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European music streaming with a catalog of over 120 million tracks
Deezer is a French music streaming service with over 120 million tracks, offering lossless audio, personalized playlists, and lyrics integration.
Headquarters
Paris, France
Founded
2007
Pricing
Employees
501-1000
Free
€11/mo
€17/mo
Billing: monthly, annual
When people think music streaming, they think Spotify. The Swedish giant dominates the conversation so thoroughly that alternatives struggle for attention — even when they offer features Spotify does not. Deezer, headquartered in Paris and publicly listed on Euronext, is arguably the most capable European alternative that most people have never seriously considered.
Founded in 2007 — actually a year before Spotify launched — Deezer has quietly built a catalogue of over 120 million tracks, pioneered features like real-time synced lyrics and lossless audio streaming, and established itself in over 180 countries. The company went public in 2022, cementing its position as a serious, independent European player in an industry dominated by American and Swedish platforms.
Deezer's target audience is broad: casual listeners can use the free tier, audiophiles get lossless FLAC quality on Premium, and families benefit from a competitively priced multi-profile plan. The platform has historically been strongest in France, Brazil, and parts of Africa, but continues to expand its European footprint.
What makes Deezer interesting for European users specifically is not just its French headquarters and EU data handling, but its role as proof that European tech can compete in consumer markets typically dominated by Silicon Valley. Whether it actually wins that competition is another question entirely.
Deezer was one of the first mainstream streaming services to offer lossless audio, and it remains ahead of Spotify in this regard (Spotify's long-promised HiFi tier has yet to materialise). Deezer Premium includes FLAC quality at 16-bit/44.1kHz at no additional cost — a move that collapsed the previously separate HiFi tier into the standard subscription. For listeners with quality headphones or a proper audio setup, the difference is genuinely audible on well-produced tracks. The 360 by Deezer spatial audio feature adds immersive sound for select tracks, though the catalogue of spatial audio content remains limited.
While Spotify has added lyrics support, Deezer's implementation remains more comprehensive. Lyrics are available for the vast majority of tracks and sync in real time with playback — word by word, not just line by line. You can tap a lyric line to jump to that point in the song. More practically, Deezer allows you to search for songs by lyric fragments, which is enormously useful when you have a line stuck in your head but cannot remember the title.
Flow is Deezer's flagship personalisation feature. It generates an endless stream of music mixing your favourites with new discoveries, learning from your likes and skips. While Spotify's Discover Weekly gets more press, Flow's real-time adaptability — the mix changes immediately based on your reactions — makes it feel more responsive. The quality of Flow's recommendations has improved significantly over recent years, though it still occasionally surfaces repetitive suggestions in niche genres.
Deezer's built-in audio recognition, SongCatcher, works similarly to Shazam. Hold your phone up to identify a song playing nearby, and Deezer adds it directly to your library. It can also identify songs you hum or sing, though this feature works best with well-known melodies. Having audio recognition built directly into the streaming app, rather than relying on a third-party tool, is a small but genuine convenience.
Premium subscribers can download tracks for offline listening across up to three devices. The download quality matches your streaming quality preference, including lossless FLAC. Deezer works across a wide range of devices including iOS, Android, desktop, web, smart speakers, car systems, and smart TVs. The platform supports Sonos, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto.
Deezer Premium costs approximately 11 EUR per month, placing it in line with Spotify Premium and Apple Music. The Family plan at around 17 EUR per month supports up to six profiles, each with individual recommendations and separate libraries. A Student plan is available at roughly half the Premium price with proof of enrolment.
The value proposition has improved substantially since Deezer bundled lossless audio into the standard Premium plan. Previously, HiFi audio required a separate, more expensive subscription. Now, for the same price as Spotify Premium (which still does not offer lossless), you get FLAC-quality streaming included.
The free tier exists but is heavily limited: shuffle-only playback, frequent ads, and restricted skips. It functions as a trial to demonstrate the catalogue and interface rather than a genuinely usable long-term option. This contrasts with Spotify's free tier, which, while ad-supported, offers on-demand playback.
For audiophiles, Deezer Premium at 11 EUR per month with lossless audio represents strong value — comparable to TIDAL's standard plan but with a larger catalogue and better integration breadth.
As a publicly listed French company, Deezer operates under full EU regulatory oversight. GDPR compliance is built in, with clear privacy controls accessible from account settings. Users can download their data, manage consent preferences, and delete their accounts through self-service tools.
Deezer's privacy policy is relatively transparent about data collection — primarily listening history, device information, and account details used for personalisation. The company does not sell personal data to third parties, though it shares anonymised aggregate data with rights holders for royalty calculations.
Being listed on Euronext Paris adds a layer of regulatory accountability that private companies lack. Financial reporting requirements mean Deezer's business practices face regular scrutiny from market regulators, which indirectly benefits user trust.
Deezer is a genuinely excellent music streaming service that suffers primarily from being second in mind share. Its lossless audio inclusion at no extra cost, superior lyrics integration, and capable personalisation through Flow make it technically competitive with — and in some areas ahead of — Spotify.
The weaknesses are real, though. The recommendation algorithm, while improved, does not match Spotify's uncanny ability to surface exactly what you want to hear next. The podcast catalogue is thin. And the free tier is essentially unusable as a daily driver. If music quality and European data sovereignty matter to you, Deezer deserves serious consideration. If you live in the Spotify ecosystem with curated playlists and podcast subscriptions, the switching cost is significant.
On the Premium plan, yes. Deezer streams in lossless FLAC at CD quality (16-bit/44.1kHz), while Spotify's highest quality remains 320kbps OGG Vorbis, a lossy format. Whether you can hear the difference depends on your audio equipment and hearing sensitivity — on laptop speakers, probably not; on quality headphones or a proper hi-fi system, the improvement is noticeable, particularly on acoustically rich recordings.
Yes. Several third-party tools like TuneMyMusic, Soundiiz, and FreeYourMusic can transfer playlists between streaming services. Deezer's catalogue is comparable to Spotify's at over 120 million tracks, so most songs will transfer successfully. Some niche or region-specific tracks may not have equivalents, but for mainstream libraries the transfer rate is typically above 95%.
Deezer has pioneered a user-centric payment system (UCPS) in select markets, which distributes a subscriber's payment to the artists that subscriber actually listened to, rather than pooling all revenue and distributing by total stream share. This model benefits smaller and mid-tier artists more fairly. In practice, per-stream rates are roughly comparable to Spotify's, but the distribution mechanism is more equitable for niche musicians.
The Family plan supports up to six individual profiles, each with their own listening history, recommendations, playlists, and downloaded tracks. Unlike shared accounts, each profile is fully independent — what one family member listens to does not affect another's recommendations. A plan manager controls membership and can add or remove profiles. All profiles get full Premium features including lossless audio and offline downloads.
Deezer has broad device support. It works natively with Sonos, Google Home, and Amazon Echo speakers. For car systems, it supports Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and select built-in infotainment systems from manufacturers including BMW, Audi, and Renault. The web player works on any browser, and dedicated apps are available for iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. Chromecast support allows streaming to any compatible TV or speaker.
The world's largest open audio platform for independent artists
Alternative to Spotify
The world's largest music streaming platform, built in Stockholm
Alternative to Apple Music, Amazon Music