Deezer, the world's second-biggest music streaming service, is looking to break into the U.S. market by offering an upscale high-quality subscription for audiophiles.
Partnering with the home audio company Sonos, Deezer will officially come to America on Monday to launch Deezer Elite, Billboard reported. The high-definition streaming service claims to offer five to 10 times the quality available from Apple's iTunes or through Pandora and Spotify.
With so many other services that consumers can choose from, the company needed to stand out when coming to the world's biggest market, according to Deezer CEO North America Tyler Goldman.
"We saw the U.S. was highly fragmented, and therefore there would be a need to tailor [the service] to the needs of different users to create value and drive adoption," said Goldman, as quoted by Billboard.
Offering some 35 million tracks for streaming worldwide, Deezer already has 5 million subscribers and 16 million monthly active users in more than 180 countries, according to the company. Deezer Elite will stream around 90 percent of those songs in high-definition audio.
As it looks to compete with Spotify, Pandora, Beats Music and other streaming services, Deezer is betting that around 20 million people worldwide will want high-quality audio and that many of those listeners will be in the U.S., Mashable reported.
Deezer's goal is to target its service to particular listeners within a music streaming market that has become increasingly noisy.
"More than two billion people listen to music on a regular basis," said Goldman, as quoted by Mashable. "There's not one experience for all. Deezer has been successful by tailoring its experience market by market."
Despite the many available choices, the music streaming industry has seen slow growth, with just 28 million subscribers counted worldwide in 2013.
"We feel the uptake will be very fast," Goldman said. "We have focused on super-serving market segments instead of a one-size fits all offering. That has worked well for us globally and we expect the same in the U.S."
Deezer Elite will cost $19.99 per month, twice as much as the standard $9.99 for advertising-free subscription services; however, new Deezer Elite subscribers can get a promotional deal to pay $9.99 when they sign up for a year of the service or $14.99 when they pay month-to-month.
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