question after that, of course, is what service would get bought. While Beats had a big name in the world of music, it wasn’t known for its music streaming prowess. That still leaves big guns like Pandora and Rdio and – the biggest gun of all – Spotify. But there’s a potential problem there…could Spotify be simply too big to be lured in by Google? Another source offers this insight: “The fear is that Spotify gets so big no one can catch them.”
So if these reports are true, could Google soon make a play for Spotify? The chances seem good – after all, Google is one of the major players that isn’t afraid to snap up any company it feels will help its tech portfolio. While Apple increased its “cool cred” with the Beats buy, Spotify is still widely regarded as the go-to music streaming service.
Meanwhile, rumors that Google-owned YouTube would soon launch its own music streaming service haven’t made much noise since late last year. But if those plans are still moving forward, Google would be wise to join the two for the sake of song licenses and brand recognition.
Can you imagine the power of a combined Spotify and YouTube music streaming brand? At this point, YouTube is the new MTV. It’d be hard to overcome those two brands joining forces and providing music to the masses…not even Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine could beat that combination.
[Source: New York Post]