Google is moving into the online Internet music sector in earnest with its recent purchase of radio service Songza, which should help it increase its music offerings vis-à-vis recent moves by its two largest Internet music competitors Apple and Amazon. The move is likely to see the search company continue to move into new arenas and help to boost its overall presence in as many online sectors as possible.
Google and Songza have not publicly released details of the deal, although reports suggest that the final agreement was "substantially higher" than the initial $15 million price tag Google had offered in June.
Other reports suggest the deal is around $40 million.
Although Google has purchased Songza, it is unlikely to make any immediate changes to the service or for the 5.5 million subscribers, Google said.
"Over the coming months, we'll explore ways to bring what you love about Songza to Google Play Music," Google said in a post on Google+. "We'll also look for opportunities to bring their great work to the music experience on YouTube and other Google products."
It comes on the heels of Apple's $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics, which positions Apple as the top music source online, and has put the pressure back on Amazon and Google to come up with innovative responses to Apple's huge take over.
While Beats had been making the majority of its money from devices related to music, such as headphones, speakers, etc., Songza and Google believe in a different approach for music listening, and the acquisition is in line with Google's belief in curating the needs of a user with their interests and likes. Songza is ideal for this purpose as it allows users to, much like music streaming service Pandora, express interest in the genre they want to listen to and then the service delivers the songs users' want to listen to.
Songza also appears optimistic about their new owners.
"We're thrilled to announce that we're becoming part of Google," a statement from the company says. "We can't think of a better company to join in our quest to provide the perfect soundtrack for everything you do. No immediate changes to Songza are planned, other than making it faster, smarter, and even more fun to use."
