Deezer unveils a Mac app and new music discovery features after reaching 5m paid subscribers

Deezer unveiled a Mac app and two new discovery features for its on-demand music streaming service today, as it passed 5 million paid subscribers, 12 million monthly active users and 30 million tracks in its library.

Similar to rival streaming platforms such as Spotify, the upcoming Deezer for Mac app will let users synchronize their existing iTunes library with the company’s cloud-based offerings, as well as some degree of offline access.

It’s a slim, vertical mini-player, designed to sit alongside all of the other apps you use throughout the day. Audio controls sit at the bottom, underneath a search box and three tabs labeled ‘Queue List’, ‘Search’ and ‘Hear This’.

Deezer is known for its browser-based access, but now has native apps on multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. A purpose-built Mac app is a notable omission though and its introduction could help to grow Deezer’s free and paid-for user base even further.

Axel Dauchez, CEO of Deezer, said the new Mac app would be available at some point “before the end of the year.”

Serious subscriber growth

With 5 million users now signed up to a monthly subscription – more than double the 2 million it had in October 2012 – Deezer appears to be gaining on Spotify, which announced over 6 million paid subscribers in March this year.

“Doubling the number of paid subscribers in 12 months sends a hugely encouraging signal that music streaming’s time is now,” Dauchez added. ” One year ago we pledged to launch Deezer worldwide because we felt music deserved to be truly global. One year on, we are proud to say that we have over-delivered on our promises.”

New ways to discover music

Not one to rest on its laurels, Deezer announced two new discovery features today called ‘Hear This’ and ‘Explore’. The former is a music feed that will be shown to users every time they load up the service on the Web. It combines automated recommendations based on users’ listening habits, playlists created by their friends, the latest releases and hand-picked suggestions from Deezer’s in-house team of music editors.

Deezer says ‘Hear This’ will learn from users’ preferences and improve its recommendations over time. It will be supplemented by ‘Explore’, which allows users to search for new music and editors’ picks by region or genre. Both of these will be accessible from the navigation menu positioned on the left-hand side of Deezer’s web service.

This promo video will give you an idea of how it all works:

‘Hear This’ will be available to Premium+ subscribers on the web from November 12, followed by the iOS and Android apps on November 17. A release date for ‘Explore’ hasn’t been announced yet, but we expect it’ll arrive either alongside or shorty after ‘Hear This’.

➤ Deezer | iOS | Android | Windows Phone 8 | Windows 8

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