Deezer teams up with indie rights agency Merlin to provide access to even more music

Deezer, the subscription music streaming service, and Merlin, the global independent rights agency, have struck a deal so that music fans can now access tracks from some of the world’s top independent labels.

The match is a pretty good one as Deezer has global ambitions and Merlin’s catalogue has quite the international breadth.

Deezer is designed to allow users to listen to music on the go on multiple devices online, or off. It is already available in 50 countries and offers more than 15 million tracks to around 20 million users.

Merlin’s members account for the largest set of rights outside of those held by the larger major record companies. This includes music from labels and distributors such as Warp, Epitaph, Phonofile, Tommy Boy, One Little Indian, Kontor New Media, !K7 and Merge. With its member catalogues representing an approx 10% share of digital services worldwide, Merlin provides a huge variety and selection of works.

Charles Caldas, Merlin’s CEO said: “It is very encouraging to see innovative and ambitious services like Deezer broadening their scope and bringing wider choice to consumers across the many markets in which they operate. We are sure that Deezer’s users will enjoy the vast choice of amazing repertoire delivered to them via this deal”.

With connections like Merlin in addition to Deezer’s fast global expansion, more established streaming services might need to practice their moves if they don’t want their users to head over to this upstart and start dancing to its tunes.