Deezer acquires Muve Music from AT&T/Cricket

Deezer announced that it has bought Muve Music, a streaming service for phones only, from AT&T-owned Cricket, a U.S. wireless carrier. Muve will be expanded to include Deezer’s song library and open up smart radio stations. Deezer will still be offering Muve to Cricket customers; the service will cost $6 for those who are signed up for a monthly cell phone plan of at least $35. VentureBeat reported that there will also be a free, ad-supported version of just the radio station listening available to Cricket customers. No other financial details were disclosed.

As we learned in chatting with Deezer’s new CMO, the company is looking to expand in the U.S. with this type of focused deal. Rather than a blanket launch, Deezer will continue to seek out smaller audiences where it sees a need. Muve has 2 million paying subscribers already, which would be a nice boost to Deezer’s existing audience numbers if they can be easily converted to the new ownership. It also marks the first phone availability of the Deezer brand in the U.S., a smart move with the growing interest in mobile listening.

The Muve acquisition is the latest Deezer news in a string of announcements during recent weeks:

• Deezer acquired Stitcher in October
• Beth Murphy joined Deezer as CMO
• In December, Deezer completed its search for a Chief Executive
• Also in December, Deezer added lyrics to its music presentation, and also inked a distribution partnership with Cable & Wireless Communications in Latin America.