Last week we received a tip from a U.S.-based reader who reported accessing the Deezer music service on his computer. Deezer is not officially available in the American market. Eagerly envious, we tried it ourselves, but got the usual “unavailable in your country” message.
Naturally, we reached out to Deezer with a query. We received the following reply from Conor Maples, international PR manager for Paris-based Deezer: “The service is not available in the US but we’re offering test accounts to our potential partners and others we may work with. The accounts are activated by us and offered to potential partners by our team.”
That doesn’t exactly answer the case of our reader, but does confirm that Deezer is testing in the U.S. Multiple Deezer spokespeople have confirmed that a U.S. launch will happen, probably this year, pending a launch partner (such as a telecom company).
Meanwhile, AppleInsider reports that iTunes Radio (officially available in America and Australia), has popped up as a working service in Ecuador. Previous sightings of iTunes Radio in Canada and the U.K. reinforce the scenario that music services dip their toes into markets in which they might be planning a deep dive.