France-headquartered music streaming platform Deezer has rebranded and launched a redesigned app.

The rebrand, announced at an event in Paris on Tuesday (November 7), arrives as the company claims to be “reinventing itself as an experience services platform”.

Deezer also says that it is “refreshing its visual identity” in order to “highlight [its] transformation and recharge people’s emotional connection to the brand”.

“WE HAVE TRANSFORMED DEEZER OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS, AND TODAY MARKS A KEY MILESTONE AS WE INTRODUCE OUR NEW IDENTITY AND LOGO.”

JERONIMO FOLGUEIRA, DEEZER

“We have transformed Deezer over the past two years, and today marks a key milestone as we introduce our new identity and logo, while showcasing how our product is evolving into a platform where people can experience and live the music in a way that cannot be found anywhere else,” said Jeronimo Folgueira, CEO, Deezer.

He added: “Love for music, and helping people be and belong through music have always been at the heart of Deezer, and it is time for us to embark on this new journey where we reinforce that commitment to fans, artists and partners.”

The rebrand follows a quarter in which the music streaming platform added 600,000 new subscribers (in Q3) and saw its revenues rise 5.5% YoY to €120.7 million (USD $131.36m) in the three months to the end of September.

The big news at Deezer in recent weeks however was the launch of its new ‘artist-centric’ royalty model.

Recorded music companies that have signed up to that new model include Universal Music Group and France-based indie label Wagram.

Deezer’s new model works by attributing a so-called ‘double boost’ to what it defines as “professional artists” – those who have a minimum of 1,000 streams per month by a minimum of 500 unique listeners.

To explain further: When Deezer calculates an artist’s royalty payments, streams of that artist’s music will carry double the weight versus streams of ‘non-professional’ artists (those with fewer than 1,000 streams per month by a minimum of 500 unique listeners).

The new model also sees Deezer assign a “double boost” for songs that fans actively engage with, which it claims “reduce[es] the economic influence of algorithmic programming”.

The new model also aims to demonetize “non-artist noise audio” like white noise and sounds of the ocean, with plans to replace such content with its own functional music content, which won’t be included in the royalty pool. (Deezer recently started making its own functional AI music for its ‘Zen by Deezer’ app.

As part of the artist-centric model, Deezer says that it intends to apply “a stricter provider policy to ensure quality and a better user experience” which includes steps “to limit non-artist noise content”.

Tackling streaming fraud is another key component of the new model, with Deezer committing to “a stricter, proprietary fraud detection system, removing incentives for bad actors, and protecting streaming royalties for artists”.

Toward the end of last month, Deezer announced that it had inked an agreement with France-headquartered collection society, Sacem, to “explore [the] ‘artist-centric’ model for publishing rights”.

(Deezer’s ‘artist-centric’ deals up to then, including the UMG agreement, only affect royalty payouts for recorded music.)

As reported (and explained here) by MBW last month, Deezer’s ‘artist-centric’ model also has a new ‘user-centric’ element, as revealed in the Deezer x Sacem press release, which you can read here.

 “REFRESHING OUR VISUAL IDENTITY GIVES US AN OPPORTUNITY TO TELL OUR STORY IN A MORE EMOTIONAL WAY, CONNECTING WITH MUSIC FANS, ARTISTS AND STRATEGIC PARTNERS THROUGH VISUAL CUES THAT LET PEOPLE KNOW THAT WITH DEEZER, THEY CAN LIVE THE MUSIC TO THE FULLEST.”

MARIA GARRIDO, DEEZER

Commenting on the rebrand, Maria Garrido, CMO, Deezer, added: “Refreshing our visual identity gives us an opportunity to tell our story in a more emotional way, connecting with music fans, artists and strategic partners through visual cues that let people know that with Deezer, they can live the music to the fullest.

“It’s a necessary step in our evolution as a brand and as a company, ushering in a new era and empowering everyone to be and belong through music.”