Music streaming service Deezer goes live in 35 Latin American territories today

Back in December, we reported that Spotify competitor Deezer was to begin rolling out in 200 countries (but not the USA). And it has taken a big step towards this goal today by launching in 35 Latin American territories.

Deezer was launched in France in August 2007, and it reached agreements with the French copyright societies, major and independent labels between 2007 and 2009. Today, the music-streaming service has somewhere in the region of 20m users and offers 18m tracks.

Back in August, we first reported that Deezer was planning to hit the UK and it eventually revealed its pricing structure there prior to launch in September, whilst a partnership with Orange was to gain traction in the country. As of December, it was available in France, Belgium and the UK.

However, when it announced its 200-country expansion, Deezer did mention that by January 31, 2012, Canada and Latin America (38 territories) would be added to its roster, with Australasia to follow the month after. As it transpired, the service launched in Canada, Australia and New Zealand in April, and Latin America has had to wait until today. Oh well, better late than never.

35 territories…

So…what LatAm territories is it now available in, you ask? Here goes:

Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay.

You’ll note that Brazil is missing from this list, a rather sizable omission as South America’s most populous country by quite a distance. Cuba and Venezuela will also have to wait for the Deezer train to arrive.

Before today, Deezer was available in 49 countries, including most of Europe. Its previously announced deadline of launching in Africa by February this year has clearly been missed, and it remains to be seen whether it will hit another 115 countries around the world by the end of this month, as planned.

Whichever way you look at this, Deezer clearly has the world in mind, leaving Spotify behind which is live in less than twenty countries. However, it does have the USA which is obviously a massive music market, and Deezer has been quite specific about its intentions not to target the USA or Japan.

It’s also worth noting that Deezer will be the only fully Facebook integrated music streaming service in these LatAm territories, allowing users to log-in with Facebook Connect and listen to music directly within the platform.

Pricing

Deezer will be priced as follows across today’s launch territories:

• Discovery Mode (Free): On PC/Mac and mobile devices will allow you to listen to radio channels and artist-based radio channels (unlimited listening) and to music on demand (access to 15 million tracks) in 30-sec clips.
• Free Trial: A 15-day free trial where users can unsubscribe during this period and will not be committed to subscribe or pay anything.
• Premium ($4.25 or £3.49 GBP per month depending country): Unlimited streaming on any PC/Mac with enhanced audio quality.
• Premium+ ($8.49 or $6.99 per month depending country): Available on mobile phones, all smartphones, tablets, IP TVs & IP

Mexican users will be charged in Mexican pesos at $69.5 Premium/$139 Premium+.

So, another big step for Deezer in the race to dominate the music-streaming space. There’s little question that it’s an interesting place to be at the moment, with the likes of Rdio, Grooveshark and Pandora also vying for the world’s music money.