Google grabs mood music app Songza, hints at YouTube integration

Google grabs mood music app Songza, is YouTube subscription service in mind?
Songza joins the Google stable

Google has confirmed the acquisition of mobile music streaming app Songza and has announced plans to integrate it within YouTube and other Google music products.

The Songza app users powerful curation algorithms and DJ-created playlists in order to pull together radio stations based on the weather, moods, the time of day, activities and more.

Now it is in the hands of Google, although the terms of the deal remain undisclosed.

In its announcement the Google said it'd be built into its Play Music service, but also hinted Songza may have a place within the forthcoming YouTube music subscription service.

No immediate changes

"Exciting news today - we're thrilled to welcome Songza to Google," the firm wrote. "They've built a great service which uses contextual expert-curated playlists to give you the right music at the right time. We aren't planning any immediate changes to Songza, so it will continue to work like usual for existing users. Over the coming months, we'll explore ways to bring what you love about Songza to Google Play Music.

"We'll also look for opportunities to bring their great work to the music experience on YouTube and other Google products."

The takeover was originally rumoured last month by the New York Post, with the pager suggested a somewhat low price of $15m (around £9m, AU$16m).

The deal comes after Apple splashed out $3 billion (around £1.75, AU$3.1) on Beats, but it's rather unlikely Google forked over anywhere close to that.

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.