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03/28/2024 10:16:13 am

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Cricket's Muve Music Service Sold to Deezer for $100 Million

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Owner of U.S. carrier Cricket, AT&T, has sold the Muve music service to Deezer for $100 million.

Deezer has confirmed an acquisition of Muve music service for $100 million, making another strong push in the U.S. market after launching in September 2014.

Muve's owners, prepaid wireless carriers Cricket, claim the deal is part of a larger move to "deliver the best value in prepaid wireless and satisfy our customers' growing need for an unparalleled premium music experience," according to Jennifer Van Buskirk, president of Cricket Wireless.

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The acquisition is not a normal deal, since most of Muve's subscribers are tied onto the Cricket wireless service. Deezer will essentially offer a similar deal on Cricket, allowing customers to pay an extra $6 per month for Deezer membership.

For subscribers on Muve's streaming service, two free months of Deezer will be included in the deal, and another two months if the subscriber also has a Cricket monthly data plan.

Cricket customers will auto-pay for the next month once the four free months are over, unless they intend to cancel the subscription early.

AT&T owns Cricket, giving Deezer a new route to potentially partner with the second largest U.S. carrier. However, Muve's numbers were not great on AT&T's service, and Deezer might not fare any better.

Deezer has been pushing hard in the U.S., already holding 6 million paid subscribers in Europe. Spotify is the king of music streaming in the U.S., with 12.5 million paid subscribers and reportedly 50 million users overall.

Adding Muve's 2 million subscribers will bring more customers directly from the U.S., but Deezer needs to establish brand loyalty with the U.S. audience, who already have Spotify, Rdio, Pandora and other streaming services to choose from.

Deezer is available in 180 countries now and has more than 30 million songs in its library, making it a prime competitor against Spotify.

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