With Apple officially picking up Beats for a cool $3 billion, we had heard the rumors that Google is now on the hunt for a music streaming service of their own. According to our previous report, it was speculated that Spotify could be a potential acquisition by Google, although a new report from The New York Post has suggested that Google could be looking at Songza instead. For those unfamiliar with Songza, it is a music curation and streaming service, which unfortunately is not as big as its rivals like Spotify or Pandora. The service has about 5.5 million active users and is a free service that has recently incorporated advertising and tie-ins with brands to help generate revenue.
Larry Page is moving fast to build his search giant’s street cred in the rapidly growing music streaming business. Page’s Google is in talks to acquire Songza, a 6-year-old Long Island City-based music curation and streaming service with 5.5 million active users, two sources told The Post. Music curation — how a subscriber’s songs are chosen — is the hottest, most competitive front in the music streaming wars. Songza competes with Spotify and its 24 million active users, and Pandora, which has 77 million active users. “Google is offering them around $15 million — the question is does Songza take it?” said one source close to conversations. A second source said the figure on the table was much higher and that Page would have to beat out several suitors. Certainly $15 million sounds small when placed next to Spotify, which has a $4 billion valuation, and Pandora, which has a market cap of $5 billion, sources noted. Mesa Global has been tapped to work on the Songza deal.
