Deezer Vs Spotify: Is Deezer Better Than Spotify?
While it is quite common among us, as humans, to compare people, things, and situations. The Deezer vs Spotify battle is no exception. The two music streaming apps, both known for their unique features and loyal fanbase, have been ruling their market share for decades.
The lesser-known fact about the Deezer vs Spotify debate is that it is a conflict more than just a market share. It is a clash of cultures with both Spotify and Deezer catering to their respective fanbase extremely well. However, it is still a tricky one to ask, Is Deezer better than Spotify? So to put an end to this debate today, I will comprehensively compare the two music giants in this post.
Quick Takeaways
Spotify vs Deezer: A Comprehensive Comparison
Deezer vs Spotify : Brief Introduction
Spotify
Relating to a Swedish company, Spotify is a music streaming service that was launched back in 2008 in Europe. With its early marketing tactics, user satisfaction, and advanced features, Spotify gained a huge market share in just 3 years after its launch. The music giant, Spotify, today has a user base of 406 Million over the world.
Deezer
With its roots well-established in France, Deezer started as a French music streaming giant. It later spread its branches in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. Deezer particularly gained popularity around 2009 and 2013 but still due to less marketing tactics used, it has a relatively smaller fanbase of 16 Million users around the world.
Deezer vs Spotify: Features
Spotify
Spotify has gained popularity based on a few features. In my personal view, they make Spotify what it is today.
1. User interface – Easy to navigate through making it convenient to use.
2. Smart algorithms – Curates playlists based on listening history.
3. Podcasts – Extensive library of podcasts.
Deezer
The features that Deezer has made its name for are
1. Extensive music library – millions of original tracks
2. Lyrics – side-by-side lyrics are being played
3. Discovery tools – Flow feature that curates playlists based on listening history and Mixes feature that curates playlists on different moods and genres you have liked so far.
Deezer vs Spotify: Audio Quality
When it comes to music streaming services, the audio quality plays a vital role in determining the quality of the service. The audio terminology is going to be a little techy, but I will try to explain to you here about Spotify and Deezer’s audio quality.
Spotify
The only feature where Spotify has lagged is HiFi audio. Spotify streams its music in Ogg Vorbis format. This is a format where the music files are compressed and compromise on audio quality due to loss in audio data during file compression.
Deezer
Deezer premium includes HiFi settings. The HiFI audio settings, like in Deezer, work in FLAC format. FLAC is a lossless format where the high-resolution code of music is maintained and no data is lost during compression. Hence, a better sound quality.
Deezer vs Spotify: Library/Content
Besides all the other features that both music streaming services have to offer, content is the one for which the user is there. Spotify and Deezer both have comprehensively covered the music content with millions of tracks, podcasts, and audiobooks. I have compared Spotify and Deezer based on the following parameters.
Spotify
Spotify and Deezer both maintain an extensive music library with Spotify having a size of 85 million tracks and Deezer with a total of 90 million. However, Spotify gains an edge over Deezer by having a vast podcast library of 3.6 million podcasts over 160000 podcasts of Deezer. Deezer lets its users filter podcasts by duration.
Deezer
Spotify and Deezer both have exclusive content like live shows and studio recordings. Spotify also has a collection of audiobooks mostly consisting of classical literature genres. Spotify also has a Green room feature that has live podcasts streaming making it the world’s largest and most updated podcast library.
Deezer vs Spotify: Social
A major aspect about music and movies is that people love sharing it. The music streaming platforms like Spotify, Deezer and others understand this user aesthetic and have integrated a social feature that lets you share, integrate and enjoy music with your friends and loved ones.
Spotify
Music sharing has never been this easy with Spotify. Spotify offers sharing code that lets users share with friends and family on social media or social apple to enjoy playlists together. Spotify also offers collaborative playlists and allows you to integrate with facebook where you can follow your friend’s profiles.
Deezer
You can also enjoy the same on Deezer, but, Deezer being a non popular service, has fewer friends. Additionally Deezer does not let you view your friends’ live listening playlists. In a gist, Deezer has not been able to be as socially popular as Spotify has.
Deezer vs Spotify: Personalization
As the technology advances, users have gradually and swiftly started moving to customised and personalised versions of services they have been using in the past.
Spotify
Spotify has gained the opportunity to provide its user base with personalised curated playlists based on users listening history, interests and liked playlists. Spotify’s advanced and unmatched algorithms carefully read your interests and level up its accuracy with your music taste and preferences. The Spotify Discover Weekly and AI DJ both work on personalization features.
Deezer
Deezer also has embedded a similar mechanism in its service that works in two phases. Firstly, when the user signups on the app, it takes their input as genres and artists they might like. Secondly, when you choose a song from deezer’s library and like or dislike a song. Lastly, Deezer utilises your overall information to create a personalised playlist for you.
Deezer vs Spotify: Connectivity
One of the major advantages that Spotify has over its competitors is its ability to connect with almost all the devices while using one main device (like mobile) as a remote control.
Spotify
The Spotify Connect feature is a specialized feature of Spotify that can help you connect to smart TVs, X=Box, smart speakers, sound systems, and desktops. The best part is that when you switch from one device to another, you don’t have to remember where you left from, the other device will automatically pick from the first device where you left.
Deezer
Deezer also offers the same connectivity feature and allows you to connect to desktops, speakers, and sound systems. However, Deezer only allows you to connect with three devices at once. If you need to connect to a fourth one, you will have to disconnect one of the previous devices.
Deezer vs Spotify: User interface and Functionality
User interface plays a vital role in maintaining loyal users on your platforms. The user interface includes factors like the colour theme, the navigational comfort and accessibility of different functions and features.
Spotify
Spotify has a simple dark colour theme which is a black and green contrast with fonts written in bright white. The navigation is easy and everything is accessible from the home page easily. The home page is still not a fish market that makes options a mess. When it comes to Spotify music player, it is more attractive and user-friendly than Deezer.
Deezer
Deezer, on the other hand, has a bright and vibrant color scheme on its interface. Deezer’s user interface has been described as the most “user-friendly” with its easiest-to-navigate feature. A distinguished feature on Deezer is its personalized radio station called FLOW, which adjusts its playlists based on your feedback and liking history.
Deezer vs Spotify : Pricing
The premium subscription price is one of the major factors to consider when selecting between services. All these music streaming services have free features that allow limited control over the app. The premium plans provide unlimited features that lets you control and enjoy music unlimitedly.
| Platform |
| Spotify |
| Deezer |
| Free |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| Single |
| $10 |
| $11 |
| Student |
| $5 |
| N/A |
| Family |
| $17.99 |
| $18 |
Spotify
Spotify has four premium plans that include individual, student , duo and family plans ranging from $5/month to $16/month. Deezer only has two premium plans, one for individual and other for family plans and only a minor difference in the pricing plans.
Deezer
Deezer has an edge as it offers HiFi audio, which is a lossless audio technology at the same price with no extra charges.
Deezer vs Spotify: Additional Features
When we talk about additional features, both Spotify and Deezer have few that add great value to these apps. Features like playing song lyrics, equaliser, connectivity with multiple devices and collaborative playlists are features that both these apps offer.
Spotify
Spotify’s additional features include
1. Friend activity feed that lets you follow your friend’s listening activity.
2. The storyline and behind the lyrics feature give details about the song.
3. Video playing side by side.
4. Crossfade feature to eliminate pauses between the tracks
Deezer
Deezer’s additional features include
1. 360 Reality audio settings that enhance HiFi audio.
2. Shazam like song identification and music quizzes
3. The “Stateeztics” feature gives ongoing listening data.
Deezer vs Spotify: Concluding Opinion
After a thorough comparison, detailed analysis, and complete understanding of the Spotify vs Deezer debate, I have concluded that both Deezer and Spotify have almost equivalent features. Spotify has applied marketing tactics to gain market share in a shorter period. However, the best thing about Deezer is the FLAC audio quality it has to offer, as for me, audio quality to music is just like salt to food. Besides the fact that Spotify has been able to upload more podcasts, Deezer has still managed to gain an edge over it by working on features that users truly value.
