Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOG) is targeting Songza, a music curation and streaming company based in Long Island City, New York as its next acquisition. The search engine giant’s CEO Larry Page is in talks to acquire Songza, according to the New York Post citing information from unnamed sources.
Songza was co- founded by Elliott Breece, Scott Robbin , Aza Raskin, Eric Davich and Elias Roman in 2007. Roman serves as CEO and previously described Songza as “music concierge.” Back in 2011, he said, “The future of music will be driven by the convergence of expert and social curation.” The music curation and streaming company has 5.5 million users.
One of the sources said Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) offered $15 million to acquire Songza. The source said, “Google is offering them around $15 million, the question is, does Songza take it?”
Observers in the industry opined that the search engine giant is looking for streaming service with a catchy and popular brand name to be able to boost and differentiate its offerings. Experts pointed out that the current Google Play Music All Access, which is offered for $9.99 per month is less popular compared with Spotify and Pandora Media, Inc. (NYSE:P).
Songza’s music curation strategy is unique as it does not only curate music playlists by artist and suggest songs from singers’ with similar styles, but it also take into consideration the activity of music (working in the office, boosting your energy and going to bonnaroo,) and mood (mellow, energetic, celebratory) of a user while listening to music.
Songza is available in Canada. During its first three months of launching in the country, one million songs were downloaded. The company received $4.7 million investment from Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Scooter Braun, the manager of Justin Bieber.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is considering the possibility of acquiring Songza to boost its offering in the music streaming space after Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) purchased Beats Electronics, the owner of the popular Beats headphones and Beats Music streaming service for $3 billion.
Twitter Inc (NASDAQ:TWTR) was reportedly considering the possibility of acquiring SoundCloud, Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) and Spotify. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Twitter walked away from its discussions to acquire SoundCloud by allowing the deadline for exclusivity on the acquisition talks to expire without reaching an agreement because “the numbers didn’t add up,” according to people familiar with the situation.”
