Google is chasing mood-based music streaming service Songza, according to reports on Friday. The New York Post says the web giant is looking to boost its music portfolio by adding the online radio service that allows users to pick playlists based on their mood, the time of the week, activities and more. According to the report, Google has offered in the region of $15 million for the six-year-old start up, which has approximately 5.5m active users. Google, which already offers custom radio stations through its Play Music All Access service, may have focused its interest in Songza’s playlist curation and recommendation algorithms.
SourceLarry Page is moving fast to build his search giant’s street cred in the rapidly growing music streaming business. Page’s Google is in talks to acquire Songza, a 6-year-old Long Island City-based music curation and streaming service with 5.5 million active users, two sources told The Post. Music curation — how a subscriber’s songs are chosen — is the hottest, most competitive front in the music streaming wars. Songza competes with Spotify and its 24 million active users, and Pandora, which has 77 million active users. “Google is offering them around $15 million — the question is does Songza take it?” said one source close to conversations. A second source said the figure on the table was much higher and that Page would have to beat out several suitors. Certainly $15 million sounds small when placed next to Spotify, which has a $4 billion valuation, and Pandora, which has a market cap of $5 billion, sources noted. Mesa Global has been tapped to work on the Songza deal.
