Music service Deezer hits 22 more countries in emerging market hotspots

Well, Deezer is certainly on a roll. The music streaming service announced recently that it is now available in a massive 128 countries worldwide, after adding in another 22 emerging market countries to its growing coverage map this week. Now people living in the Middle East and parts of Africa, South America and Asia will be able to access Deezer’s catalogue of over 20-million songs via its website and various mobile apps.

The French music service is now available in Algeria, Bahrain, Brazil, Egypt, Hong Kong, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and Yemen. Deezer CEO Axel Dauchez said the new regions offer “hugely exciting growth potential for our service.”

“As we continue to expand our footprint across the world, we’re thrilled to be making more music accessible to more people, in some of the most remote corners of the globe,” he said. “Forget about the constraints of geographical borders and old music distribution networks. Each launch helps further our strategy to be a truly global service.”

Deezer has been working on a number of strategic partnerships recently, but it is facing some competition from similar services that already have a presence in the same regions. Services like Simfy Africa and Rara.com have also expanded into Africa, Brazil and Asia recently, as mobile connection rates soar and streaming music becomes more affordable.

Critics have also noted that despite its huge footprint, Deezer is not yet available in large potential markets like the US, China and India. Its paid premium and premium+ options aren’t pulling in the kind of user numbers that competitor Spotify is either: it has around three million paying subscribers from a total of 26-million users, while Spotify claims to have five million paying subscribers, from a total user base of 20-million.