Deezer lets you discover your next favorite song using Siri

By

Deezer 2
Siri will let you discover new music, via Deezer.
Photo: Deezer

Streaming music company Deezer wants to make it easier for users to play the music they want — by adding support for Siri Shortcuts. This means that you can now access your jam (as the kids say) by asking Deezer to “Play my favorite tracks.”

That puts 53 million tracks — including new releases, albums and curated playlists — at your fingertips at the tip of your tongue. And Deezer thinks it has the added secret sauce to make this extra special, too.

The new update lets users access Flow, Deezer’s  A.I.-based “never-ending personal soundtrack” system. Flow uses proprietary algorithms to play a unique mix of personal favorites and new musical discoveries tailored for every user. Most of the big streaming soundtracks have their own recommender systems, of course, but Deezer advertises Flow as being a big deal.

Judging how well a recommender system works is a bit subjective, but in my experience I’ve found Flow to be pretty great, particularly at helping me discover new music.

Using Siri Shortcuts, Deezer uses can also play their favorite tracks and shuffle their music, too. The company promises additional functionality is coming in 2019.

This comes shortly after another recent Deezer update in which it added a whole lot more Apple Watch functionality.

Clash of the music streamers

Next to Apple Music and Spotify, Deezer is still a tiny bit player. According to a recent report, around 80 percent of U.S. music streaming takes place on either Apple’s or Spotify’s platform. Spotify had around 83 million subscribers by the end of June. Apple Music, meanwhile, supposedly has approximately 56 million — as revealed this month.

Deezer, by comparison, reportedly has around 14 million monthly active users. It’s not clear what percentage of these are paying customers.

For more on using Siri Shortcuts, check out this handy guide from my Cult of Mac colleague Charlie Sorrel. In my opinion, this is one of the most useful iOS 12 features, so it’s well worth getting to grips with. That’s especially true as more and more apps add Shortcuts integration.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.