Why I Signed Up For Deezer’s Premium+ Service and Dumped Spotify

Deezer

Deezer is rocking my world

I’ve spent the last two years listening to much of my music through Spotify. A company I have disliked almost from the minute I started using them. Why? Because in two years of use, and many promises that Spotify would be rolled out to much of the world, Spotify is still blocked where I live – Thailand. That meant, every time I wanted to listen to even one track, I had to connect to the service through a VPN and pretend I was in England.

A few weeks ago, however, I finally dumped Spotify and switched to Deezer. A streaming music service I could not be happier with. So happy, in fact, I just signed up for a Deezer Premium+ account, as I intend to be using this music service for a long time to come.

Now, why did I sign up for a Deezer Premium+ account, why do I think it’s far superior to Spotify, and why, at just $9.99 a month, is it one of the best deals for a music lover on the internet today? That’s easy.

Deezer available in over 180 countries

The last official figure I heard was Deezer is available in 182 countries, (basically most of the planet) and, most importantly for me, Thailand where I currently live. That means no more hassle having to activate a VPN just to listen to music. Deezer allows me to legally connect via my PC or tablet in a blink of an eye, and with my Thai IP. In fact, no matter where you live, there’s a very good chance Deezer is already available. Spotify? Not so much.

Plus, once you sign up with Deezer, your music goes with you, even if you’re in a different country.

Deezer is easy to use

Unlike Spotify, which I found difficult to use when it came to finding exactly what I wanted to listen to or saving tracks to playlists, Deezer has just about the best interface I’ve come across for any website. And I don’t just mean streaming music sites. I mean any website. It’s easy to navigate, dead easy to search and find the albums you want, and as for creating playlists it could not be more simple. It also has a music player that is conveniently located at the bottom left hand side of the screen, and is easy to control.

new releases on deezer
New Releases featured on Deezer. Easy to find, chosen with your music tastes in mind, and easily playable.

Deezer has more than 35 million tracks available

If you’re looking for a site that has just about every album and song you have ever wanted to listen to, it’s likely Deezer has it. In fact, in over a month of scouring Deezer for music I like, I’ve only not been able to find two albums I would have liked to be able to play. And they were old, so no surprise there.

As for new music, I haven’t been able to discover anything I like missing so far. Except, of course, for most of Taylor Swift’s albums and she’s missing everywhere (not a huge loss, frankly, because lately it all seems to be about greed for Taylor).

Edited: December 24th, 2015 — Come on, now they even have The Beatles.

Deezer works great on PC and tablet

I only listen to music on my PC and Android tablet, and Deezer was easy to set up on both of them. On PC, all it took was a 30-second registration, and I got right to work finding albums and adding them to my Albums list and adding tracks to various playlists (remember that dead simple interface).

My tablet was a few minutes set up, just a quick app download (and, if you don’t already have Deezer Premium+, the app even comes with 15-days free), and then the same surfing I did on my PC to find music.

If you don’t have a PC or Android tablet, no worries either. Deezer is available on a shed load of platforms — iOS, BlackBerry, Logitech and Sonos home entertainment systems. You can also use it on some smart TVs, on your Xbox 360, and in BMW cars and Parrot systems.

Let’s face it, Deezer has gone to a lot of trouble to make music on their streaming service available everywhere, and it shows.

deezer sessions

Deezer Sessions

Deezer also promotes bands with their own Deezer Sessions, with videos from the sessions available directly from their website. As a writer who is always looking for new bands to write about, I’m loving this feature, as I’ve come across some gems already.

I love “Flow”

I’m the type of listener that prefers to choose my own music. I do, however, occasionally like to be surprised with artists I’ve never heard of, and that’s where “Flow” comes in. It’s a Deezer feature that looks at the type of music you like and then plays similar stuff. I’ve already discovered two artists I wasn’t familiar with.

deezer lyrics
Song lyrics display on screen and are automatically highlighted as the song plays. Bloody magic.

Song lyrics, oh my

This, to me, is one of the coolest things about Deezer. Song lyrics are available for a huge percentage of their 35 million tracks and…and…and…(yep, I’m a total geek), you can play songs and have the lyrics display on the screen at the same time. In effect, turning your computer or tablet into a karaoke machine almost. Some albums even have karaoke versions so, yes, a karaoke machine.

All in all, there are so many features offered on Deezer Premium+ (including high quality sound), it is a music lover’s dream.

And at the cost of only $9.99 a month for unlimited music, seriously, what are you waiting for? You can find out about Deezer’s Premium+ and sign up here.

About Michelle Topham

I'm a Brit-American journalist, former radio DJ at 97X WOXY, and Founder/CEO of Leo Sigh. I'm also obsessed with music, anime, manga, and K-dramas. Help!