Deezer inks deal with Russian mobile operator

Deezer is continuing it partnership spree with another telecom deal. Russian mobile operator Beeline is the subject of the new agreement. Beeline is controlled by the Veon Group, and users of the platform will receive special offers and services from Deezer.

Deezer has been a leader among streaming services when it comes to landing tie-ups with mobile carriers. This strategy does help the music platform to reach a new audience as part of a mobile bundle, and offering free trials can lead to at least some amount of conversions to regular subscribers. But that does create a bit of uncertainty in trying to precisely peg how many people are listening to Deezer. In 2015, reported 6.3 million paid subscribers, but about half of them came to the company through one of those bundle deals and were not active users of the service.

Anna Washenko